The Eye is Quicker Read online

  A student film ‘showed’ a story of a young man who lived alone in a trailer, and worked each day in janitorial services at a nursing home. In Jack Mops the Hallway scene, from Jack Murphy, we follow Jack and his on-wheels mopping bucket down the hall. The camera ‘leaves’ Jack moving into a Close-Up on a door. Long after — a whole lot of beats — Jack and his mopping bucket have exited frame right, Jack re-enters, opens the door, and enters the room. Whatever precision in timing between actions might have been computed in production, in postproduction it was clear that a lot less time was needed between Jack’s exiting frame right and his re-entrance.

  In such cases, it is often assumed that the surest cut — one that will possess an imperceptible structure — should be made somewhere in the ‘empty hallway’ footage. In other words, let Jack leave the frame, and at some point in the ‘stillness’ of the empty hall make the first cut. Then, at some point in another ‘still’ frame, prior to Jack’s return, make the second cut, and everything in-between gets deleted. This seldom works to perfection. Even with a locked down camera holding a rigid position, there is ‘life’ to a film frame. The ‘life’ can be the activity of the light-sensitive particles — the ‘dancing’ grain — that make up the emulsion onto which the photographic image is instilled — but not ‘still’ enough. The eye might spot the ‘abrupt’ altering within the visible grain. This is similar to making a cut in the ambient sound of a ‘quiet’ empty hall. You’d be surprised how obvious — to the ear — is the altered sound wave patterns of ‘silence.’

  Quite often a Jump Cut calls attention to itself — when you don’t want it to — because a little something catches your eye: an ever-so-slight shifting of an object, or a break in patterns of light.

  TIP: The best approach, in this imperceptible structure model of a Jump Cut, is to make a cut that corresponds to the instant — your choice of a frame within the shot of the ‘empty hall’ — that you ‘feel’ Jack should re-enter. Then, find the very first frame showing Jack re-entering — it might be his shadow that precedes him — and cut. Join that frame to the ‘corresponds to the instant’ frame of your initial cut. [Figure 4.4] This solution takes advantage of the quick-eye reflex, which will dart to the ‘new’ — and in movement — addition to the ‘empty hall’: Jack (or his shadow) re-entering screen Right.

  Figure 4.4

  The proof is in the timing

  Jack Murphy

  Director, Shawn Hicks; Editor, Chris Guidi

  TIP: When, as in the Jack Murphy scene, the camera is in movement, the editor must find the moment (frame) when the camera comes to rest; or the cut will ‘jump.’ A piece of masking tape placed on the screen, aligned to a precise horizontal or vertical edge — in this case it was the doorjamb — will reveal if there is any more of the camera move.

  Ideal use of the Protracted Action(s) model of imperceptible structure can be viewed in Breaker Morant, the Opening of the Court Martial scene. The British Army court martial officers, military attorneys, and the three Australian soldiers facing trial remove their hats and helmets. [Figure 4.5] In ‘real life’ the action(s) would occur simultaneously. In this film moment a mini-essay on the removal of military headwear is created.

  Figure 4.5

  Seeing the simultaneous one by one

  There are cuts which utilize a Jump Cut approach without the Classic Jump. Basil Pascali Spies on Mr. Bowles scene, from Pascali’s Island. Pascali ‘breaks into’ Bowles’ hotel room, and searches his belongings. He finds a cane; the handle lifts out to reveal a sword. Pascali slides the sword back into the cane, and with hardly a beat, a cut ‘shifts’ Pascali to the far side of the room. He is opening a bureau drawer. [Figure 4.6] The ‘sliding’ sound of the sword returned to its cane, and the ‘sliding’ sound of the bureau drawer’s opening make the cut doubly effective.

  Figure 4.6

  A little less perceptible than a Classic Jump Cut

  HINT: The Jump-like-cut works here because care was taken to have a clear and full gesture to the Outgoing frame, and an immediate focal point at the Incoming frame — the opening the bureau drawer. This is crucial to avoid a “mental hiccup.”

