The Technique of Film Editing

345 Pages·2010·10.95 MB·English

by  Karel Reisz

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Printed in the United States of America
Contents

Publisher ’s Note ix
Introduction xi
Acknowledgements xv
Foreword xix
PART I
SECTION 1 THE HISTORY OF EDITING 1
Chapter 1 Editing and the Silent Film 3
T he Beginnings of Film Continuity 4
Griffi th: Dramatic Emphasis 7
Pudovkin: Constructive Editing 1 2
Eisenstein: Intellectual Montage 1 7
Chapter 2 Editing and the Sound Film 2 5
General 25
W ho Edits a Film? 28
The Order of Shots 28
Selection of Camera Set-ups: Emphasis 2 9
Timing 29
Presentation: Smoothness 3 0
T he Contribution of Editing 3 8
Special Styles of Editing 41
S ECTION 2 THE PRACTISE OF EDITING 47
Chapter 3 Action Sequences 4 9
Chapter 4 Dialogue Sequences 6 5
Chapter 5 Comedy Sequences 7 9
Chapter 6 Montage Sequences 8 7
Chapter 7 Documentary Reportage 97
Chapter 8 Imaginative Documentary 1 07
Chapter 9 The Documentary Film of Ideas 1 27
Chapter 10 The Documentary and the Use of Sound 135
Chapter 11 Educational Films 141
C hapter 12 Newsreels 153
vv
Contents
Chapter 13 The Compilation Film 163
SECTION 3 PRINCIPLES OF EDITING 1 77
Chapter 14 Editing the Picture 1 79
General 179
Constructing a Lucid Continuity: Smoothness 1 81
Matching Consecutive Actions 1 81
Extent of Change in Image Size and Angle 1 83
Preserving a Sense of Direction 1 86
Preserving a Clear Continuity 1 88
Matching Tone 189
Making Sound Flow Over a Cut 1 89
T iming 193
Pace: Rhythm 201
Selection of Shots 206
Chapter 15 Sound Editing 2 15
General 215
A nalysis of a Sound-Track 2 18
Sound and the Editing of the Picture 2 26
PART II
SECTION 4 THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES 2 29
Introduction 231
Chapter 16 Widescreen 2 35
General 235
River of No Return 237
A ndr é Bazin 238
W idescreen Examples 239
Chapter 17 Cin ém a-V é rit é and the Documentary Film of Ideas 2 49
Cin é ma-Vé rit é 249
Chronique d’un Et é 251
Le Joli Mai 253
H ô tel des Invalides 266
Chapter 18 Nouvelle Vague 2 71
Cam é ra-Stylo 271
New Wave 272
vi
Contents
Chapter 19 Personal Cinema in the Sixties 2 77
Fran ç ois Truffaut 277
Jean-Luc Godard 290
A lain Resnais 30 1
Michelangelo Antonioni 3 09
C ONCLUSION 323
APPENDIX 325
BIBLIOGRAPHY 327
CUTTING ROOM PROCEDURE 329
Synchronisation of Rushes 3 29
Editing the Film 330
Opticals 330
Sound Editing 330
G LOSSARY OF TERMS 3 33
INDEX 341

