Continually Confusing - Part Three

Although not the first to employ editing in film, the likes of Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov formulated techniques and theories, raising the editing process to an art form.

Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Eisenstein#Film_theorist

Eisenstein formulated his Methods of Montage, detailing several principles of film editing.

Sergei Eisenstein – Methods of Montage
Metric	Shots are of equal length (number of frames)
Rhythmic	Shot length is dictated by visual elements such as movement and composition.
Tonal	Transitions are employed to illicit a specific emotional response from the audience.
Overtonal	Overtonal montage may utilise metric, rhythmic and tonal techniques.
Intellectual	Presents and conveys intellectual ideas through juxtaposition, symbolism and metaphor.

Lev Kuleshov famously studied the effects of juxtaposition in film editing.

In the dawn of the 20th century, cinema was a new art form, comprising many techniques that hadn’t been developed. And the ones that had had not been studied to the needed extension. The elements of editing were among them. Filmmakers knew that you could cut and splice the film strip, but they didn’t thoroughly comprehend the purposes of doing so. Lev Kuleshov, a Soviet filmmaker, was among the first to dissect the effects of juxtaposition. Through his experiments and research, Kuleshov discovered that depending on how shots are assembled the audience will attach a specific meaning or emotion to it. In his experiment, Kuleshov cut an actor with shots of three different subjects: a hot plate of soup, a girl in a coffin and a pretty woman lying in a couch. The footage of the actor was the same expressionless gaze. Yet the audience raved his performance, saying first he looked hungry, then sad, then lustful. www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/kuleshov-effect.html

http://haverholm.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Kuleshov.jpg

Film and sound editor Walter Murch discusses the art of film editing in his book, In the Blink of an Eye (Silman-James Press, 1995). The theme of the book lies around the process of editing, why it should work and its acceptance by the viewing audience.

Murch proposes six guiding considerations for editing in film. Although referred to as “the Rule of Six”, they are designed to inform the process rather than be a rigid reference. Correctness and consistency are dependent upon the required effect, the response we wish to elicit from the viewer.

Walter Murch – The Rule of Six
Emotion	Is it true to the emotion that we want to portray, that we want to provoke in the audience? Does it push forward the emotional line?
Story	Does it advance the story? Does it tell the story in way that can be understood by the audience?
Rhythm	Does the cut happen at the “right” point? Does it feel correct and interesting? Does it fit in the overall and established rhythm?
Eye Trace	Where is the audience looking during the shot? Is the eye carried smoothly during the transition?
2D Plane	The representation of the 3D space on a 2D plane (the screen). Questions of “stage line” (the 180 degree rule) and composition
3D Space	The positioning of actors and objects in the 3D space. Are they represented coherently and consistently?

Murch, Walter, In the Blink of an Eye, Silman-James Press, 1995

Where Murch is more firm is in the primacy of each rule over those that follow. While all six conditions may be met in most circumstances, where, perhaps for practical reasons, any must necessarily be excluded, the priority is to maintain emotion over story, story over rhythm and so on.

Continually Confusing - Part Two

“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.” Alfred Hitchcock

Here Hitchcock may have been referring to elliptical editing, the technique of compressing time, skipping the unnecessary (“the dull bits”), while maintaining continuity.

puffin.creighton.edu/fapa/Bruce/0New%20Film%20as%20Art%20webfiles/all%20texts%20and%20articles/editing/editing.htm

These shot setups from his 1960 film, Psycho, seem more representative of temporal or continuity editing but demonstrate some of the same technique.

The scene is presented in “real” time. Where he has allowed the viewer to skip the “dull bits”, he has accomplished it via edits. The camera is not static but cuts to the shots necessary to progress the story, heighten drama and view the players’ actions and reactions.

The diagram below represent the various camera set ups employed in the scene. It’s apparent that this is not a conventional sequence. Hitchcock has not adhered to the 180° rule. From the establishing shot he employs many different angles. Hitchcock though could not be accused of being an unthinking, sloppy film maker.

puffin.creighton.edu/fapa/Bruce/0New%20Film%20as%20Art%20webfiles/all%20texts%20and%20articles/editing/editing.htm

Perhaps most noticeable, most far removed from the established viewing angles are the shots from the driver’s point of view, of the policeman in front of the car (Set Up I). It appears that Hitchcock has used eye line and trace to lead the viewer’s eye.

We can break down the shots in this way:

	Set Up H	Low angle mid two shot. We’re under the gaze of the police officer, stuck in the car with Marion. Her eyes are down as she reluctantly hands over her licence.
	Set Up H	The police officer moves away to screen left. Marion’s eye’s move up to follow him towards the front of the car.
	Set Up H	As the police officer exits screen left, Marion stares straight ahead after him.
	Set Up H	To accentuate the eye line, Marion’s hand moves to the steering wheel, deliberately pointing the viewer to the front of the car. This prepares us for the novel camera angle, crossing the 180° line.
	Set Up I	Cut to low angle, point of view, mid shot. The officer enters screen right maintaining spatial continuity. We now know that the police officer is in front of the car and we are looking from Marion’s point of view.
	Set Up I	The officer checks Marion’s details and his eyes drop towards the front bumper of the car. His eye line prepares the viewer for the next shot. Focal point at screen centre.
	Set Up J	Cut away to point of view, very close up, high angle shot. Focal point screen centre The officer’s eye line has led us to his point of view as he checks the license plate.
	Set Up K	Eye level, medium close up reaction shot (not from the officer’s point of view). Focal point still at screen centre. Marion cranes her neck in an effort to see what the officer is doing. She’s looking for a reaction.
	Set Up I	Low, reverse angle, mid shot. This is a reaction shot (although there is no reaction). Marion’s obvious concern or curiosity is shared by the viewer. The officer is standing slightly to screen right in preparation for moving in that direction and leading us back to Set Up H (car interior).

https://youtu.be/V9o433ZMOYo

Continually Confusing - Part One

Sources of information on film continuity rarely define the term, moving instead to describe the techniques involved.