  TIP: All models discussed in this chapter can be substituted for each other with as small an adjustment as a frame or two, which influences the audience’s perception. Where, when, and how the editor begins or ends a selected shot, or shots, can change a perceptible structure to an imperceptible one. Each model can be defined by whether the audience’s emotional involvement occurs in an instant: perceptible structure; or is unbroken: imperceptible structure.

  FIVE

  it beats

  ticks and

  tocks

  “Time is nature’s way of keeping

  everything from happeing at once.”

  — Anonymous

  Walter Murch, in his superb book, In The Blink Of An Eye: A Perspective On Film Editing, provides a credible analogy of the film editor’s work in the era before digital technology. The physically lively labor of that era — it hasn’t completely vanished; there are directors and editors still working the old-fashioned way — led Murch to see the editor as sculptor. Murch describes editing on an (Upright) Moviola as ‘sculpting in clay’ — an adding (pasting/patching) of selected takes to build up to the film’s form; and editing on a (Flatbed) Steenbeek [Figure 5.1] as ‘sculpting in marble’ — a cutting down (chiseling) from large reels of uncut dailies to ‘bring out’ the film.

  Figure 5.1

  Moviola™

  Steenbeck™

  Director Andrei Tarkovsky broadens the ‘editor as sculptor’ analogy to include the entire realm of filmmaking in his memoir, Sculpting in Time. Tarkovsky’s title expresses an abstract analogy — which offers a less tangible perspective than Murch — that helps me appreciate a vital correlation between cinema and humdrum perceptions of reality.

  This chapter is not about mechanical, electronic, or digital editing tools. I’m writing to describe another useful device for the film editor; I guess in that way it can be considered a ‘tool.’ Not as in ‘gizmo’ or ‘gadget,’ but as a ‘method’ in work strategy reflections. It brings the physical analogy of Murch’s ‘editor as sculptor’ to the ‘conceptual atmosphere’ of Tarkovsky’s title.

  This ‘method’ is reminiscent of the ‘ticks and tocks’ of a timepiece — editors are sculptors who bend, mold, and breach time — in semblance, not in exactness. Since, as we’ve already seen, or thought we were seeing, real-life ‘matching action’ has nothing to do with editing success, and in many ways is adverse to the best interests of a scene, so too the editor’s ‘timepiece’ is neither accurate to the atomic clock or the heavens — and that’s a very good thing. Film editing’s ‘timepiece-like-device’ is not in ‘ticks and tocks’; it’s in beats.

  You’ve likely seen the term in a screenplay; it (usually) directs the reader — or actor — to pause.

  Sometimes the screenwriter might direct ‘a couple of beats.’ It may seem reasonable to assume that beats are, more or less, 1/2 to one second in time. They can be, but with good old ‘filmic reality’ they are — to put it precisely — inexact.

  Legend has it — I’ve been assured by actor friends it’s accurate — that the use of the term beat is derived from a mishearing of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s reference to an actor’s ‘bit.’ Stanislavsky — the great acting theorist and teacher — was giving work technique tips with a view that suggested a ‘breakdown’ of a scene into tiny moments: bits. His Russian accent was ‘translated’ into beats. Beats or bits of moments might be an entrance or exit; movement on stage; engagement with objects or other actors; or segments — small(er) bits — of dialogue. It can be a helpful device, especially if several actors are ‘working’ with this reference. It allows for comprehensible discussions; and assessments can be (more) easily understood; and if needed, adjustments can be made to the subtlest or most elaborate workings of a scene.

  A moment to moment to moment breakdown of a sc
ene is an excellent ‘tool’ for the film editor; and I think it helpful to discuss early, so that any references to beats in later chapters, covering diverse concepts and examples, will be unmistakable; and will afford me a tidy way of describing, and elaborating on, particular topics.

  HINT & TIP: Every moment can be identified, and beneficially estimated in beats: actions in time, and the ‘time’ in-between; lines of dialogue, and their emotional and/or subject matter variants. Beats can pinpoint trouble, and provide guidance for solutions.

  It is not unusual for an editor (or director) to sense a ‘rhythmic problem.’ This means that a ‘feeling’ has been stirred that a pause, or a ‘holding’ (on a shot) of some additional ‘time’ is required; or that the opposite is needed — an existing beat, or two, shouldn’t.

