Editing Styles
Another important aspect of film is the editing style or styles utilized within the film. This can incorporate so many things such as camera movements and angles, whether the story is told in a linear manner which is a plot device, and transitions. Depending on the style or genre of film many of these things can be manipulated in many different ways.
Narratives
Narratives
Narratives
Traditional narrative films tend to follow a series of widely accepted rules in regards to how they are edited. These are known as conventions, which according to Ed Sikov who wrote Film Studies: An Introduction can be defined as “an artistic practice or process or device that is commonly accepted and understood within a given culture” (145). Conventional is a term that is generally looked down upon in regular culture but within the world of film it is looked upon in an accepted manner because conventions generally link films into a common genre. Narrative films probably have the most accepted conventions because a majority of films created are narratives.
This is the Step 9 trailer by Ugly Duck Films. All of the following images are stills taken from the clip.
To analyze the editing styles of narrative films the Step 9 trailer will be used as an example as both the Film and Cinema students work in narrative. In the very beginning of the trailer it fades into the picture of the duck with Ugly Duck Films written over top of it; fading in is when the screen goes from solid black to the filmed image or in this case the image of the duck.
It is a technique utilized so that the viewer has a smooth transition into the scene visually. The trailer contains a lot of quick cutting from scene to scene which may normally be abrasive to the viewers but there are certain techniques being used so that the viewer’s eye can keep up with the quick cuts. It takes advantage of eye-line matching and graphic matching. Eye line matching occurs when “one set of eyes looks in a certain direction” (Sikov 65) meaning that when eyes are pointed one way it is easy to cut to a scene where an object or person is placed in the general direction that the eyes are pointed. In the beginning the man is looking down and then the trailer cuts to a scene of his hands playing with a coin.
The transition between the two scenes if fluid due to the eyes having been pointed in the direction of the coin; visually it makes sense to the viewer for the next thing seen to be something that would be below where his eyes were looking. Graphic matches are “made by cutting from one shape in the first shot to a similar shape” (Sikov 65) which can be explained for instance when it cuts from the woman to the man speaking at the podium; it is a graphic match because it cut from body to body.
It is simple things like these that allow for smooth transitions between scenes which is common for narrative films. If they were abrupt changes that did not follow narrative editing conventions then the film would verge on being an experimental narrative. Cinema students have to abide by these conventions or else there is a chance their movie may fail. The Film students can push these boundaries as they are not confined to narratives only.
It can be argued that entertainment films can also be art films because of the careful consideration that goes into aspects of the film such as cinematography. Cinematography contains camera movements and angles, which have the capability to be very beautiful and artistic. Award shows give out very sought after awards for films that have exceptional cinematography because of how awing it can be. Despite how artistic the cinematography can be in a film, that does not make the film itself an art film. It is one aspect of a whole, but it is not significant enough to determine the platform the piece is viewed in. Cinematography is just one part of the Process of creating a film, but it does not hold as much sway over the pieces as something such as the genre does which is why despite having been artistically shot, a film could still be singularly an entertainment one and not blurring the lines between art and entertainment.
Experimental filmmaking does away with all accepted conventions of all styles of filmmaking. Sikov states that experimental films “may be composed of nothing but shapes or colors or shots of people and things that are not assembled in the form of a tale” (90). They are meant to be cutting edge and push boundaries which is why they are revered in the art world but not accepted in the entertainment one.
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
This is an excerpt from The Re'Search by Ryan Trecartin. The following images are stills taken from the clip.
Ryan Trecartin’s excerpt from the Re’Search is a prime example of experimental filmmaking because of his unique editing style. According to Dennis Cooper in Artforum, an established art magazine, Trecartin’s work is “grounded in his expert editing and inordinate gift for constructing complex avant-garde narratives” (qtd. in “UBUWEB”). He is drawing inspiration from narrative conventions but he is morphing them into something that borders on being unrecognizable.
For instance, when Trecartin cuts between the girl on the phone to the boy with the hammer, he is using a narrative editing technique called crosscutting, which is defined in Film Studies: An Introduction as “editing that alternates two or more lines of action occurring in different places or time, thereby connecting them” (96). He is linking these two scenes that seemingly have nothing to do with one another but because he has crosscut between them they are inexplicably linked leaving it up the viewer to make a connection between the two. While Trecartin implements this narrative convention, he couples it with extremely quick cuts within each scene as well as abnormal camera movements designed to disorient the viewer. His goal is to create a world on screen that is psychologically immersive and abstract while telling this story.
The difference between Trecartin’s work and Step 9 film trailer is the way they implement the conventions used and how they edit the piece together. Step 9 is conveying itself as what it is, a narrative; excerpt from The Re’Search is not attempting to be an average narrative.