It's Simple

"'Happiness works by addition.'"
Agnès Varda's Happiness (1965)

Points for Reflection

A Rhetoric of Film, chp. 3

1. At what stages in the editing process does the filmmaking team incorporate transitions (e.g. fades, wipes), special effects, and properly mixed sound?
2. Given the synergy required to create cinematic continuity, do you think it harder to create a successful film than, say, a successful novel, or easier?  (You must, of course, define words like “hard” and “success” to answer this question.)
3. As Harrington points out, match cuts identify some element in two consecutive shots which links them, and uses that element to smooth the transition from one shot to the other.  Match cuts usually involve a graphic element (e.g. shape, color), kinetic element, or audio element.  Harrington notes that directors avoid jump cuts: can you think of any examples of the latter?
4. How do differing types of dissolves affect the viewer’s sense of time passing?
5. Can you identify any recent films that use those older, less common transitions like the wipe and iris?
6. Please note that while Harrington discusses both mask and rack focus in this section, neither is a transition per se.
7. Can you recall split-screen being used to convey something besides a telephone conversation?
8. Can you recall viewing any films with egregiously poor editing?
9. Why does violating the 180-degree rule confuse the viewer?
10. What does it mean for a shot promising a certain movement to “fulfill its promise”?
11. Which variables help shape the “rhythm” of a scene, and do any seem more important to you than others?
12. According to John Harrington, which medium more effectively reproduces the illusion of movement across time, film or written fiction?
13. On which of the three “levels” of time does film most heavily rely?
14. What key differences distinguish montage from mere editing?
15. Harrington uses  Japanese hieroglyphs to explain the concept of montage.  Can you think of other visually or linguistically artistic practices that would also help explain this creative principle in editing?
16. Did Sergei Eistenstein use montage more frequently, or less often, than most filmmakers employ the technique today?
17. What of superimposition; is this something filmmakers use today?  Does Lars von Trier employ this technique?

Le Bonheur (1965)
one sheet

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu