The Art of Film Editing: A Comprehensive Guide
The Art of Film Editing
Introduction
The montage involves building a mount sequence, creating relationships between different images, and shaping the narrative sequence. The assembly allows for experimenting and creating new ways to construct a narrative sequence from moving images and sounds.
Stages of Installation
- Select the most suitable material for each stream.
- Decide the length, pace, and duration of each plan.
- Organize and paste the shots, combining the images with the soundtrack.
A Little History
In the early days of filmmaking, the camera captured the entire action without cuts or interruptions. Slowly, filmmakers began intercutting fragments of different scenarios. George Méliès used different scenarios to tell his stories. American filmmaker, D.W. Griffith, began using different views of the same situation and various cuts, breaking the linearity and creating discontinuities in the setting, time, and space, with the use of flashbacks.
The mounting possibilities are endless, but throughout history, certain standards, ways to use it in creations, and even formulas for specific situations have been established. Of the many experiments, certain types have survived over time, although sometimes they were not accepted at the time.
In the 1920s, Soviet filmmakers recognized the importance of assembling and explored creative ways of performing it. Lev Kuleshov was one of the filmmakers who contributed to this research, demonstrating how disparate images could be related to create meaning, feelings, and expressions.
Dziga Vertov’s 1919 experimental study used film pieces shot by other directors, selecting and arranging them to give artistic form, much like Cubist painters with their collages.
Sergei Eisenstein experimented with disparate images to create associations, which he called intellectual montage.
The Assembly Structuring of the Narrative
The assembly is the combination of images and sounds, a game between space and time. This allows for the construction of the narrative.
Types of Montage
- Real-Time Assembly: Reconstruction of an action from different plans, without a large temporal space between them. All plans progressively show the same place at the same time.
- Discontinuous Assembly: When real-time is reduced by an ellipsis. The sequence shows an action with images separated in time.
- Parallel Assembly: When several actions alternate. The parts give meaning to each other, are compared, and determine the other.
- Alternating Assembly: Alternate actions that occur simultaneously and often converge at the end of the sequence.
- Flashback: A plan that goes back in time.
- Flashforward: A plan that moves to a future time.
- Race Assembly: A plan overlapping dialogue, music, or sounds of the next plan.
- Rhythmic Assembly: Manipulating the pace, accelerating or slowing an event to create a desired feeling.
- Synthesis Assembly: A compression of time. With few planes, a significant amount of time passes.
- Ideological Assembly: The relationship between the plans is intellectual. It juxtaposes a plan that seemingly has nothing to do with the situation, working metaphorically to expand or suggest an idea.
Ellipses and Temporal Jumps
One of the key elements in building a visual narrative is an ellipsis. These involve removing irrelevant parts of the situation or action. The ellipsis is a resource that presents only significant story fragments, saving time between scenes and sequences. The audience has learned to read these temporary breaks and give continuity to the narrative.
Raccord or Continuity
The interrelationship between plans is based on certain concepts that give the impression of continuity. Continuity is determined by the links between one plan and another. For example, elements should allow us to understand the continuity of an action or movement from one plan to another. Other elements define the relationship between two characters, the lighting conditions of a space, the costumes of characters, and their placement.