vii
Publisher’s Note to the Enlarged Edition
The Technique of Film Editing by Karel Reisz was fi rst published in 1953.
It not only had a strong immediate impact, but has remained the standard introduction to its subject ever
since and wherever young fi lm-makers are trained.
The original English version of the book has been reprinted thirteen times without a word being changed.
So it still refl ects the outlook of a time when the craft of fi lm-making seemed to have arrived at conventions
and methods of lasting validity.
Close on fi fteen years later, many of them have changed considerably. Confronted with the need to take note
of these changes, the author decided to update his work by adding a fourth section to it.
This new section was contributed by Gavin Millar, in consultation with Karel Reisz. It surveys and records the
contemporary approach to fi lm editing by new “ schools ” of fi lm-makers all over the world.
Karel Reisz’s original text is reprinted as it was. Any attempt to revise or re-interpret it could only blur its
spirit. It would also handicap the reader in forming his own views about the ever-growing momentum of
sophistication that went into cinematic expression and perception during the last decade and a half.
Professor Thorold Dickinson, then of London University, who twenty-fi ve years ago chaired the guiding com-
mittee of the B ritish Film Academy assisting the author in writing this book and who himself wrote the
Introduction to its fi rst edition, has now contributed a new Introduction (page 231) followed by a series of
notes on passages in the original text which, in his opinion, are no longer valid.
A . Kraszna-Krausz
iixx
Introduction
Great Britain has no educational centre where would-be craftsmen can study the technique of the fi lm.
Neither is it within the scope or the resources of the British Film Academy to fulfi l this need. The excellent
book and fi lm libraries attached to the British Film Institute provide the only reasonable stop-gap for those
who are capable of guiding their own education.
We , members of the B.F.A. Council, have examined the literature of the cinema, haphazard as it is, with the
idea of helping to fi ll the gaps among those subjects which the existing text-books fail to cover. We have
found that some crafts like sound recording, set design (or art direction), script writing, even fi lm direction,
have in fact been discussed in an articulate manner, but that the pivotal contribution of the fi lm editor has
never been analysed objectively. Film editing has only been dealt with in the personal theories of Eisenstein,
Pudovkin and others, and only in relation to the styles of cinema of which they have had experience.
To fi ll the gap, we approached those among our members who are practised in fi lm editing and found nine
volunteers willing to pool their joint experience of a wide range of fi lm styles in shaping an objective intro-
duction to their craft.
To compile the book we chose, not a fi lm editor who might be biased towards the style of fi lm in which he is
expert, but a layman with a scientifi c background and an analytical skill in sifting a maze of material, most of
which has never been stated articulately before. Karel Reisz, over months of gruelling experiment, has patiently
sifted the relevant technique from the personal reminiscence and has projected miles of fi lm in search of the apt
sequence, analysing on a hand projector the chosen sequences, noting every detail and measuring every foot.
This collaboration of enthusiasts has resulted in a work which falls into three sections.
The fi rst and third are general; the second is drawn from a series of particular statements, each under the
control of the appropriate expert or experts. The whole may therefore be regarded as a symposium, bound
together by a prologue and an epilogue.
Now a word about our use of the words fi lm editing and editor. The responsibility for the editing of a fi lm rests
with a number of people— the writer, the director, the editor, the sound-editor and so on. No attempt has
xxii
The Technique of Film Editing
been made to differentiate between these functions. When the word e ditor is used, it is not necessarily to be
taken as reference to the technician working in the cutting room. It simply refers to the person— whoever
he may have been— who was responsible for the particular editing decision being discussed. The whole of
this book is, in fact, not so much about the specifi c work of the editor as about the process of editing which is
usually a far wider responsibility.
I must emphasise that we have not tried to write a book of editing t heory. With nine fi lm-makers working by
choice in different styles — some of whom did not in the fi rst place recognise the value of a theoretical approach—
this would surely have proved an impossible task. As I have indicated, we decided to make the best use of our
panel by letting each expert supervise the chapter dealing with his own g enre. The bulk of the book — contained in
Section II — is therefore devoted to practical examples which are analysed by their directors or editors. The gener-
alisations which can be drawn from these practical issues are gathered together and summarised in Section III.
In dividing Section II into the chapters we chose, we were aware that the divisions must inevitably remain
somewhat arbitrary. It is not possible to divide all the problems of fi lm presentation into a series of self-
contained compartments for specialists, and this has not been our aim. Our choice of chapter headings does
