The Invisible Cut Read online

  BO: Nichols said that you can look at his dailies and know what he intended, that you think very similarly. Can you elaborate on that?

  SO: When you work with a director for years, you know what they’re thinking. You may argue about what’s too tight or too loose, but basically you’re in sync.5

  CHAPTER 12

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  A HISTORY OF MAKING RULES AND BREAKING THEM

  All editors should be movie buffs, studying filmmakers who made the rules, such as D. W. Griffith, as well as those who broke them, such as Jean-Luc Godard. This chapter will describe how different movements in moviemaking evolved and affected the styles and technique of editing. The nine movies whose scenes I will analyze in the next chapter, will be indicated here by an asterisk () according to the time period when they made their mark in movie history.

  THE EARLY 1900S: D. W. GRIFFITH

  Griffith revolutionized moviemaking in basic ways that we now take for granted. He pioneered film editing techniques that had powerful psychological impact and created an involving narrative. He used cross-cutting to create suspense between the pursuer and pursued or opposing forces. He used cutaways and varied the length and pace of shots to create the buildup to a climax. He also used close-ups, dissolves, flashbacks, and parallel action as storytelling devices that pulled the audience into the emotional lives of his characters, all of which are on full display in his first epic production, The Birth of a Nation.

  THE TWENTIES AND THIRTIES

  The Russians

  Revolutionary director Sergei Eisenstein used Griffith’s methods to communicate political ideology through the collision of images. His groundbreaking movie Battleship Potemkin displayed the full power of the montage, a word he coined. His landmark scene depicts the massacre of civilians by soldiers on the Odessa steps. It illustrates how his sequencing of an astounding number of shots — contrasting in mood, visuals, and length — created an emotional impact greater than the sum of its parts. He had been inspired by the famous filmed experiment of the Russian theorist Pudovkin, in which he paired three sets of shots: a single actor reacting first to a bowl of soup, then to a woman in a coffin, and finally to a little girl playing. The audience raved about the “range” of the actor’s performances, when, in fact, the same shot of him had been used each time. The way the shots were juxtaposed had changed the meaning.

  Early Sound

  The powerful fusion of sound and image made movies reach their full potential and created a greater challenge for the editor, who was now considered to be more of a collaborator than just a hired hand. Filmmakers wanted sound to be used not only for dialogue and realism, but also to create new layers of meaning. In the first full-length English talkie, Blackmail, which Alfred Hitchcock directed, one example of his many innovations was to use distorted off-screen dialogue, repeating the word “knife” to incite panic in a girl who had just committed murder. In Fritz Lang’s groundbreaking movie M, he played off-screen dialogue over montages to condense storytelling and repeatedly used a child murderer’s whistle to haunt the audience with his lurking presence. Lang was also one of the foremost directors of the German expressionist movement. These movies were extremely stylized, creating a feeling of anxiety and despair through the use of oblique angles, deep shadows, distorted perspective, and claustrophobic composition, all of which would later have a powerful influence on the film noir movement.

  THE FORTIES

  Film Noir

  These movies, which had their heyday in a cynical postwar America, were moody stories of crime and passion in which the dark subject matter was reflected in the visual style. The typical protagonist was a basically honorable but disillusioned loner who was often seduced by a heartless, sexually aggressive “femme fatale.” A prime example, from the German expatriate director Billy Wilder, is Double Indemnity. Even though this genre peaked in the forties, such movies continued to be made as a tribute to this style of filmmaking.

  THE FIFTIES/EARLY SIXTIES

  Television

  Live television dramas, variety shows, and news coverage gave audiences a desire for naturalism and spontaneity in their living room. The use of close-ups had also become more prevalent because of the smallness of the screen and the need to show details more readily. Twelve Angry Men, which was originally made as a live television drama and then as a movie by the same director, displays this style of shooting, which was well suited for the character-driven, tense atmosphere.

  Wide Screen

  The competition of television prompted the need for something more dramatic to lure audiences into movie theaters. “Wide-screen projection” used a newly developed anamorphic lens, with which wide images were squeezed into a standard frame and then projected twice as wide as the original screen ratio. This screen was especially well suited for grand scale “spectaculars,” because it could encompass more information and show greater contrast between foreground and background action. Often in such movies either the editing was kept to a minimum or it continued the effect of the wide screen with the use of extreme close and long shots. Anthony Mann’s El Cid is a prime example of this genre.

  Rule-Breaking Europeans

  After World War II, Europe experienced unrest and a desire for change. The need to shake things up and rebel against bourgeois tradition made an impact on moviemaking as well.

  Cinema verité (literally “film truth,” a term coined by Jean Rouch and used to describe his Chronique d’un Été) was a movement that blossomed in Europe. A precursor to the modern documentary, it was inspired by more new technology: that of lightweight, handheld cameras and portable sound equipment. These gave filmmakers the freedom to observe and record real people in actual situations.

