The Eye is Quicker Page 17
So many contemporary films are overly symmetrical (in part) because of digital editing. Though considered ‘nonlinear’ the tool encourages linear work habits and techniques. This easily leads to symmetry in work, and product. Could this have something to do with the naming, and design, of the Timeline?
Well over a decade ago I was invited to ‘have a look’ at an early version of Avid. The representative — a polite and helpful gentleman — demonstrated on a ‘tutorial’ available at the time. He began with a Long Shot of a sailing yacht, manned by a crew of a dozen or so, each wearing bright yellow or orange slickers. Then he made a cut to a Medium Shot which focused attention on the helmsman. I thought — but said nothing — that I would have intuitively arranged the shots the other way around: the Medium Shot first.
The cut didn’t work. The ‘editor’ knew it didn’t work. He said so. He didn’t know why — he didn’t try to guess, nor ask me if I knew. I did, but in the interest of courtesy — I wanted to be respectful; I did appreciate the ‘lesson’ — I offered (only) my agreement that the cut didn’t work. It didn’t work because by sheer bad luck, the moment of the Outgoing cut was made just as a crewman in a yellow slicker gestured with his arm; and in response to this movement our eyes ‘darted’ to him, just as the Incoming cut showed us the helmsman in an orange slicker — we had a ‘mental hiccup’.
The solution proposed, and immediately completed, was to ‘select’ a dissolve across the cut. I thought to myself, “Ouch!”
Every optical effect — from traditional fades and dissolves, to split and swirling Images — adds beats to a film; and may ‘wound’ the moments preceding, and/or proceeding the effect: We might regard these as ‘Placebo Effects’ at best; or worse, ‘Sugar Beats.’
Film editing is an interpretive art. The editor is the ‘interpreter’ of other interpretive artists: Director, Cinematographer, Production Designer, Actor, and (at times) Writer. This simple guiding principle is, and always will be, tool-free!
HINT: I’m beginning to feel my bond to Eisenstein’s The Old and the New!
I encourage you to take full advantage of the new technologies, but work as though they were ‘yesteryear machines.’ Until ever-newer technology provides you a computer key that reads, Make This A Beautiful Movie, don’t let your tools ‘hide’ your failings; have them ‘lend a hand’ in your “discovery of a path.”
We confront a critical distinction: Easy is not the same thing as simple. The new technologies make it easy to confuse the two. Editing is not, nor should we expect it to be, easy. Editing is, and should remain, simple.
Many years ago I caught a few minutes of a documentary on PBS. The final scenes were of an international competition of ballet dancers hoping to be signed by prestigious companies. When I turned on the television, a young ballerina was nearly to the end of her performance. Gracefully completing her work, she glided to the wings at stage left, to enthusiastic applause, and shouts of “Bravo.” A second camera caught the ‘backstage’ action: The dancer collapsed — physically resembling Raggedy-Ann — into her coach’s arms. She gasped so horribly for breath, that if you were to hear her sound alone, you might expect that it was a snoring drunk.
The applause continued, and her coach lifted her, and pushed her back toward the stage, and another bow. The ‘near-death’ dancer instantaneously became, once again, the graceful ballerina, soaring to accept the unending ovation — she was feather-light on her toes, her arms elegant above her head. She acknowledged the audience, glided smartly off to the wings, and for a second time became the snoring drunken Raggedy-Ann.
Ballet, I thought, is not easy. I could tell from the images caught by the backstage camera. But, I thought, ballet is simple, beautifully simple. I could tell from the orchestra camera.
Editing, whether on film, electronic, or digital, does not demand a ballerina’s athleticism, or quite the abundance of grace. A willingness to perform dedicated work may not be comparable to the dancer’s ‘death-defying’ ‘trial’ in training and performance, but the film editor and ballerina do share an essential requirement: A presentation, before an audience that amazes in its simplicity, while ‘keeping secret’ all the labor, struggle, and experience that were central to each moment on stage, or screen.
There have been moments when I have felt enormously contented with my understanding and skill. You’ll be amazed yourself, when you get to ‘see’ an ever broader, and richer perspective, while advancing in abilities to simplify. These moments are good — they do provide reassurance, and confidence in my teaching, and less anxiety at the start of a new project. Well, a little less anxiety anyway.
I know — the writing of this book supplied the proof, if proof were needed — that all those precious moments add up to a humbling, although strangely satisfying fact: Understanding and skill — even raw talent — continue to progress and develop. All you have to do is give of your time and your effort; but be certain that you maintain (at least) a little ‘doubt.’ Understanding and skill are very much like a pair of favorite blue jeans. With the wearing and washing they continue to get closer and closer to that ‘perfect fit’ — and ‘feel.’ One morning when you put them on, positive that they’ve finally ‘arrived,’ a knee rips through!
