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The Art Of Film And Video Editing Part-3

Posted By Hal On October 27, 2011 @ 1:24 pm In | No Comments

Soviet Filmmakers Advance Editing

Filmmaking spread around the world and D.W. Griffith’s techniques were widely studied. In
the 1920s Soviet filmmakers were fascinated with editing and the theory of film as a
communications and propaganda tool. After the 1917 Russian revolution the Soviet Union
was trying to grow its new film industry. The new filmmakers did not have enough
cameras or film stock so instead of shooting their own footage, they experimented with
editing existing footage from Russian melodramas and the occasional American film. Lev
Kuleshov, a film teacher, smuggled a copy of Griffith’s “Intolerance” so his students could
study it in detail. They re-edited part of the film and discovered what a radical difference
they could make by changing a scene.

The Art of Film & Video

This led Kuleshov’s workshop to experiment with a shot Editing
from a Russian film. They had the shot of a man looking
ahead without emotion. They used that same shot in three Part 1
different sequences: Introduction & The
Genesis of Editing Styles
1. Intercut the man’s face with a bowl of soup
2. Intercut the man’s face with a little girl [1] [1]
Part 2
playing Hollywood Style
3. Intercut the man’s face with a dead Continuity Editing &
woman. Characteristics of
[2]
They showed the three sequences to audiences. Audiences Continuity Editing
praised the actor’s range! They said he felt hunger when [2]
he saw the soup, joy when seeing the girl play, and grief Part 3
for his mother, but the shot of the actor had not changed, Soviet Filmmakers
only what surrounded it. This powerful effect of Advance Editing &
[3]
juxtaposing different shots is called the Kuleshov Effect. It Eisenstein
demonstrates that audience reaction is determined, not by
one shot, but by the context and shots that surround it. Part 4
Talking Pictures &
One of Kuleshov’s students was Vsevolod Pudovkin who Hollywood Style Editing –
wrote about the workshop’s techniques and produced Who is really in charge?
films. His masterpiece is the 1926 film “The Mother.” This is [4]

the story of a mother’s personal revolution against the

Part 5
Tsar. It has one of the most rousing endings in movie
Documentary Editing –
history. It’s the editing that makes this film compelling. [5]
Many consider Pudovkin to be one of the fathers of the Where Is the Truth?
Hollywood movie.
Part 6
Emerging Alternatives to
Eisenstein Continuity Editing: The
Director Becomes Editor
Another of Kuleshov’s students was Sergei Eisenstein. His & The French New Wave
1925 film “Battleship Potemkin” presents a dramatized [6]
version of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew
of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their Part 7
officers of the Tsarist regime. The film was political as it
extolled the virtues of the working class people, called the
proletariat, against the Tsar of Russia. It’s been called one In Editing, Sometimes
of the most influential propaganda films of all time. Less Is More &
[7]
Characteristics Of
The most celebrated scene in the film demonstrates
Discontinuity or Montage
masterful editing. The scene is the massacre of civilians on [7]
the Odessa Steps. The Tsar’s soldiers march down a Style Editing
seemingly endless flight of steps firing rifles into a crowd of
Part 8
civilians. The edits of the march are regimented as if on a
Does Non-Linear Editing
metronome. Many innocents are killed. A mother who is
Change Style and Art? &
pushing her baby’s carriage is shot. The carriage continues [8] [8]
down the steps on its own amidst the firing as the The Cuts Get Faster
suspense mounts.
Part 9
See the Odessa Steps scene from “Battleship Potemkin” Influence of Music Videos
[10] & Non-traditional Editing
Comes to Television and
[9]
the Internet

Notice the rhythmic edits and the use of close-ups for dramatic effect. This is one of the
best known scenes in filmmaking. Many modern Hollywood films have imitated the scene
either in homage or parody. This video shows some of the films that have used Odessa
[11]
Steps as a take off.

The massacre depicted on the steps of Odessa never actually happened. It was created by
Eisenstein for effect in his film. Roger Ebert, the film critic, writes, “That there was, in fact,
no czarist massacre on the Odessa Steps scarcely diminishes the power of the scene … It
is ironic that Eisenstein did it so well that today, the bloodshed on the Odessa steps is
often referred to as if it really happened.”

There are over 150 cuts in that 7-minute scene, but it’s not the number of edits that
matters. It’s the effect the scene has on viewers nearly 100 years later. They called this
editing technique “montage,” but beware as this word means different things to different
people. The word is French and translates as to “assemble.” The technique involves many
short shots assembled into a sequence that advances the story or sets a mood. The shots
do not necessarily have to be related. By juxtaposing different scenes and using quicker
pacing, the editor could create suspense, for example. Two scenes assembled together can
allow the audience to draw a conclusion, as with the actor’s face and the bowl of soup.
 Early filmmakers, especially the Russians, used the montage technique to excess,
sometimes confusing or overwhelming the audience. To Eisenstein, montage was an
opportunity to create symbolic meaning by editing in shots that were “discontinuous.”
Eisenstein’s techniques violated the classical Hollywood continuity system, breaking many
of the rules of continuity editing.

In American filmmaking, montage is a particular technique of film editing in which a series

of short shots are edited into a sequence that’s used to condense space, time, and
information. A common montage in American film is the newspaper montage. It includes
many shots of newspapers being printed, moving on a fast conveyor belt, through rollers,
coming off the end where it is picked up and read by a pressman. The headline zooms out
to fill the screen. This is a quick way to show that time has passed and there’s a new
development.

You can see two examples in the 1934 film “It Happened One Night.” It’s a fun romantic
comedy by Frank Capra, one of the great American directors. This was the first film to win
all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay.

In Soviet montage theory, montage means to create symbolic meaning. But it gets more
complicated than that. For instance Eisenstein’s theory of montage is a style of editing
which offers discontinuity, crossing the line as per the 180 degree rule, and other
violations of the classical Hollywood continuity system.

Article printed from Video University: http://www.videouniversity.com

URL to article: http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-

editing-part-3/

URLs in this post:

[1] : http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-
part-1
[2] Hollywood Style Continuity Editing & Characteristics of Continuity Editing:
http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-2
[3] Soviet Filmmakers Advance Editing & Eisenstein: http://www.videouniversity.com
/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-3
[4] Talking Pictures & Hollywood Style Editing – Who is really in charge?:
http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-4
[5] Documentary Editing – Where Is the Truth?: http://www.videouniversity.com
/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-5
[6] Emerging Alternatives to Continuity Editing: The Director Becomes Editor & The French
New Wave: http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-
editing-part-6
[7] In Editing, Sometimes Less Is More & : http://www.videouniversity.com/articles
/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-7
[8] Does Non-Linear Editing Change Style and Art? & : http://www.videouniversity.com
/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-8
[9] Influence of Music Videos & Non-traditional Editing Comes to Television and the Internet:
http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-9
[10] Odessa Steps scene from “Battleship Potemkin”: http://youtu.be/Ps-v-kZzfec
[11] This video shows some of the films that have used Odessa Steps as a take off.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH1tO2D3LCI

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