  Neorealism originated in Italy and used a documentary approach to convey political ideas. Using on-location cinematography, often nonprofessionals as actors, and sometimes no script at all, the editor had more freedom to allow the story to take shape in the cutting room. Roberto Rossellini’s Open City was a groundbreaking example from this era.

  These movies also had an impact on the revolutionary New Wave movement, which was founded by a group of French film critics and students who became directors themselves. Directors such as Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless) and François Truffaut (400 Blows) felt that logical and conventional storytelling was unnecessary; the point was to reveal emotional and intellectual truths. Nowhere was the rule breaking more obvious than in the style of editing. Pans, tracking shots, and zooms were often provocations used to confound the audience’s expectations by fracturing time and space. The jump cut was very prevalent and was used to make the audience aware that they were being manipulated by editing, unlike the traditional approach, which had been to make the cuts seem invisible. A Hard Day’s Night, whose director, Richard Lester, was inspired by the New Wave movement, used shots like zooms, swish pans, and jump cuts to create an anarchic, frenetic style.

  LATE SIXTIES/SEVENTIES: AMERICA’S GOLDEN AGE

  There were many other foreign directors who made their mark during the fifties and early sixties — such as Federico Fellini (8 1/2) and Ingmar Bergman (Persona) — by displaying daring visual styles and highly personal, provocative narratives. The impact of these movies on filmmakers was felt when our country was experiencing its own political and cultural revolution. The era of fifties conformity had passed, the traditional studio system was crumbling, and there was a whole generation of college-educated baby boomers who made up a new movie audience. They viewed their parents’ values as hypocritical and wanted to challenge their own intellect with offbeat antiheroes, frank sexuality, and ambiguous, unconventional storytelling. This intellectual, breaking-the-rules style was absorbed into mainstream American moviemaking, which created its own hybrid style during a very inspired period of filmmaking history. American filmmakers had also developed the most advanced technical expertise of their time, which empowered them to experiment with sound, music, camerawork — and editing. The editor was considered more as an
artist than just a craftsman, and his role became more prestigious. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Chinatown were the movies from this era that reinvented the Western and film noir, respectively. The Graduate had a potent anti-establishment hero and message as well as a dazzling, innovative visual style. The French Connection, which was influenced by cinema verité, was shot partly with handheld cameras and had an edgy, improvisational shooting style.

  THE EIGHTIES AND MTV

  The zany visuals and musical energy that was used to drive the shooting and editing for A Hard Day’s Night made it a prototype for the music video. These videos, which later became prevalent on the pioneering network MTV, threw out the rules for narrative logic and dramatically changed the audience’s expectations. They now wanted more cutting and jump cuts and a faster, more frenetic style. The images in American movies and videos also parodied the media and culture, and the conservatism of the Reagan era. This latter approach was reflected in Body Heat, with its slyly humorous take on the film noir genre. The Big Chill, which was also from this decade, continued another trend that started in the sixties with The Graduate.The Graduate had been the first dramatic movie to use only pre-recorded songs as its score. By the time The Big Chill was made, the number of songs that were used was unprecedented.

  THE NINETIES AND ONWARD: COMPUTERS

  The star-powered, blockbuster movie was established in this decade. Not only did budgets grow much bigger, but so did the demands on the filmmakers, because of the increased pressure for a movie to succeed and be finished quickly. The computer came into the cutting room, and swiftly accommodated the needs of the time. With computers the postproduction time is compressed so that a fairly finished product — with music and sound effects — can be shown by the editor as early as the first cut. The computer has made it easier to wade through all the film, especially complicated action sequences with multiple cameras and tons of footage. An editor can also be less afraid to take chances, because he doesn’t have to worry about splices, as he had to in the past. Now the editor can keep multiple versions of a scene and easily undo any cut with the click of a keystroke.

  The original editing machine, the moviola, was a device used by editors to view the film while cutting. It was an intimidating piece of machinery that could easily chew up film, and that only the editor knew how to operate. But because of that, it was easier for him and the director to be left alone when they were putting the cut together. Now a studio executive or anyone else can sit at a computer and tell an editor and a director what to do. Virtually anyone connected with the movie is able to download a DVD of the edited movie, take it home, and run it. In fact, anyone can buy editing software and cut their home movies on their own computer. But even though editing has become more accessible, it’s still a challenge to master the editor’s invisible art. This is especially obvious when, after everyone’s been hopelessly fiddling with a problematic scene, the editor comes along and “magically” makes it work.

  Despite the profound ways in which technology is changing the way editors work, when all is said and done the tools are just a means to an end. And the editor’s goal, which is to tell the story in the best way possible, will never change.