There is a reason — or two — that postproduction technologies have been researched, developed, and designed, to duplicate — so as to replace — what a ‘yesterperson’ film editor did, needed to do, or have done by someone else. So yes! There are lots of new tools to learn, and you should start today. There is far more than that to be learned for tomorrow, if you’re willing to take a look at yesterday. I have packed this book with many of my yesterdays.
I have offered what I know about film editing. I also know that starting tomorrow, we can all look forward to lots more learning.
about the author
Richard D. Pepperman lives in Monmouth County, NJ & Mount Holly, VT.
Credits include:
Co-Editor, The Boy from New Orleans: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong.
Editor, Touch: The Domain of the Senses, Official Entry, Sitges Film Festival.
Consulting Editor, Five Wives, Three Secretaries & Me. Honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as one of the Outstanding Documentaries of 1999.
Consulting Editor: Say It Isn’t So, Official Entry, Rotterdam Film Festival.
Production/Post Production Advisor: Echoes, Official Entry, Munich Film Festival. Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Screenwriting Judge: Nicholl Fellowships; Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Supervising Editor: Promotional Music Videos, Columbia Records, The Music People.
Editor on more than 1000 commercial spots, including Postproduction Supervisor, Barrier Free Design: PSA Spot; Andy Award.
Designed and conducted editing workshops and seminars at Film/Video Arts, Pratt Institute, and The New School University.
Richard is a teacher and thesis advisor at the School of Visual Arts, where he was honored with the Distinguished Artist-Teacher Award.
bibliography
Achenbach, Joel. “Doctor, My Eyes. How we watch TV ads.”
National Geographic, vol. 203, no. 2 (February 2003).
Bergman, Ingmar. Images: My Life in Film
New York: Arcade Publishing, 1990.
Dancyger, Ken. The Technique of Film & Video Editing
Boston: Focal Press, 1993.
Dmytryk, Edward. On Film Editing: An Introduction to the Art of Film Construction
Boston: Focal Press, 1984.
Eisenstein, Sergei. Film Form: Essays in Film Theory and The Film Sense
Cleveland & New York: Meridian Books, 1957.
Eisenstein, Sergei. Towards a Theory of Montage, Volume 2
London: BFI Publishing, 1991.
Kasdan, Margo A., Christine Saxton and Susan Tavernetti. The Critical Eye: An Introduction to Looking at Movies
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/ Hunt Publishing, 1988.
Kyrou
, Adonis. Luis Buñuel
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.
LoBrutto, Vincent. Selected Takes: Film Editors on Editing
New York: Praeger, 1991.
Mamet, David. On Directing Film
New York: Viking Penguin, 1991.
Murch, Walter. In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing. 2nd Edition
Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1995.
Oldham, Gabriella. First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors
Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1992.
O’Steen, Sam. Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America’s Favorite Movies
Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2001.
Tarkovsky, Andrey. Sculpting in Time
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989.
Wohl, Michael. Editing Techniques with Final Cut Pro
Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 200
filmography
The Accidental Tourist
Alexander Nevsky
Alicia Was Fainting
Amadeus
Atlantic City
Breaker Morant
Brothers-In-Law
Burnt by the Sun
Catch-22
Chinatown
Colonel Redl
The Color Purple
The Crucible
Dead End
Dersu Uzala
Dog Day Afternoon
The Domain of the Senses
Echoes
Fargo
The 400 Blows
The French Connection
Jack Murphy
Joe Gould’s Secret
The Joy Luck Club
June
Law & Order
Leaving Las Vegas
Life Before Me
Little Big Man
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Midnight Family Dinner
Nowhere, Now Here
The Painter
Pascali’s Island
Reds
Rosemary’s Baby
Serpico
sex, lies, and videotape
Straight Story
Strike
The Sweet Hereafter
Touch
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Trip to Bountiful
The Verdict
The Virgin Spring
Witness
The author acknowledges the motion pictures from which the original drawings in this book were based. The drawings have been created for purposes of commentary, criticism, and scholarship under the Fair Use Doctrine. No endorsement or sponsorship of this book by the copyright owners of the motion pictures from which they are based is claimed or implied.
