Section 1 - Devices
a) TRANSITIONS
The shot is defined by editing but editing also works to join shots together. There are many ways of effecting that transition, some more evident than others. In the analytical tradition, editing serves to establish space and lead the viewer to the most salient aspects of a scene. In the classicalcontinuity style, editing techniques avoid drawing attention to themselves. In a constructivist tradition such as Soviet Montage cinema, there is no such false modesty. Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) celebrates the power of the cinema to create a new reality out of disparate fragments.
CHEAT CUT
Cheat cut. In the continuity editing system, a cut which purports to show continuous time and space from shot to shot but which actually mismatches the position of figures or objects in the scene. In this sequence from Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minelli, 1944) the editing sacrifices actual physical space for dramatic space. As we can see in the first shot, there is a wall behind the telephone.
CROSSCUTTING, aka PARALLEL EDITING
Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously. The two actions are therefore linked, associating the characters from both lines of action.In this extended clip from Edward Yang's Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000), father and daughter go out on dates at presumably the same time, and go through the same motions, even if the father is in Japan and the daughter in Taipei.
This connection is either understood by the audience throughout the sequence, or will be revealed later on in the movie. The first clip is from No Country For Old Mendirected by the Coen Brothers, and the second is from Batman: The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan.
In this first clip, we see parallel editing used primarily to add suspense to the situation. At first, the intervals between showing Lewelyn and Anton are relatively long, but as they shorten later on in the sequence, additional suspense is added. Just as we see in the previous clips from the film, there are many eye-line matches shown for both of the characters. This combination of parallel editing and eye-line matches for each line of action allows the viewer to practically experience both sides of the event first-hand.
The second clip offers a different kind of parallel editing in the use of sound. The basement of criminals contains only diagetic sound, but as the sequence cuts to the police raid, the voice of the man on the TV carries over, becoming non-diagetic sound. This created the effect of the man practically narrating what we see occurring with the police. In this way, parallel editing can be used not only to add suspense but also to narrate a line of action with another line of action.
CUT-IN, CUT AWAY
An instantaneous shift from a distant framing to a closer view of some portion fo the same space, and vice versa. In Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark ( Denmark, 2000) Selma and Bill have a dramatic conversation in Bill's car that is framed by a cut-in and a cut-away. |  |
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The two cuts neatly bracket Bill's anguished confession as a separate moment, private and isolated, that only Selma knows about. This editing-constructed secrecy will ultimately have drastic consequences for Selma.
DISSOLVE
A transition between two shots during which the first image gradually disappears while the second image gradually appears; for a moment the two images blend in superimposition. Dissolves can be used as a fairly straighforward editing device to link any two scenes, or in more creative ways, for instance to suggest hallucinatory states. In this series of shots from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, 1996), a young woman becomes so absorbed by Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus that she actually dives into the painting's sea! (at least in her imagination, in "real life" she faints). |  |
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IRIS
A round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene (iris-out) or emphasize a detail, or it can open to begin a scene (iris-in) or to reveal more space around a detail. For instance, in this scene from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the iris is used with the comic effect of gradually revealing that the female protagonist is 1) ready for her wedding and 2) ready for her not-too-luxurious wedding. |  |
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Iris is a common device of early films (at at time when some techniques like zooming were not feasible), so much so that when it is used after 1930 it is often perceived as charminlgly anachronistic or nostalgic, as in Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player (1960).
JUMP CUT
An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while the figures remain constant. See also elliptical editing, steadicam.. Jump cuts are anathema to Classical Hollywood continuity editing, but feature prominently in avant-garde and radical filmmaking.When the French Nouvelle Vague films of the 1960s made jump cuts an essential part of their playful, modern outlook, many directors from around the globe started to use jump cuts --either creatively or in a last ditch attempt to become "hip".More recently, jump cuts are more commonly associated with music videos, video or alternative filmmaking, like Lars Von Trier's Dogma films. Here is an example from Dancer in the Dark (Denmark, 2000).
