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.