  HINT: Later, how beats lead to rhythms, and their influence on the editor’s choices and decisions.

  Here are some examples of First-Rate and Faulty beats:

  Hostages and Robbers Drive to Kennedy Airport scene(s), from Dog Day Afternoon. In a High Angle Shot, a white bus — holding the robbers and hostages — accompanied by police cars, drives toward the camera. The vehicles move from screen left to screen right, eventually moving off into the distance of the top of the screen. A cut takes us to a higher angle — aerial shot — as the caravan moves along an expressway. The vehicles are now moving screen right to screen left; and after a brief few beats — don’t think about counting seconds so much as ‘feeling that beat’ — an overhead highway sign indicates the exit for Kennedy Airport. [Figure 5.2] The beats — without benefit of a stopwatch — before the overhead highway sign appears make it possible for an eye/emotion association to accept the journey from Brooklyn to the airport as ‘conceivable’ in time.

  Figure 5.2

  The edited beats create an Emotional Duration that ‘feels’ just right!

  TIP: When editing, you can ‘find’ your choice beats backwards. The Kennedy Airport highway sign can be positioned on your screen first; then run the shot in reverse — back to the frame you ‘feel’ best furnishes the needed Incoming beats.

  Realize that the selected beats of the Incoming aerial shot had to be unified with the Outgoing beats on the street in Brooklyn. For the Incoming beat to work, the Outgoing must work with it!

  Here’s an example of a Faulty ‘One-Sided’ beat:

  John Proctor and the Arrival and Greeting of Reverend Hale scenes, from The Crucible. John is about to mount his horse when he hears a gathering crowd. He looks to screen right. In a Point Of View (POV) shot we see a crowd, and horse-drawn carriage. There is a cut back to John — a reaction beat which follows the POV shot. This shot holds on John as he begins to move to screen right: an ever-so-slight beat of John walking — although not exiting the frame — to greet the arriving Reverend.

  The next cut brings us an Extreme Close-Up (ECU) of a stack of three books (perhaps Bibles and church law documents) on the carriage. Another (but very) brief beat holds this image. Hands enter the frame to take the books, and a cut takes us into a Medium Shot (MS) [Figure 5.3] as John arrives to greet Reverend Hale.

  Figure 5.3

  A quirk in Time? or is it Space?

  The earlier POV shot of the crowd situated John a fair distance from the arriving Reverend. When the Medium Shot shows John almost to the carriage we are discordantly jolted. What has gone wrong, and why? Is it the beginning of John’s walk; or his arrival; or the distance, or the books? Or is it a faulty selection, and integration of beats, that present a puzzling Emotional Duration?

  HINT: A vital difference between theatre and cinema is the editing techniques that integrate beats.

  Whenever ‘real-life’ time (or space) is a primary editing pursuit you will be risking far more (serious) audience confusion than if — through beats — you establish a sense — or texture — of the needed (psychological) time.

  HINT & TIP: Don’t only ‘forget about matching action,’ forget precise and realistic matching of anything! What is astonishingly elastic about ‘film time’ is that the most minor modification in beats can make all the difference.

  The Extreme Close-Up of the Reverend’s books needs to hold additional beats; or the Medium Shot of John’s arrival needs additional beats before we spot him coming through the crowd; or eliminate the John-begins-to-walk beat. If the reaction back to John ended without any visual reference to his leaving that location, every other beat (with minor adjustment) would succeed. There would be no ‘walking time’ and therefore no reference to ‘real time.’

  There are other choices — there always are: Eliminate the reaction cut back to John — in other words, stay with the crowd and carriage from the Long Shot to the Extreme Close-Up of the books. Let the audience see the crowd in Long Shot before John looks to screen right — which indicates that he sees the crowd. Back up several beats to Abigail’s last angry remarks to John, and let the crowd in sound and/or image ‘motivate’ her hurrying away before John looks to screen Right. [Figure 5.4] This last approach would integrate — something a HINT points out about theatre and cinema — a late beat of the John and Abigail Seduction scene (which is the preceding scene) with the John Sees the Arrival of Hale beat and the John Goes to Hale (an ironic pun) beat.