Rather than presenting a film as a perfectly self-contained story that seamlessly unfold in front of us, jump cuts are like utterances that evidentiates both the artificiality and the difficulties of telling such a story. An example of this editing style can be found in the following clips from Capote (2005):
ESTABLISHING SHOT/REESTABLISHING SHOT
A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations among the important figures, objects, and setting in a scene. Usually, the first few shots in a scene are establishing shots, as they introduces us to a location and the space relationships inside it.In the initial sequence from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Honk Kong,1986), director Tsui Hark uses three shots to establish the locale. In the first one, three musicians are shown against a fireplace in what looks like a luxurious room. Our suspicions are confirmed by the second establishing shot, which shows us the other half of the ample room (shot/ reverse shot) and reveals a party going on.
After this introduction, the camera moves forward with several close-ups of both the musicians and the spectators. At the end of the sequence, Hark shows us the entire room in a larger shot. This final establishing shot is called a reestablishing shot, for it shows us once again the spatial relationships introduced with the establishing shots.
Quentin Tarantino introduces his film Inglorious Basterds, with an extreme long shot of the countryside, suggestive of rural France. It is followed by a medium shot of the dairy farmer, who will dominate the first scene. One of the man’s daughters is also shown, first in a medium shot and then in medium close-up, hanging clothes. Moreover, the sequence establishes the central conflict, with the arrival of the German motor cars, shown in POV shots from the perspective of the farmer and his daughter.
Oliver Stone opens his film W. in the opposite manner. From an extreme close-up, a combined zoom out and pan reveals George standing in the middle of an empty ballpark.
The final clip, from the conclusion of the Japanese psychological thriller, 2LDK (“2-Bedroom Apartment”), is another example of the establishing shot composed in reverse order. This sequence shows an incremental expansion of the frame (in multiple shots) to include elements beyond the dead bodies and eventually the entire city of Tokyo.
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation. In continuity editing, characters in one framing usually look left, in the other framing, right. Over-the-shoulder framings are common in shot/reverse-shot editing. Shot / reverse shots are one of the most firmly established conventions in cinema, and they are usually linked through the equally persuasive eyeline matches. These conventions have become so strong that they can be exploited to make improbable meanings convincing, as in this sequence from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy,1996). Director Dario Argento has his protagonist Anna looking at Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (c1485)... |  |
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...but with the use of successive shot/ reverse shots, eyeline matches and matching framings, it soons begins to look as if Venus herself is looking at Anna!
In the first clip below, from Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa, we see a standard over the shoulder SRS. This, combined with eye-line matches between the two main negotiators shows how focused each is on the other. The over the shoulder technique allows the viewer to see the facial expressions of each character while listening or speaking. More importantly, the over the shoulder technique creates a sense of space between the characters greater than the actual distance between them. This keeps the frame from being uncomfortably cramped, and also shows the distance between the characters’ different standpoints.
The second clip is from director John Dahl’s Rounders. There is a bit of an experimental aspect to the SRSs in the clip. As opposed to the clip above, the SRS technique is used to distort space in such a way that we observe less than there actually is. In reality there is an 8 or so foot table separating the characters: the SRS lessens this to a point where the scene seems almost intimate. We see the characters alternating left and right sides, which is a standard ploy of continuity editing. Again, eye-line matches are used to show how intensely each character is focusing on the other.
SUPERIMPOSITION
The exposure of more than one image on the same film strip. Unlike a dissolve, a superimposition does not signify a transition from one scene to another. The technique was often used to allow the same performer to appear simultaneously as two characters on the screen (for example Son of the Sheik), to express subjective or intoxicated vision (The Last Laugh), or simply to introduce a narrative element from another part of the diegetic world into the scene. In this clip from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the resentful father of the bride looks at the wedding ring and immediately associates in his mind with a five and dime store. The subjective shot gives us a clear indication of his opinion of his soon to be son-in-law. |  |
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Japanese cinema sometimes uses traditional “kanji” calligraphy superimposed over standard film in several ways; the first of these being to illustrate a famous quotation or religious koan (a phrase chanted to bring about enlightenment), such as this example in which Tarantino says the Japanese proverb, “life is all about goodbyes” (サヨナラだけが人生だ) with the same words superimposed over the screen.
