Relating Images: Editing C H A P T E R 4

Bazin, an advocate of Wylers aesthetic and the use of the sequence shot, in which an
entire scene plays out in one take, this type of filmmaking more closely approximates
human perception and is thus more realistic than montage. Because of the preponderance of long takes, such films rely more heavily on mise-en-scne, including acting,
and camera movement than on editing to focus viewers attention. Yet the extended
duration of shots fundamentally affects a films rhythm and pace. Most films use shot
duration to follow a rhythm that relates to the particular aims of the film. In Flowers of
Shanghai (1998) by Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, long takes evoke the citys
past and vanished way of life. In contrast, the infamous shower murder sequence from
Psycho (1960) uses seventy camera setups for forty-five seconds of footage, with the
many cuts launching a parallel attack on viewers senses.
As we have seen, continuity editing strives for a realistic space and time that
approximate recognized perspectives, such as the crowded movement of a city
street. Some narrative films aim to construct psychological space and time, creating
such emotional and imaginative perspectives as the anxiety and suspense associated with horror films. In some films, the two may overlap: in The Crowd (1928),
for example, images of New York City convey a specific setting as well as the heros
psychological impression of an overwhelming, disorienting sensory experience.

155

VIEWING C U E
What is the temporal organization
of the film youve just viewed for
class? Does the film follow a strict
chronology? How does the editing
abridge or expand time?

Graphic, Movement, and Rhythmic

Editing
Earlier in this chapter, we introduced the term montage in relation to Soviet filmmaking of the 1920s. In
the Hollywood tradition, montage is usually reserved
to denote thematically linked sequences and sequences
that show the passage of time by using quick sets of
cuts or other devices, such as dissolves, wipes, and
superimpositions. In studio-era Hollywood, Slavko
Vorkapich specialized in creating such sequences,
including the memorable earthquake in San Francisco
(1936) [Figures 4.31a4.31c]. In this specialized sense
and in its use simply as a synonym for editing (Alfred
Hitchcock, for example, often discussed it in this way),
montage emphasizes the creative power of editing
especially the potential to build up a sequence and

(a)

(b)
(c)
4.31a4.31c San Francisco (1936). Although continuity editing was the norm in studio-era
Hollywood, montage sequences were created for special purposes such as this spectacular earthquake scene.

06_COR_68170_ch04_132_175.indd

155

11/20/11

1:23

156

PART 2

Formal Compositions: Film Scenes, Shots, Cuts, and Sounds

augment meaning, rather than simply to remove the

extraneous, as the term cutting implies.
Editing may link images according to more
abstract similarities and differences that make creative use of space and time. Here we distinguish
among three such patterns in editing: graphic editing, movement editing, and rhythmic editing. Often
these patterns work together to support or complicate the action being shown.

Graphic Editing
Linking or defining a series of shots in graphic editing are such formal patterns as shapes, masses, colors,
lines, and lighting patterns within images. Graphic
editing may be best envisioned in abstract forms: one
pattern of images may develop according to diminish4.32 Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1946). Strong graphic components of
ing sizes, beginning with large shapes and proceeding
Sergei Eisensteins image create forceful impressions in juxtaposition.
through increasingly smaller shapes; another pattern
may alternate the graphics of lighting, switching
between brightly lit shots and dark, shadowy shots; yet another pattern might make
use of lines within the frame by assembling different shots whose horizontal and
vertical lines create specific visual effects. Many experimental films highlight just
this level of abstraction in the editing. A sequence of Ballet mcanique (see Chapter 9) cuts rapidly between circles and triangles. Among Stan Brakhages hundreds of
experimental films, Dog Star Man (1964) uses graphic editing and superimposition
extensively. Frequently, narrative films employ graphic editing as well. Graphic eleV I E W I N G CUE
ments of the mise-en-scne are incorporated in Sergei Eisensteins editing design for
What graphic patterns are conIvan the Terrible, Part One (1945) and Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1946) [Figstructed through the editing of
ure
4.32]. Coherence in shape and scale often serves a specific narrative purpose, as
the film youve just viewed? What
in
the
continuity editing device called a graphic match, in which a dominant shape
effects do these patterns have on
or line in one shot provides a visual transition to a similar shape or line in the next
your viewing of the film?
shot. One of the most famous examples of a graphic match is from Stanley Kubricks
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) [Figures 4.33a and 4.33b].

Movement Editing
To connect images through movement means that the direction and pace of
actions, gestures, and other movements are linked with corresponding or contrasting movements in one or more other shots. Cutting on action, or editing during
an onscreen movement, quickens a scene or films pace. A common version of
this pattern is the continuity editing device called a match on action, whereby the

(a)
(b)
4.33a and 4.33b 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). A famous graphic match from a prehistoric
bone to a spaceship transcends millennia of history in one cut.

06_COR_68170_ch04_132_175.indd

156

11/22/11

6:23

Relating Images: Editing C H A P T E R 4

157

(a)
(b)
4.34a and 4.34b Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). The power of cinema illustrated by matching
the protagonists steps across changing backgrounds.

direction of an action (such as the tossing of a stone in the air) is edited to a shot
depicting the continuation of that action (such as the flight of that stone as it hits
a window). Often a match on action obscures the cut itself, such as when the cut
occurs just as a character opens a door; in the next shot, we see the next room as
the character shuts the door from the other side.
In Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), Maya Deren depicts a continuous movement across diverse terrains by strictly matching the action of her character walking forward. The characters first stride is on the beach; her next strides are on dirt,
among tall grasses, on concrete, and finally on carpet [Figures 4.34a and 4.34b].
This series of cuts works as an example of graphic matching as well, because the scale
and distance are precisely matched in each shot. (Similarly, the example from 2001:
A Space Odyssey, cited in the preceding section, is also a match on action following
the movement of the bone through the air.) Leni Riefenstahls extraordinary editing
of athletes in motion in her documentary Olympia (1938) has become a model for
sports montages [Figures 4.35a and 4.35b].

