SLIDE 1IS246 - FALL 2004 Lecture 07: Editing II IS 246 Multimedia Information Prof. Marc Davis UC Berkeley SIMS Monday and Wednesday 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm Fall

SLIDE 2IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 3IS246 - FALL 2004 Dimensions of Film Editing Graphic relations between Shot A and Shot B Rhythmic relations between Shot A and Shot B Spatial relations between Shot A and Shot B Temporal relations between Shot A and Shot B

SLIDE 4IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 5IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 6IS246 - FALL 2004 Continuity Editing Graphic continuity –Smoothly continuous from shot to shot –Figures are balanced and symmetrically composed in frame –Overall lighting tonality remains constant –Action occupies central zone of the frame Rhythmic continuity –Dependent on camera distance of the shot Long shots last longer than medium shots that last longer than close-up shots

SLIDE 7IS246 - FALL 2004 Spatial Continuity Editing 180 degree rule –Ensures that relative positions in the frame remain consistent –Ensures consistent eyelines (i.e., gaze vectors) –Ensures consistent screen direction (i.e., direction of character movement within the frame)

SLIDE 8IS246 - FALL 2004 Use of 180 Degree Rule Establishing shot to establish axis of action Sequence of shot/reverse shots –Focuses our attention on character reactions Eyeline match reinforces spatial continuity (Kuleshov Effect) Match on action reinforces spatial continuity Following 180 degree rule allows “cheat cuts” Continuity of action can override violations of 180 degree rule

SLIDE 9IS246 - FALL 2004 Temporal Continuity Editing Temporal order –Forwardly sequential except for occasional use of flashbacks signaled by a dissolve or cut Temporal duration (seldom expanded) –Usually in a scene plot duration equals story duration –Punctuation (dissolves, wipes, fades), empty frames, and cutaways can elide time in shot and scene transitions –Montage sequences can compress time

SLIDE 10IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 11IS246 - FALL 2004 Kuleshov “To determine the nature of montage is to solve the specific problem of cinema.” (Eisenstein 1949: 48) Kuleshov –First head of the Soviet State Film School after the October Revolution –Lenin: “of all the arts for us the most important is cinema” Kuleshov experiments –“Films without film” Frame shots with hands Re-edit existing sequences

SLIDE 12IS246 - FALL 2004 Pudovkin on Kuleshov Effect “Kuleshov and I made an interesting experiment. We took from some film or other several close-ups of the well-known Russian actor Mosjukhin. We chose close-ups which were static and which did not express any feeling at all—quiet close-ups. We joined these close-ups, which were all similar with other bits of film in three different combinations. In the first combination the close-up of Mosjukhin was immediately followed by a shot of a plate of soup standing on a table. It was obvious and certain that Mosjukhin was looking at this soup. In the second combination the face of Mosjukhin was joined to shots showing a coffin in which lay a dead woman. In the third the close-up was followed by a shot of a little girl playing with a funny toy bear. When we showed the three combinations to an audience which had not been let into the secret the result was terrific. The public raved about the acting of the artist. They pointed out the heavy pensiveness of his mood over the forgotten soup, were touched and moved by the deep sorrow with which he looked on the dead woman, and admired the light, happy smile with which he surveyed the girl at play. But we knew that in all cases the face was exactly the same.”

SLIDE 13IS246 - FALL 2004 Kuleshov Effect –Neutral Face  Soup (“Pensive” Face) –Neutral Face  Dead Woman (“Sad” Face) –Neutral Face  Child playing with toy bear (“Happy” Face) –How do you describe the face? Video has a dual semantics –Sequence-independent stable semantics of shots –Sequence-dependent variable semantics of shots

SLIDE 14IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 15IS246 - FALL 2004 Isenhour on Context and Order A1:B; A2:C  A1 NOT EQUAL A2 –Shot context affects shot meaning The shot before affects the shot after B:A1; C:A2  A1 NOT EQUAL A2 –Shot context affects shot meaning The shot after affects the shot before A:B NOT EQUAL B:A –Short order effects shot meaning (A:B):C NOT EQUAL A:(B:C)

