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CHAPTER 5
EDITING: RELATING IMAGES
KEY OBJECTIVES
• Understand the artistic and technological evolution of editing.
• Examine the ways editing constructs different spatial and temporal relationships among images.
• Detail the dominant style of continuity editing.
• Identify the ways in which graphic or rhythmic patterns are created by editing.
• Discuss the ways editing organizes images as meaningful scenes and sequences.
• Summarize how editing strategies engage filmic traditions of continuity or disjuncture.
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Chapter 5 is the third of four chapters that identify the formal and technical powers associated with the different
elements of film form: mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. It begins with a short historical,
industrial, and cultural overview from the period of early cinema and classical editing styles, to a closer look at the
development of other editing techniques, including Soviet montage, continuity editing, and digital editing. It then
TEACHING THE OPENING VIGNETTE
The opening vignette for this chapter includes a description of an exciting scene from The Bourne Supremacy
(2004) in which Jason Bourne attempts to guide his contact, via cell phone, away from assassins in Waterloo
Station. It might be useful to point out that it is the combination of editing and the desperate telephonic exchanges
that makes what would otherwise be a standard crowd scene an especially exciting sequence. Indeed, film scholar
Ned Schantz has observed that the cinema and the telephone have a peculiar kinship (see his interesting essay
“Telephonic Film” in Film Quaterly, Vol. 56, no. 4, Summer 2003, pp. 23–35). Not only are their origins in the
TEACHING THE CHAPTER
Editing describes the art of connecting two different shots or film images. This fundamental practice has
produced a vast array of strategies associated with different historical, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives. Unlike
the other topics covered in Part 2, editing is a practice without a physiological correlative. The rapid-fire succession
of images we see out the window of a moving vehicle comes the closest to the practice of editing in our waking
lives. In sleep, however, dreams may be characterized by leaps in time and space that resemble the editor’s craft,
transforming the known world into something new and strange.
The challenge in teaching this chapter, even if you are not taking a historical or chronological approach to film,
is to make students conscious of how editing, the most distinguishing technical and formal element of film practice,
can construct images, locations, patterns, and rhythms that are impossible to achieve in real life. It can be useful to
look at examples from early single-shot cinema like The Kiss or the innovative crosscutting in The Birth of a Nation
(1915) when discussing the evolution of editing. Contrasting such films with examples of Hollywood continuity
editing, Soviet montage, and MTV-style jump cuts allows students to see how editing overcomes the physical
limitations of human perception to create a world, not just from other angles, but also more quickly and with greater
complexity than normal human vision allows.
From a Historical Perspective
1919–1929: Soviet Montage: Assign a short supplemental excerpt from Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov
(University of California Press, 1985), such as “The Council of Three” from the section Kinoks: A Revolution (1922)
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where Vertov describes building a room from twelve different walls by editing footage shot in various parts of the
world.
1990s–Present: Editing in the Digital Age: Ask students to make their own Vertov “rooms” on Vine or Instagram.
From a Formal Perspective
The Cut and Other Transitions: Distinguish between a fade-in and a dissolve by likening the former to a student
going from class to class during a single day and the latter to a student leaving a class that meets once each week and
then leapfrogging ahead to the next class. Alternatively, show the original theatrical trailer for Casablanca (1942) in
class. Ask students to count how many optical effects—dissolves, wipes, irises—are used.
180-Degree Rule: In addition to screening the sequence from The Big Sleep (1946) discussed in the text, consider
showing a useful (and fun) scene from the animated movie Paprika (2006). As the detective sits with Paprika in an
empty movie theater, he explains the 180-degree rule to her by tracing visible dotted lines in the space between
them. The “camera” then shifts to a position behind their heads to illustrate the spatial discontinuity the rule is
designed to prevent.
Teaching Technical Vocabulary and Key Concepts
An approach to evaluating comprehension could be to conduct cinematic “dictees” during class: students watch
a film clip, then alone or in groups describe it using as many terms from the chapter as they can. Ask them to present
their “translations” to the rest of the class.