WIPE
A transition betwen shots in which a line passes across the screen, eliminating the first shot as it goes and replacing it with the next one. A very dynamic and noticeable transition, it is usually employed in action or adventure films. It often suggest a brief temporal ellypsis and a direct connection between the two images. In this example from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Sichinin No Samurai, Japan, 1954), the old man's words are immediately corroborated by the wandering, destitute samurai coming into town.As other transitions devices, like the whip pan, wipes became fashionable at an specific historical time (the 1950s and 1960s), so much so as to became stylistic markers of the film of the period.
b) MATCHES
Editing matches refer to those techniques that join as well as divide two shots by making some form of connection between them. That connection can be inferred from the situation portrayed in the scene (for example, eyeline match) or can be of a purely optical nature (graphic match).EYELINE MATCH
A cut obeying the axis of action principle, in which the first shot shows a person off in one direction and the second shows a nearby space containing what he or she sees. If the person looks left, the following shot should imply that the looker is offscreen right. The following shots from Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996), depict Anna looking at a painting, Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus.The scene takes place inside Firenze's most famous museum, the Uffizi Gallery. | |
As her interest grows, the eyeline match (that is the connection between looker and looked) is stressed with matching close-ups of Anna's face and Icarus's falling into the ocean in the painting.Again, this implies that Anna is looking directly at Icarus's body.
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Ironically, even if Argento managed to film inside the real Uffizi gallery, the painting he wanted to use, The Fall of Icarus, is not part of the museum's collection! The painting that we see is probably a reproduction, shot in the studio, and edited together with Anna's shots in the Uffizi to make us believe that they are both in the same room. As this example demonstrates, eyeline matches can be a very persuasive tool to construct space in a film, real or imagined.
In the first clip, five eye-line matches are shown in a sequence that’s only a minute long. The first of these contains movement from left to right, mocking Llewelyn’s motion as he walks up to the dead body. We then see relatively still eye-line matches as Llewelyn looks at man’s face, and then at the gun as he picks it up. The next eye-line match is shown as Llewelyn opens the briefcase of money, which contains a slight zoom. This zoom is not necessarily used to mimic Llewelyn’s eye movement, but rather his thought and emotion, as the sight of all the money understandably “brings him in.” The Coen brothers decided to use so many eye-line matches in this sequence and in the rest of Llewelyn’s journey so that the audience would come closer to experiencing what he was experiencing.
In the second clip, portraying Anton’s unfortunate car ride, we see multiple eye-line matches once again. The first and last eye-line match simply follow Anton’s eyes as he looks at the road while driving. We also see another eye-line match of Anton checking his rear-view mirror; in this match you can gain an appreciation for how perfect the angle is, mimicking exactly what the character sees. With these eye-line matches, we feel almost as if we are driving the car, which makes the crash all the more disturbing. As illustrated in these two sequences, and throughout the rest of the movie, the Coen brothers wanted us to gain perspective on both Llewelyn and Anton. Through this, we gain a better understanding of the relationship between the hunter and the hunted, one of the film’s major themes.
GRAPHIC MATCH
Two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements (e.g., color, shape). Used in trasparent continuity styles to smooth the transition between two shots, as in this clip from Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Almodóvar, 1988).
The first clip below, from Hitchcock’s Psycho, takes place just after a woman is brutally stabbed to death while in the shower. As her blood washes away down the drain with the water, the camera slowly zooms in on just the drain itself. A graphic match cut is then utilized, as the center of the drain becomes the iris of the victim’s lifeless left eye.
The next clip, from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, is generally considered to be one of the most famous match cuts in all of film. As a primitive primate discovers the destructive powers of his newfound technology, the femur of a deceased animal, he tosses it high up into the air. Thousands of years pass in a single moment as a close-up of the bone cuts to a long shot of a satellite orbiting the earth, thus showing the vast technological advancements made over the past millennia.
MATCH ON ACTION
A cut which splices two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it seem to continue uninterrupted. Quite logically, these characteristics make it one of the most common transitions in the continuity style. Here is an example fromTraffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) |  |
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A match on action adds variety and dinamism to a scene, since it conveys two movements: the one that actually takes place on screen, and an implied one by the viewer, since her/his position is shifted.