  Figure 5.4

  I imagine you’re seeing the value of beats.

  A second example of first-rate beats:

  Rosemary Returns from the Cemetery scene, from Rosemary’s Baby, skillfully demonstrates how beats offer a flexible and abstract treatment of film’s Space/Time. Rosemary has no sooner arrived home than her doorbell rings. She looks toward the hallway, which leads to the apartment door. There is a slight ‘hesitating’ beat, and an even slighter, Rosemary ‘rocks-back’ beat — a ‘feel’ that Rosemary is about to walk forward. A cut now reveals a Close-Up of the apartment door — in a beat, no longer than the ‘stack of books before the hands enter’ beat, from The Crucible— as Rosemary is about to enter the frame, and open it. [Figure 5.5] It works. It’s effective, and efficiently smart.

  Figure 5.5

  Elegant in its simplicity

  Beats must be considered when joining one scene to another — creating a sequence:

  Basil Pascali and the Arrival of Mr. Bowles scene precedes — by two scenes — the Pascali Arrives at the Hotel scene, from Pascali’s Island. A very bright day, a crowd is gathered at the village dock for the arrival of a boat. Pascali is in the crowd. He observes one of the passengers — a tall man in a white suit. The man comes ashore, under Pascali’s scrutiny.

  The Hotel scene is at night. While possible to go directly to it — there is a Fade Out from the sunny dockside — several beats are included which dispense essential duration; provide a tangible atmosphere to the story and place; and most essential of all, carry the changes in dramatic inflection, faultlessly averting a hurried, sketchy feeling. [Figure 5.6]

  HINT & TIP: A satisfying arrangement has to be discovered that eliminates superfluous beats, without leaving only a ‘lifeless’ (visual) synopsis.

  Figure 5.6

  Beats representing scene-to-scene ‘delivery’

  The first beat — which takes us into the night — is a single shot (a scene of several beats) looking upward to a nearly silhouetted minaret. A cut to another (night) scene shows soldiers, and their prisoner, marching along a street; followed by Pascali. He passes a group kneeling in prayer. A dissolve brings us to the Hotel scene. Pascali approaches a stairway which leads up to the hotel’s entranceway.

  HINT: Why the choice of a dissolve here — or any optical effect anywhere? What do optical effects do to beats?

  Frank Galvin Meets the Sister scene(s), from The Verdict. In a Long Shot, Attorney Galvin returns to his office; he is ‘late’ for the appointment. The sister of his client has been waiting for him in the hallway. Galvin unlocks the door, and they enter the office. A very short beat follows the closing office door, ending the Hallway scene. A cut to a Medium Close Up of Galvin — his overcoat now o
ff — begins the Office scene. [Figure 5.7] A beat, which includes an inhale, leads to the first dialogue of the scene.

  Figure 5.7

  No superfluous beats, and dramatic breadth protected

  TIP: The Verdict presents an example of organizing beats across ‘Continuous Scenes’ — INTERIOR HALLWAY to INTERIOR LAW OFFICE — that provide a successful departure from the usual technique of attempting to maintain ‘real time’ by following people from room to room, or from outside to inside.

  Beats must be considered when joining sequence to sequence:

  The Old Clown and Parrot scene, from Burnt by the Sun. [Figure 5.8] This scene is in response to a required beat, to ‘deliver’ an inflection change between Nadya Examines the Black Sedan scene, through Nadya and Colonel Kotov Play Games scene, which make up one sequence, [Figure 5.9] and the ‘Family’ Gathers Outside the Gate scene through the Shooting the Truck Driver scene, which make up the next sequence. [Figure 5.10]

  Figure 5.8

  A game of ‘tease’ with the parrot…

  Figure 5.9

  …joins ‘games’ from the end of the previous sequence to…

  Figure 5.10

  …an ‘entertaining’ send-off, which begins the next.

  Last, an examination of superfluous — or overly extended — beats.

  John Proctor Greets Reverend Hale scene, from The Crucible. John arrives at Reverend Hale’s carriage. He takes a stack of books. Hale collects an additional stack.