Students frequently struggle with the distinction between montage and Soviet montage. To illustrate the former
as they are likely to construe it, show them the “montage” musical number in Team America: World Police (2004).
Exposing the class to the polemical and poetic prose style of Dziga Vertov can help students understand why Soviet
TEACHING HISTORY CLOSE UP, p. 172
In addition to working with her husband Dziga Vertov on The Man With the Movie Camera, Svilova was editor
of several of Vertov’s Kino-Pravda shorts and assistant director on Enthusiasm (1931) and Three Songs of Lenin
(1934). She went on to direct her own films, including the short docuemntary Nuremberg Trials (1947). Consider
pointing out that many celebrated male filmmakers have collaborated with talented women. Every single film by
Cecil B. DeMille was edited by the great Anne Bauchens—the first female to win an Academy Award for Best
Editing (in 1941, for her work on DeMille’s North West Mounted Police). Martin Scorsese has worked regularly
with the three-time Academy Award winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker (Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The
Departed). An editing teacher at the University of Southern California, Verna Fields edited such classic films as
Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973) and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (for which she won the Academy Award for Best
TEACHING THE VIEWING CUES
The Cut and Other Transitions, p. 177
Count the shots in the scene from Chinatown (1974), available online. What is the motivation behind each cut?
What overall pattern do these cuts create? What effect do they have on the scene?
Note the beautiful rhyming compositions in the shot/reverse shots here. In each there are two people arranged
foreground (important) and background (not) along a diagonal that underscores the slanting shadows cast by the
venetian blinds. Jake and the first Mrs. Mulray occupy the same space in their respective frames, but Jake is dressed
in the off-white of ignorance (not innocence), and his offscreen glances at the black-clad woman opposite him are
not returned.
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This Viewing Cue makes an excellent basis for a short writing assignment. In class, consider screening a short
silent film to model the shot-by-shot breakdown. The absence of spoken dialogue can make it easier for students to
concentrate on the cuts. Ask the class to clap each time there’s a cut to a new shot.
The Cut and Other Transitions, p. 180
Look for examples of transitional devices besides cuts. What spatial, temporal, or conceptual relationship is being
set up between scenes joined by a fade, a dissolve, an iris, or a wipe?
While students will be able to come up with examples of transitional devices (such as the wipes used by George
Continuity Style, p. 180
Estimate the number of shots in a scene from Tangerine (2015), then watch the scene, clapping with each cut. Were
more shots used than you had imagined?
As an interesting exercise, have students watch Edwin Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903), discussed
on p. 169, and the train robbery sequence from Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969). Clapping along to the
former will make for a very quiet room. But ask students to clap along to the latter, while paying special attention to
how many of the edits—while crucial—might otherwise go unnoticed. Then tell students that Porter’s film, in its
entirely, lasts 12 minutes and is composed of just 14 shots, while the sequence alone from Peckinpah’s film lasts 8
minutes but has 190 shots—a telling illustration of how advanced the Classical Hollywood style of editing has
advanced. Today, an average film has around 1,000–1,200 shots. The Wild Bunch, which in many ways set the
standard for the editing style of today’s action films, has more than 3,400.
Shot/Reverse Shot, p. 184
Does the film you watched most recently in class follow continuity patterns, such as the 180-degree rule? Locate an
example, and identify other ways that spatial continuity is maintained.
Rhythm, p. 195
Time the shots of the sequence from The General (1927) available online. How does the rhythm of the editing in the
sequence contribute to the film’s mood or meaning?
Like Buster Keaton, Fred Astaire was a gifted physical performer and insisted on long shots and long takes
that documented his prowess. To make the concept of rhythm easier to grasp, screen the “Never Gonna Dance”
sequence from Swing Time (1934) in class. Talk about the length and framing of each of the shots of Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers dancing and where the cuts come. In this scene, no lyrics are necessary to understand the
movement from melancholy to elation: these two are meant to be together, come what may. Just look at them dance!