VIEWING C U E
Consider the last film you viewed
in class. What is the relationship
between figure and camera movement within specific shots and the
films cutting?

(a)
(b)
4.35a and 4.35b Olympia (1938). The seemingly superhuman mobility of Olympic divers is
enhanced by Leni Riefenstahls editing.

06_COR_68170_ch04_132_175.indd

157

11/20/11

1:23

158

PART 2

Formal Compositions: Film Scenes, Shots, Cuts, and Sounds

(a)
(b)
4.36a and 4.36b Strangers on a Train (1951). The movements of a carousel around, up and
down, and finally out of control are intercut chaotically with the two characters physical struggle in the
climactic sequence of Alfred Hitchcocks Strangers on a Train.

Movement editing can, however, resist matching and instead create other patterns of movement in a series of images: rapid and slow movements, movements
into various spaces of a shot, or different styles of movement can be edited together
for visual effects. This is often the case in music videos. In pioneering experimental
filmmaker Shirley Clarkes Bridges-Go-Round (1958), bridgesstationary structures
come alive and achieve a balletic movement through the editing. Chaotic movement editing appears in the climax of Strangers on a Train (1951) [Figures 4.36a
and 4.36b]. Action sequences such as fights and chases also exploit the possibilities
of movement editing, both relying on the spatial consistency of continuity editing to convey whats happening, and using variation to increase the surprise and
excitement.

Rhythmic Editing

V I E W I N G CUE
Time the shots of a specific
sequence from any film youve
viewed for class thus far. How does
the rhythm of the editing in the
sequence contribute to the films
mood or meaning?

06_COR_68170_ch04_132_175.indd

158

Finally, rhythmic editing describes the organization of the editing according to different paces or tempos determined by how quickly cuts are made. Like the tempos that
describe the rhythmic organization of music, editing in this fashion may link a rapid
succession of quick shots, a series of slowly paced long takes, or shots of varying length
to modulate the time between cuts. Since rhythm is a fundamental property of editing,
it is often combined with graphic, movement, or continuity aims. The early French
avant-garde filmmaker Germaine Dulac defined film as a visual symphony made
of rhythmic images. Frequently, experimental films find their formal coherence in a
rhythmic editing pattern, as in Hollis Framptons Zorns Lemma (1970), which is structured around repeating and varying cycles of twenty-four one-second shots. However,
narrative films also depend on editing rhythms to underpin the emotion and action of
a scene, as depicted in the harrowing opening sequence of Vertigo (1958), for example
[Figures 4.37a and 4.37b]. Directors in different genres and traditions work with their
editors to achieve distinctive editing rhythms in their films.

Editing from Scene to Sequence

The coordination of temporal and spatial editing patterns beyond the relationship between two images results in a higher level of cinematic organization that

11/20/11

1:23

Relating Images: Editing C H A P T E R 4

(a)

159

(b)

4.37a and 4.37b Vertigo (1958). This opening sequence uses almost no dialogue, relying on the
rhythmic alternation of shots of Scottie looking down from the rooftop, where he hangs from his hands, and shots
of the view below, occasioning the first use of the vertigo shota simultaneous zoom-in and track-outto convey
his distorted perspective.

is found in both narrative and non-narrative films. The shot is the single length
of film, and combining it with another shot builds up edited units called either a
scene or a sequence.
While these two terms for edited units are not always strictly distinguished, it
may be helpful to conceive of them separately. Think of a scene as one or more
shots that describe a continuous space, time, and action, such as the return of
Ethan Edwards at the beginning of The Searchers (1956). Edwardss brothers family spies his arrival on the horizon and gathers on the porch to await his approach.
He arrives, dismounts, and enters the homestead with them, at which point the
scene ends. In contrast, a sequence is any number of shots that are unified as a
coherent action (such as a walk to school) or as an identifiable motif (such as the
expression of anger), regardless of changes in space and time. Later in The Searchers, one sequence covers several years time as Ethan and Martin Pawley search
for their abducted relative, Debbie, in a series of shots of them traversing different
landscapes at different seasons.
One way to relate editing on a micro level to editing on a macro level is
to attempt to divide a film into large narrative units, a process referred to as
narrative segmentation. A classical film may have forty scenes and sequences
but only ten large segments. Often locating editing transitions such as fades
and dissolves will point to these divisions, which occur at significant changes
in narrative space, time, characters, or action. Tracing the logic of a particular films editing on this level also gives insight into how film narratives are
organized. For example, the setting of a films first scene may be identical to
that of the last scene, or two segments showing the same characters may represent a significant change in their relationship. Sometimes the seam between
segments will itself reveal something significant to viewers about the larger
organization of the film.
In Imitation of Life (1959), director Douglas Sirk starkly contrasts a very
upsetting scene in which Sarah Jane is beaten by her boyfriend after he
discovers her mother is black with another scene in which her mother massages the feet of her white employer, Lora. Loras exclamationThat feels so
good!acquires sickening irony in the juxtaposition. Here two scenes of black
and white intimate relationships, one violent, one apparently benevolent, are
deliberately contrasted. Once again, the connections among narrative units
demonstrate how editing extends from the juxtaposition of shots to structure
the film as a whole.
text continued on page 162

06_COR_68170_ch04_132_175.indd

159

11/20/11

1:23