In the first scene above, Peter Jackson uses matches on action to give the chase a sense of dynamism. The viewer can never assume what is going to happen next, as the scene is constantly shifting. He uses a very complex version of match on action, jumping from close ups to far away helicopter shots and back without a pause. It is almost dizzying, yet thrilling at the same time. Be sure to keep your eye on the white horse; this is the character we are following and although hard to see at times it is present in every part of the clip.The second scene is from Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky IV. Here we see a different, simpler style of matches on action. The camera stays at relatively the same level, with few zooms in or out. The matches on action are used to keep the fight realistic looking, as well as to keep a certain character in focus/the center of the screen.
The final sequence gives us a Point-of-View shot from the angle of the “ Genji” warrior (shown in white) to the “Heike” gunman in red as he is shot to the ground. In this sequence, we also have an example of continuity as the Heike man first falls to the ground and we cut to him closer up on the ground in the same position. This Heike warrior is first shown standing up; though he is very small, you can see him in the distance. After the Genji warrior takes aim and fires at him, you notice him drop in the background towards where the Genji warrior has his gun aimed; the match on action comes as the camera cuts to him falling down.
c) DURATION
Only since the introduction of editing to the cinema at the turn of the 20th century has not-editing become an option. The decision to extend a shot can be as significant as the decision to cut it. Editing can affect the experience of time in the cinema by creating a gap between screen time and diegetic time (Montage and overlapping editing) or by establishing a fast or slow rhythm for the scene.LONG TAKE, aka PLAN-SEQUENCE
A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the next shot. The average lenght per shot differs greatly for different times and places, but most contemporary films tend to have faster editing rates. In general lines, any shot above one minute can be considered a long take. Here is an excerpt from the initial shot of Robert Altman's The Player (1992) which not only runs for more than eight minutes, but it is in itself an hommage to another famous long take, the first shot of Welles's Touch of Evil (1958).Unless shot at a fixed angle, with a fixed camera and no movement, long takes are extremely hard to shoot. They have to be choreographed and rehearsed to the last detail, since any error would make it necessary to start all over again from scratch. Sophisticated long takes such as this one from The Player, which includes all kinds of camera movements and zooms, are often seen as auteuristic marks of virtuosity. Aside from the challenge of shooting in real time, long takes decisively influence a film's rhythm. Depending on how much movement is included, a long take can make a film tense, stagnant and spell-binding, or daring, flowing and carefree.Indeed, directors like Altman, Welles, Renoir, Angelopoulos, Tarkovski or Mizoguchi have made long takes (usually in combination with deep focus and deep space) an essential part of their film styles.
The opening scene from Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump follows a feather blowing carefree in the wind, eventually landing on the foot of the protagonist who proceeds to pick it up and place it in his suitcase. This scene acts as a metaphor for the whole movie, as the feather represents Forrest. Just as the feather blows around for what seems like forever, just going where the wind takes it until it eventually lands in a safe place, Forrest seems to just blow aimlessly through life, going wherever life and fate may take him with out too much consideration of his own, until he eventually lands in a happy place.
The next long take is from Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption. A white bus is seen driving up the street towards a long building. As the bus turns to drive around the building the camera goes straight over the top of the building to reveal the vast expanses of Shawshank Prison. Hundreds of prisoners in the yard are all seen walking in the same direction, seemingly toward the same place. As the camera makes it to the end of the prison yard the bus returns to the frame, meeting a group of guards at the same spot all of the prisoners had been heading towards.
This long take sequence, from Scorsese’s Mean Streets, shows Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in a state of barely coherent drunkenness. The sequence was accomplished by attaching a Steadicam to the actor’s body in such a way as to continually frame his face in close-up in spite of his uncertain movements. The position of the camera serves to capture the disorientation and estrangement of the character as he stumbles around the crowded bar. The red color of the image, together with the absurd musical accompaniment, helps to render the atmosphere of a seedy night club.
The opening scene from Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump follows a feather blowing carefree in the wind, eventually landing on the foot of the protagonist who proceeds to pick it up and place it in his suitcase. This scene acts as a metaphor for the whole movie, as the feather represents Forrest. Just as the feather blows around for what seems like forever, just going where the wind takes it until it eventually lands in a safe place, Forrest seems to just blow aimlessly through life, going wherever life and fate may take him with out too much consideration of his own, until he eventually lands in a happy place.