  CHAPTER 13

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  ANALYZING SCENES AND THEIR FRAME GRABS

  The editor has to stick to certain basic principles whenever he’s telling a story, but each kind of scene requires a somewhat different approach. The thirteen scenes in this chapter represent a range of types. I will use frame grabs pulled from these scenes to illustrate why and how the editor made his choices. Most of the analysis will be based on the actual cuts — that is, the “out” frame (the last frame of one shot) and the “in” frame (the first frame of the following shot) — although some frame grabs will come from within the shot.

  DIALOGUE-DRIVEN: TWELVE ANGRY MEN

  In a dialogue scene the emphasis can be dramatic or comedic, but the scripted word always plays a major role. The mind of the editor will be fully engaged here. He has to understand the characters’ motivations, the subtext in both words and silence, and the overall truths in the scene. His basic challenge is to figure out when to cut for delivery of a line and when to cut for a reaction, but a subtle variation of those choices — like taking an extra beat before an actor speaks — can dramatically affect the impact and significance of a scene in ways that can go even beyond what the screenwriter and director intended.

  The editor is obligated to maintain a tight pace, because the audience has less tolerance for the more passive nature of a dialogue scene. He has to cut at the exact moment the audience has the information they need or when they want to see someone’s reaction. He can overlap dialogue to speed up the pace, but the greater challenge is to know the best technique for how to cut out lines that are unnecessary, given that the scenes are so structured and anchored by words.

  The editor has to be especially sensitive to what’s at stake for the actor, when those stakes are heightened, and how to support those moments with the actor’s performance. For example, the editor may feel that a particular moment aches for a close-up, but the actor delivered a better performance in the medium shot. The editor should also protect the actor’s pacing and must be especially careful about editing out an actor’s pauses. Silence is often more powerful than speaking, and certainly provides more tension. But unless there is a specific reason for the actor to pause before or after an action, the editor should avoid showing him waiting to perform or letting down.

  In general, the editor can less easily bend basic rules in a dialogue scene. Because the direction the actors are looking is especially significant, crossing-the-line mistakes will be more noticeable. Large groups of actors are a headache to an editor, and not only because he has to worry about crossing stage lines and making sure all the actors are looking in the right direction. The editor also has to keep every actor “alive” so the audience isn’t disoriented later in the scene when an actor suddenly appears out of nowhere. To do this, the editor has to sometimes cut to actors who are not necessarily interesting or capable.

  Dinner table scenes can be especially difficult, because the editor has to watch for consistency in the actors’ movements as they eat and drink. Of course, content and performance are always more important than whether an actor’s fork was raised higher in the previous shot. Since inconsistencies and problems are more obvious in a dialogue scene, the use of inserts and close-ups can be especially useful as sleight-of-hand transitions. All told, because of the constraints and subtleties involved, it’s safe to say that an editor will spend more time on a dialogue scene than on any other.

  FRAME GRAB ILLUSTRATION: TWELVE ANGRY MEN

  Twelve Angry Men is the ultimate example of a dialogue-driven movie because, except for the opening and closing shots, all of the scenes take place in a single room as a jury of twelve deliberates its verdict. This movie also carries the full challenges of a group scene. Having the actors spend virtually all their time sitting around a table could have been a logistical nightmare, because the director, cinematographer, and editor had to constantly make sure the audience was never confused about where the actors were in relation to one another, while keeping the movie visually dynamic. And the power of the dialogue, what it reveals, clearly motivates both the shooting and editing.

  “What is the movie about?” asked director Sidney Lumet. “It becomes the riverbed into which all subsequent decisions will be channeled.” In response to where the audience’s focus should be, Lumet said: “Listen.”6

  THE CAST

  Juror 1, the Foreman: Martin Balsam

  Juror 2: John Fiedler

  Juror 3: Lee J. Cobb

  Juror 4: E. G. Marshall

  Juror 5: Jack Klugman

  Juror 6: Edward Binns

  Juror 7: Jack Warden

  Juror 8: Henry Fonda

  Juror 9: Joseph Sweeney

  Juror 10: Ed Begley

  Juror 11: George Voskovec

  J
uror 12: Robert Webber

  (Note: To avoid the confusion of identifying jurors by number, I will refer to them by the actors’ last names.)

  The opening scene establishes the jurors in court as they get instructions from the judge. The scene ends with a close-up of the boy who is accused of the crime. This shot dissolves into a high shot of an empty jury room. The credits roll, and the camera moves in and out and pans among the jurors as they enter the room and mill about, engaging in small talk and some discussion about the case. There is a hint that most of them consider this an open-and-shut case, or that they just want to get the process over with. The shot ends at the jurors’ table.

  SCENE ONE: THE FIRST VOTE

  INT. JURY ROOM - DAY

  Medium long shot from left end of table.

  BALSAM

  Okay fellas, can we hold it down a minute?

  Uh, fellas, say we’d like to get started.

  Gentleman at the window?

  FRAME GRAB #1

  CUT TO:

  Medium close shot of Fonda. He’s looking out the window.