Noun: continuity 1.     The unbroken and consistent operation of something over time. Synonyms: continuousness, uninterruptedness, flow, progression -       A state of stability and the absence of disruption -       A connection or line of development with no sharp breaks Plural noun: continuities Synonyms: interrelationship, interrelatedness, intertextuality, interconnectedness, connection, linkage, cohesion, coherence 2.     The maintenance of continuous action and self-consistent detail in the various scenes of a film or broadcast. Definition from www.google.co.uk

Considering Continuity

Why do we need to consider continuity in film making?

If our films were to comprise a single shot from one camera angle, much like a single scene taken from a traditional stage play, continuity would be guaranteed, unavoidable. The audience would experience the entire story from a single, consistent angle with no break in the action. This was the technique used by the earliest film makers believing, as they did, that splicing together different shots would confuse the audience.

switchbackroad.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/heightstour123rnational-tour-company.jpg

It would not take long for the early pioneers to discover that the audience would accept editing and that it could be used to great effect. Shots from differing angles and positions could be juxtaposed to move the story forward while maintaining the attention of the audience. The moments deemed unnecessary to carry a story could even be removed altogether.

How do you make a photo-story? You do it and see how it goes.

Over two weeks and maybe 450 photos, getting sand blasted and hailed on, suffering a nest of ratt-weilers and camera wrangling, I put together a photo-story short.

Fairly early on I decided to produce in black and white. With natural light and a necessarily high ISO value, many of the original photos took on a natural grain that was accentuated in the grey-scale. Adding a high tonal contrast in post-production made for a gritty, moody and almost vintage feel that suited the subject matter and this was carried through to the rest of the footage. I hope this created a consistency throughout the project.

The project is paced slowly, setting the scene, introducing the character and his environment and building the story. Foley sounds have been applied to lead the story and assist in atmosphere.

Many of the transitions are fades (between shots and to black) and these are meant to convey a sense of passing time. Several shots feature subtle zooms to suggest travel, a movement through the scene. Where harder cuts are used, the intention is to provide contrast with the subtly of the general pace of the project.

The scenes are paced to build from a moody, slow beginning towards the finale which is more up-tempo, brighter and, ultimately, to a happy ending.

How do you make a photo-story? Planning before performance

I'm thankful that I can count myself as being a learner in these arts. Being a learner means I can make mistakes like not planning before shooting.

Having said that, I already had a broad idea of my theme and the shots I chose helped me plan...

It was a great help to work through the photos, the ideas, shot by shot and think about the transitions and the sounds I needed to complete the project.

It's not that I stuck to this plan (not completely) but it was a great (re)starting point.

I discovered that I needed more shots (the weather didn't help with this but with perseverence I got some) and which other resources I should be hunting down.

How do you make a photo-story? To begin, you can only try...

Make a photo-story?

How? I don't know how to use a camera. I've a background in art and design, the concepts of composition are familiar (if distant in time) but the technicalities and practicalities of taking actual photographs remain mysterious.

Best way to learn? Borrow a DSLR and a variety of lenses from a good friend and go for it.

This is a selection of shots that went towards the final story.

I set this up as the establishing shot. It's an eye level, long shot of our protagonist's house.

Moving inside we see the dogs. (high angle, long shot). One of them is watching...

...our man playing his guitar (eye level, mid/long shot).

He's finding it difficult (high angle, long shot, wide angle) and...

... he storms out as the dog looks on (eye level, over shoulder, very long shot).

Our protagonist takes a break (new scene, establishing shot, wide angle) before...

... returning to consider his guitar (eye level, suggesting mid shot)...

 ... and getting back to work... (low angle, close up, narrow DoF)

 ... and playing guitar. (Over shoulder, very high angle, narrow DoF)

After abusing the lack of physical film (while embracing the capacity of digital storage) and taking over 300 photographs, I picked my shots. You'll see the results later.

Dealing with the Premiere

I've been enjoying making our photo-story this last couple of weeks. One little problem has been Adobe Premiere's media export. The standard formats produce huge file sizes (even for a two minute film) but other methods appear to mess with the aspect ratio of the media.

Even when the media seems to have been exported successfully, displaying the file other than on PC (e.g. casting to an external display) seems to cause problems.

The Adobe website provides the following tutorial but I'm not sure it solves my problem

Export a sequence clip in Premiere

In any case, I gave birth to a photo-story by fair means or foul.

An Attempt at Area Lights

 Leaving behind any idea of colour theory, I just have some time for a look at the different types of lighting available in Maya.

This first example uses one spot key light and a soft area light as a fill. The geometry is very basic and there is no bump mapping in the material. We can see the hard shadows cast by the key light (spot with wide penumbra) and the slightly more sympathetic shadows from the area light.

This second image was created with two area lights. A bump map has been added, the key and fill lights have been coloured to accentuate a contrast in hue and tone. The geometry of each block is exactly the same.

Besides the simple effect of a reflective floor, I've raised the blocks slightly to allow for a "natural" shadow beneath each.

The entire composition also feels more comfortable.

Is it more important though, that the area lights seem to add a touch of realism (at least beyond the last render) to the image?

Having said that, I noticed that I had no definition between the layers of blocks. I bumped them up a bit to cure that...

A round of colour correction adds some drama...