The next long take is from Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption. A white bus is seen driving up the street towards a long building. As the bus turns to drive around the building the camera goes straight over the top of the building to reveal the vast expanses of Shawshank Prison. Hundreds of prisoners in the yard are all seen walking in the same direction, seemingly toward the same place. As the camera makes it to the end of the prison yard the bus returns to the frame, meeting a group of guards at the same spot all of the prisoners had been heading towards.
This long take sequence, from Scorsese’s Mean Streets, shows Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in a state of barely coherent drunkenness. The sequence was accomplished by attaching a Steadicam to the actor’s body in such a way as to continually frame his face in close-up in spite of his uncertain movements. The position of the camera serves to capture the disorientation and estrangement of the character as he stumbles around the crowded bar. The red color of the image, together with the absurd musical accompaniment, helps to render the atmosphere of a seedy night club.
OVERLAPPING EDITING
Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, thus expanding its viewing time and plot duration. Most commonly associated with experimental filmmmaking, due to its temporally disconcerting and purely graphic nature, it is also featured in films in which action and movement take precedence over plot and dialogue: sports documentaries, musicals, martial arts, etc. Overlapping editing is a common characteristic of the frenzied Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s. When director John Woo moved to Hollywood, he tried to incorporate some of that style into mainstream action films, such as Mission: Impossible 2 (2000). RHYTHM
The perceived rate and regularity of sounds, series of shots, and movements within the shots. Rhythmic factors include beat (or pulse), accent (or stress), and tempo (or pace). Rhythm is one of the essential features of a film, for it decisively contributes to its mood and overall impression on the spectator. It is also one of the most complex to analyze, since it is achieved through the combination of mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing. Indeed, rhythm can be understood as the final balance all of the elements of a film.Let us compare how rhythm can radically alter the treatment of a similar scene. These two clips from Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997) and Cries and Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden1972) feature a couple at a table, and both clips feature a moment of fracture between the two characters. Still, they could not be more dissimilar. Allen employs fast cuts (even jump cuts), pans, quick dialogue and gesturing, as he concentrates exclusively on the two characters, shot from a variety of angles but always in medium close-up and close-up.
Even if both characters overtly disagree with each other, there is an overall feeling of warmth and inmediacy between them, suggested by their proximity (established in short pans and close-ups) and in the tone of their speech. The quick camera movements and different camera placements suggest the uneasiness of both characters, as they budge on their seats.
Cries and Whispers, on the other hand, present us with a scene of horrifying stillness. Bergman accentuates the separation between man and woman by shooting them frontally and almost eliminating dialogue. In this context, even the smallest sounds of forks and knives sound ominous; a glass shattering resonates like a shot.
It can be narrative, as in the clip from Woody Allen’s Bananas below, or, a music video type collage, as in the second clip from Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. In either case, dialogue is suppressed and the musical relationship between shots takes center stage.
In Allen’s Bananas, the use of a vaudeville-esque tune recalls Charlie Chaplin and early cinematic comedy. Like Chaplin’s characters, Fielding Melish’s actions and adventures continually result in humorous misadventure. In the sequence below, he heroically expels two thugs from a subway car. The length of the shots is determined by the quick tempo of the piano recording: as the villains’ abuse of innocent passengers reaches a climax, the shots become shorter and shorter. The quick editing builds suspense before the hero unpredictably rises and throws them off the train.
In the next sequence, from Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, the only logic connecting the shots is that provided by Bow Wow Wow’s song, “I want candy”, and a few graphic matches. The sequence is a hallmark of Coppola’s style – interweaving period decadence and frivolity with a contemporary youthful exuberance – which is also distinctively feminine.
Lastly, rhythm is, almost by definition, intrisically related to music and sound. Some of the most striking examples of the use of music as a film's driving force occur in the (endlessly imitated) spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, which were written in close collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone. In fact, sometimes the music would be composed first and then a scene that fitted that rhythm would be shot, thus reversing the customary order.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXldafIl5DQ
Section 2 - Styles
The patterned use of transitions, matches and duration can be identified as a cinematic style. Editing styles are usually associated with historical moments, technological developments, or national schools.