Two fun facts to share with students (from Arlene Croce’s terrific The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book): the
dancers did so many takes that Ginger Rogers’ shoes filled up with blood. And, one take of the final shot went
perfectly—until Astaire’s toupee flew off during his final spin!
Scenes and Sequences, p. 196
What is the temporal organization of the film you’ve just viewed for class? Does the film follow a strict chronology?
How does the editing abridge or expand time?
Umberto Eco’s short essay “How to Recognize a Pornographic Movie” (collected in How to Travel with a
Salmon and Other Essays, Harcourt, 1995) provides a humorous illustration of how editing expands or abridges
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Montage, p. 207
Does the editing of the film you’ve just viewed for class call attention to itself in a disjunctive fashion, setting up
conflicts or posing oppositional values? If so, how and to what end?
To inspire lively discussion, show the sequence from early in Breathless (1960) in which Michel gives Patricia
a ride in his car. Ask students about what effects the jump cuts and the refusal of shot/reverse-shot patterns during
their conversation have on the viewer. What connections can they make to the disjunctive editing practices in the
film shown for class?
TEACHING THE FORM IN ACTION
Editing and Rhythm in Moulin Rouge! (2001), p. 197
Fred Astaire insisted when he began making films that his entire body be in the shot when he danced. Most of
his musical numbers unfolded across a limited number of long takes. The idea was to display his skill and make it
clear to viewers that there was no trickery involved. Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001) turns that convention
TEACHING THE FILMS IN FOCUS
Patterns of Editing in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), pp. 200–201
Consider assigning students the December 8, 1969, Time magazine cover story about this movie or Pauline
Kael’s October 21, 1967, New Yorker review.
Discussion Question 1: How does each piece advance an argument about Bonnie and Clyde’s place in the film
culture of the day?
Discussion Question 2: Select a scene that is edited to convey spatial and temporal continuity. How does it contrast
to the patterns the editor uses to suggest the psychological space that Bonnie and Clyde inhabit?
Additional Suggestions: The final scene of Bonnie and Clyde is justly famous for its slow-motion ballet of bullets,
blood, and bodies. The Harder They Come (1972), released only five years later, tells the story of another folk hero
outlaw, Ivanhoe Martin. The Jamaican film inverts the editing patterns of its American predecessor. Crosscutting
between the present and Ivan’s memories of watching a western earlier in the film gives way to a series of jerky,
sped-up shots as the protagonist crumples under a barrage of bullets that shocks by its very brevity.
ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS
Alternative Activity
Look again at the climactic sequence from a movie that has been screened in class. Break it down shot by shot,
and have students identify where the removal of a single shot could change our understanding of the film as a whole.
It could be an eyeline match, a reaction shot, even an establishing shot. What would happen if another shot was
added or a shot was held for a longer or shorter time?
FILMS CITED
An American in Paris (1951)
Ballet mécanique (1924)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Birds (1963)
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Broken Blossoms (1919)
The Cheat (1912)
Children of Men (2006)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Clueless (1995)
Crooklyn (1994)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Early Summer (1951)
Easy Rider (1969)
The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927)
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Fight Club (1999)
Flashdance (1983)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Inception (2010)
Jeanne Dielman, 83 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Kinoks: A Revolution (1922)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
L’Avventura (1960)
Life of an American Fireman (1903)
The Limey (1999)
Living Playing Cards (1903)
The Lonely Villa (1909)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Meeting of Two Queens (1991)
Memento (2000)
Psycho (1960)
Rear Window (1954)
Russian Ark (2002)
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Saboteur (1942)
San Francisco (1936)
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
The School of Rock (2003)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Stagecoach (1939)
Strike (1924)
Swing Time (1934)
Top Gun (1986)