SLIDE 16IS246 - FALL 2004 Metropolis Sequence

SLIDE 17IS246 - FALL 2004 Metropolis Re-Sequence

SLIDE 18IS246 - FALL 2004 Battleship Potemkin Sequence

SLIDE 19IS246 - FALL 2004 Battleship Potemkin Re-Sequence

SLIDE 20IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 21IS246 - FALL 2004 Burch’s Transitions Temporal transitions –Continuous –Discontinuous Temporal ellipsis –Measurable time ellipsis –Indefinite time ellipsis Temporal reversal (flashback, overlapping cut) –Measurable time reversal –Indefinite time reversal

SLIDE 22IS246 - FALL 2004 Burch’s Transitions Spatial transitions –Continuous –Discontinuous Proximal Radically discontinuous

SLIDE 23IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 24IS246 - FALL 2004 Barthes’ Action Sequences Consecutive –Temporal succession Consequential –Causal succession Volitive –Action results from an act of will Reactive –Causal succession based on stimulus-response Durative –Indicating the beginning, ending, or duration of an action Equipollent –Necessarily paired actions (e.g., asking a question and answering a question)

SLIDE 25IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 26IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Kulsehov) Gökçe Kınayoğlu on Kuleshov –When two shots are stitched together via montage, the resulting meaning of the sequence always transcends the individual meanings of the shots. Sometimes they transform and frame our perception to obtain certain meanings from the individual frames, yet mostly a third meaning arises which did not exist in either of the frames before they were joined together. –How much of this new meaning relies on the cinematic context, how much of it on the cultural background of the viewer? –Does watching the same sequence second time result in a change in its meaning?

SLIDE 27IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Kulsehov) Gökçe Kınayoğlu on Kuleshov –An average feature film consists of 1,000 to 4,000 very short shots. As discussed in class before, a Tarkovsky film may consist of less than 250 shots and still be two times longer compared to a Hollywood film. Hitchcock and Warhol investigated the cinematographic potentials of making films with a single long shot. In which situations may a longer shot be more effective than a series of shorter shots?

SLIDE 28IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Isenhour) Simon King on Isenhour –“The meaning of a shot varies when the shot that precedes it or the shot that follows it—the context—varies.” Reminiscent of Saussure – the meaning of signs is determined by their relation to other signs. –Does this theory explain subliminal advertising? Are surrounding shots affected by shots/images that are too brief to consciously register with the viewer?

SLIDE 29IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Isenhour) Simon King on Isenhour –Can the meaning of a shot vary due to repetition? (Think A, B, A, C, A) Usually there have been other intermediate shots between repetitions that also affect the meaning of shot A, but does the repetition alone affect the meaning of shot A? Can anyone think of good examples? (Groundhog Day, Solaris, M ?)

SLIDE 30IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Isenhour) Simon King on Isenhour –I found the attempt to quantify shot impact, e.g., “The degree of change in the meaning of each shot is inversely proportional to the intensity of its original meaning”, a bit forced. Can we quantify subjective notions such as intensity and meaning?

SLIDE 31IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Burch) Alison Billings on Burch –In thinking about creating a system to effectively categorize pieces of media for storage and retrieval, how useful could the breakdown of space and time into the 15 possible combinations of articulation be for a multimedia information system?

SLIDE 32IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Burch) Alison Billings on Burch –As people have become more media ‘literate’, have the uses of spatial and temporal articulations in film changed? How?

SLIDE 33IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Barthes) Jaiwant Virk on Barthes –If “The principle of narrative art… it is a matter of producing a discourse which best satisfies the demand for completeness…”, then how does one define the boundaries of the action sequence? How much cultural history does one pack to prevent the “horror of the vacuum”? Or should the sequence be completely abandoned to a subjective analysis of the reader/viewer?

SLIDE 34IS246 - FALL 2004 Discussion Questions (Barthes) Jaiwant Virk on Barthes –What are the possible factors that can be considered to define/label an action sequence for media metadata purpose (motion, etc.)?

SLIDE 35IS246 - FALL 2004 Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time –Editing Editing –Kuleshov –Isenhour –Burch –Barthes Discussion Questions Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 36IS246 - FALL 2004 Readings for Next Week Monday 09/27: Semiotic Media Theory –Eco, U. Articulations of the Cinematic Code. in Nichols, B. ed., University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976; pp (Yong) –Metz, C. Film language: a semiotics of the cinema. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1991; pp (Rebecca) Wednesday 09/29: Film Theory Application & Assignment 1 Introduction –Eisenstein, S.M. Film Form: Essays in Film Theory. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, San Diego, 1949; pp (Cecilia)