index
A
accident(s), 217
Accidental Tourist, The, 111-114
acting, 35, 45, 66, 112, 114, 115, 154, 160, 163, 171, 174, 178, 179, 191, 194, 196, 203, 212, 230. See also performance
action, 15, 209, 214. See also cutting on action
action transitions, 68
actor. See acting
actress. See acting
Adams, Henry, 158
Akten, Magnus, 105, 189
Alexander Nevsky, 27, 101
Alexandrov, G.V., 154
Alicia Was Fainting, 16-17
allegory, 174
Allen, DeDe, xvii, 144, 165
all-purpose time, 105, 107, 108
Amadeus, 59-61, 162, 172, 185
ambience. See ambient sound
ambient sound, 29, 202. See also silence; roomtone
America(n), 144, 228
anagram, 137, 139, 140
analogy, 182, 190, 191
answer(s), 172-177, 179, 204, 208-210, 212, 213, 217, 220
anticipation, 165, 167, 177
Apocalypse Now, 217
art. See artists
artists, 74, 141, 144, 207, 216, 229, 230
asymmetry, 26, 27, 55, 76, 79, 104, 108, 183-186, 190, 202, 214
Atlantic City, 75, 77, 94, 95, 123, 126
audio, 156, 160, 165, 169, 183, 184, 196, 200
Avid, 229. See also computer; digital technology; Final Cut Pro; Lightworks
B
Bacon, Francis, 216
ballet, 9-11, 230, 231
Bartók, Bela, 208
beat(s), 17, 28, 30-40, 41, 43-45, 55, 58-60, 62, 64, 68, 100, 133, 139, 147, 149-151, 100, 133, 139, 147, 149-151, 160, 161, 163, 165, 166, 175-178, 184-186, 188, 190, 194-196, 198, 204, 208, 209, 211, 213, 214, 224, 230
Berger, John, 193
Bergman, Ingmar, 153, 208
Berle, Milton, 3
Bertolucci, Bernardo, 99
Bicycle Thief, The, 105
Big Chill, The, 79
blur, 7-8, 11, 201. See also imbalanced blur
bow, 114-119
Breaker Morant, 30, 115, 116, 126, 127, 168, 176, 177, 184, 185, 190, 191, 209, 210
Brothers-ln-Law, 188
Brownell, Ian, 84
Brunet, Michel, 182
Bryant, Louise, 211
Buñuel, Luis, 1
Burke, James Lee, 181
Burnt By the Sun, 41, 42, 43, 161
C
Calder, Alexander, 190
Callas, Maria, 95
camera placement, 112, 115. See also set-ups
canvas, 216, 217
Catch-22, 11
celluloid triacetate, 111, 201
certainty, 216, 229, 231
Chandler, Raymond, 103, 148, 154
character, 49, 56, 74, 76, 77, 79, 93-95, 97, 111-113, 119, 126, 132, 149, 158, 160, 167, 168, 172, 174, 179, 182, 190, 204, 212
Chinatown, 94, 95
chronology, 84, 100
cinematography, xvii, 160, 230
cinema naturalness, 186
click-tracks, 208. See also cue tracks
codes, 182-186, 190
coding, 136
cognitive, 3, 11, 158, 159
collaboration, xiv, 92, 136
Colonel Redl, 7
Color Purple, The, 79, 80
Columbia Pictures, 165
composer, 136, 211
composite print, 201
compressing action, 15. See also action, cutting on action
computer, 162, 228. See also Avid; digital technology; Final Cut Pro; Lightworks
computer illiterate, 228
conflict, 129, 130, 136, 140, 156, 210
contemplation, 165, 167, 204
context, 68, 76, 122, 123, 125-127, 130, 136, 146, 149, 165, 166, 176, 182, 185, 210, 211, 214
Continuing Ed, 100, 182
contrast, 102
convincing material, 157, 158
creation, xv, 22, 39, 71, 108, 127, 178, 181, 189, 190, 194, 200, 201, 208, 209, 216, 217, 220, 229
credits, 66, 229. See also titles
cross-cutting, 66, 67, 74-76, 79
Crucible, The, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 149, 175, 176
cues, 158
cue track, 208. See also click-track
cut away, 92-94, 97
cuts, 6; bad, 6-8; compressing time, 15; discernible, 6, 16; good, 6, 8, 14; jump cuts, 24, 28-30; over-cutting, 59, 74. See also extended cuts
cutting on action, 7, 9, 14-16, 18, 20-22
D
dailies, 34, 66, 90, 124, 136, 157, 158, 160, 164, 177, 182, 189, 191, 214
DAT recording, 66
Day-Lewis, Daniel, xvii
Dead End, 105-108
definite time, 105-108
Denver, John, 51
Dersu Uzala, 108
dialogue, 14, 19, 35, 41, 49, 56, 57, 59-61, 63, 66, 92, 112, 116, 135, 147-150, 154, 157, 160, 163, 165, 167, 168, 176, 182-186, 190, 191, 194, 195, 198, 199, 201-204, 209, 211, 212, 217, 224
digital technology, 34, 136, 200, 201, 217, 228, 229, 231. See also Avid; computer; Final Cut Pro; Lightworks
directing, xvii, xviii, 34, 53, 133, 135, 138, 144, 196, 198, 217, 230
distribution of information, 55, 86-90, 93, 95, 108, 125, 13
0, 146, 169, 172, 182, 187, 190, 191, 222
Dmytryk, Edward, xiii, xiv, 8, 12, 23, 28, 48, 73, 93, 126, 140, 220. See also On Film Editing
DNA, 182, 191
documentary, 230
Dog Day Afternoon, 36, 48, 49, 102, 123, 124, 186
Domain of The Senses, The, 135
double reactions, 161. See also reactions
doubt, 215, 216, 220, 224, 225, 231
drama, 39, 41, 52, 56, 73, 76, 82, 95, 104, 108, 113, 119, 139, 144, 154, 156, 172, 213