CONTINUITY EDITING
A system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action. Continuity editing relies upon matching screen direction, position, and temporal relations from shot to shot. The film supports the viewer's assumption that space and time are contiguous between successive shots. Also, the diegesis is more readily understood when directions on the screen match directions in the world of the film. The "180° rule," shown in the diagram below, dictates that the camera should stay in one of the areas on either side of the axis of action (an imaginary line drawn between the two major dramatic elements A and B in a scene, usually two characters).
By following this rule the filmmaker ensures that each character occupies a consistent area of the frame, helping the audience to understand the layout of the scene. This sense of a consistent space is reinforced by the use of techniques such as the eyeline match or match on action. In this sequence from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), continuity is maintained by the spatial and temporal contiguity of the shots and the preservation of direction between world and screen. More importantly, the shots are matched on Keaton's actions as he shuttles across the courtyard from stairwell to stairwell.
In the Hollywood continuity editing system the angle of the camera axis to the axis of action usually changes by more than 30 ° between two shots, for example in a conversation scene rendered as a series of shot/reverse shots. The 180° line is not usually crossed unless the transition is smoothed by a POV shot or a reestablishing shot.
MONTAGE
1. A synonym for editing. 2. An approach to editing developed by the Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s such as Pudovkin, Vertov and Eisenstein; it emphasizes dynamic, often discontinuous, relationships between shots and the juxtaposition of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself. Sergei Eisenstein, in particular, developed a complex theory of montage that included montage within the shot, between sound and image, multiple levels of overtones, as well as in the conflict between two shots. This sequence from October (Oktyabr, USSR, 1927) is an example of Eisenstein's intellectual montage. The increasingly primitive icons from various world religions are linked by patterns of duration, screen direction and shot scale to produce the concept of religion as a degenerate practice used to legitimate corrupt states.
Soviet Montage proved to be influential around the world for commercial as well as avant-garde filmmakers. We can see echoes of Pudovkin inThe Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, USA, 1939), Mother India (Mehboob Khan, India, 1957), and The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1973). In a famous sequence from the latter film, shots of Michael attending his son's baptism are intercut with the brutal killings of his rivals. Rather than stressing the temporal simultaneity of the events (it is highly unlikely that all of the New York Mafia heads can be caught off guard at exactly the same time!), the montage suggests Michael's dual nature and committement to both his "families", as well as his ability to gain acceptance into both on their own terms -- through religion and violence.
The following clip is taken from Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. This unique combination of shots shows a marble lion reacting to the sailors’ rebellion in the harbor. In the context of the story, the ship opens fire on Cossack reinforcements sent to quell its revolt. Eisenstein integrates lions sculpted in various postures to suggest that all of Moscow is awakening to the people’s cause. The sequence requires the viewer to interpret, to “read” the metaphor inherent in the statues and to derive a meaning from their presence in the diegesis.
Montage also describes the approach used in commercial cinema to piece together fragments of different yet related images, sounds/music, often in the style of a music video. The following sequence, from Pretty Woman (1991), is an example of the hollywood style montage. The film, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, shows the main character Vivienne as she transitions from a scantily-clad, unrefined hooker, into Edward’s elegant, poised and well-dressed companion. The soundtrack plays over the background as snippets of various clothing and body parts are shown. In the concluding frame of sequence, the final product, the “new Vivienne”, approaches the camera in a white, tailored outfit and a ladylike hat.
ELLIPTICAL EDITING
Shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipses in plot and story duration. In this clip from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), a drug party is rendered through elliptical editing (achieved with a plentiful use of dissolves and jump cuts) in order to both shorten the time and suggest the character's rambling mental states.
Elliptical editing need not be confined to a same place and time. A seven-minute song sequence from Hum Aapke Hain Koun (Sooraj Bartjatya, India 1994) dances us through several months in the life of a family, from a cricket match to a ritual welcoming a new wife.
from scenes of the newlyweds' daily life... to the announcement of Pooja's pregnacy,
from a gift shower for the upcoming baby... to multiple scenes of celebrations, as Pooja's approaches her ninth month.
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