not so much represent a division into self-contained g enres as a grouping of related editing problems.
For instance: a lucid exposition of the action being depicted on the screen is, of course, always desirable, but
we have found it most convenient to consider this specifi c problem under the heading of Educational Films
where lucid exposition is the fi rst need. Similarly, the chapter on Newsreels deals primarily with a d hoc prob-
lems of editing technique, the chapter on Dialogue Sequences primarily with questions of timing. In this way
we hope that the cumulative effect of the book will be reasonably comprehensive.
We have allowed ourselves some latitude in our approach to the practical examples. The chapters are uneven in
length simply because some editing problems are more complex than others and since the editor’s contribution
to the total effect is — to take a simple example — more considerable in a compilation fi lm than in a newsreel.
Again , in some instances the nature of the editing problems is so much subject to personal interpretation that
we have found it suitable to quote the editor’s own comments on his work; in other cases, where a more gen-
eral approach is permissible, the editor’s comments have been incorporated in the text. These slight uneven-
nesses in approach spring from the diverse nature of the material and to standardise it would have meant
breaking faith with our subject.
One word of explanation about the examples. Except where otherwise stated, they are presented in the form of
break-downs of fi nished sequences and are not taken from scripts. They are chosen to represent typical problems,
where possible, from fi lms which have had a wide showing. No claims are made for the fi lms on which we have
drawn: we have simply taken examples, good or bad, which were most useful to our exposition. (No foreign lan-
guage fi lms have been used because of the diffi culty of reproducing foreign dialogue in the break-downs.)
I hope most of the readers of this book will be those who normally cannot afford a book published at this price.
Faced with the problem of producing a comprehensive book on so large a subject, we decided, with the loyal
help of the publisher, not to restrict the scope of text and illustrations. We hope that friends will club together
to share a copy, that fi lm societies here and abroad will fi nd it worth while to invest in more than one copy.
xii
Introduction
This is not a book to be absorbed at one reading. For full appreciation the keen student may want to avail
himself of the hand projector and viewing machines which the N ational Film Library (of the B ritish Film
Institute) provides for the close examination of fi lms in its collection.
I mentioned earlier the pivotal nature of the editing process in fi lms. Only those who know the craft can
estimate the essential contribution of the editing process not only to the art but also to the physical (and that
means also fi nancial) economy of the fi lm.
Thorold Dickinson,
October , 1952. B ritish Film Academy.
xiii
Acknowledgements
The knowledge and views which have gone into the following pages are those of the British Film Academy
committee which was formed to write this book. Individual members made specifi c contributions as fol-
lows: Reginald Beck on the early stages of planning; Roy Boulting on Chapter 2, and the passage from
Brighton Rock; Sidney Cole on the historical and theoretical chapters and the section on comedy; Jack Harris
on action sequences and the excerpts from Great Expectations and Once a Jolly Swagman; Robert Hamer on
the historical material; David Lean on dialogue sequences and the excerpts from G reat Expectations and T he
Passionate Friends; Ernest Lindgren on the historical and theoretical sections (he also gave permission to base
much of the theoretical discussion on arguments put forward in his book The Art of the Film and to use many
of his defi nitions in the Glossary); Harry Miller on sound editing and the passage from O dd Man Out ; Basil
Wright on all the documentary chapters and the excerpts from Night Mail, Diary for Timothy and Song of
Ceylon ; Thorold Dickinson, as chairman, on every phase of the writing.
Others who helped the committee were: Geoffrey Foot who contributed the analysis of the passage from
The Passionate Friends and gave much patient advice on the complexities of cutting-room procedure; R. K.
Neilson Baxter who supervised the chapter on instructional fi lms; G. T. Cummins and N. Roper who sup-
plied the information on newsreels; Jack Howells and Peter Baylis who spent much time with me on the
excerpts from T he Peaceful Years and made written contributions; Paul Rotha who advised on The World Is
Rich ; Wolfgang Wilhelm who advised on dialogue scripting; J. B. Holmes who gave an account of his work
on Merchant Seamen ; and R. Q. McNaughton who provided the analysis and break-down of the passages from
Merchant Seamen and N ight Mail .
From the U.S.A. we received the advice of Viola Lawrence on Lady from Shanghai and James Newcom on
Topper Returns . Helen van Dongen’s long contributions about the editing of L ouisiana Story are printed in full:
to her we owe perhaps the greatest individual debt.
Dr . Rachael Low gave freely of her time and knowledge of fi lm history in discussion and Julia Coppard gave
invaluable help in the preparation of the manuscript. Dr. Roger Manvell of the British Film Academy and
A. Kraszna-Krausz provided sympathetic help — and patience.
xxvv