This isn't really one question, it is three: what is rhythm made of in film editing? How is it shaped? And most importantly, what is it for? This 2 minute video contains the 26 word answer to all three questions, which is quicker than reading the first four chapters of Cutting Rhythms though maybe not quite as useful!
To paraphrase Woody Allen from the end of Annie Hall, an emotional exchange is like a shark – it has to keep moving forward or it dies. For an editor this means: you can’t repeat an emotional moment without killing it (you can sustain it but that’s another blog post!) This post is about cutting so that the emotion is always in motion. To keep emotion in motion you have to keep the characters moving toward their objectives. Ask yourself:
Ask yourself:
Here’s an example: In this two hander the woman wants to go, and the man wants her to stay. Objectives: Her objective is to get away, his objective is to keep her there. What will each of them do to get what they want? His Actions: To ask, to cajole, to demand, to plead, to beg Her Actions: To dodge, to tease, to dismiss, to resist, to reject Tip: You can see all of this going on in the way they speak - intonation, force, speed, and the movement of bodies – posture, gesture, movement energy. Watch and listen to the way they move and you are watching and listening to the movement of emotion. He asks. Cut. She dodges. Cut back to him – what does he do when she dodges? He has a beat, he changes his action, asking didn’t work, so he tries cajoling, and so on. Your job as an editor is to keep the emotions MOVING. If he asks, she dodges and he asks again (repeats), the scene dies. He asks, she dodges, he cajoles – now the scene is in motion he is changing because her actions have an effect on him. He makes another choice, she makes another choice, we cut the emotion moving between them escalating/diminishing, winning/losing, causing/effecting to keep the emotion in motion. What do you do?
Don’t cut back to them just feeling something, like feeling sad because their action didn’t work (unless it is the end of the scene).
for editors....
If a story that should be interesting is shaping up to be a bit boring, it is helpful to understand one of the key drivers behind an audience’s interest: Dramatic Questions. A dramatic question is a question that implies an action and has something at stake. What does this have to do with editing? Usually it is the writer’s job to create these questions in a story, but sometimes an editor has to help them along. The editor is responsible for shaping the audience experience of dramatic questions - when they are raised and when they are resolved, how much emphasis is given to them. Here are three tips for shaping and sustaining dramatic questions: 1. Make Sure You Know What Your Dramatic Questions Are Talk to the writer and/or director and agree on the dramatic questions. Speak them out loud, even write them down and post them on your edit suite’s wall. A dramatic question almost always starts with the word : ‘will’. Will someone do something, say something or get something. For example: “Is Alex working well” is not a dramatic question. “Will Alex meet their deadline?” is a dramatic question because an action is implied (Alex meeting their deadline, or not) and something is at stake: success. If you know what your dramatic questions are then you can choose shots and shape sequences that follow the characters as they pursue their goals, and heighten our tension – our hope and fear – about what is at stake. If you don’t know what your dramatic questions are, it is easy to get distracted, and put in unnecessary stuff. 2. Don’t Answer Dramatic Questions Without Raising New Ones (Unless it is the end of the story.) In order to keep us wondering what happens next we need to know what action is implied and what is at stake. If Alex meets their deadline and they live happily ever after it had better be the end of the movie. If Alex meets their deadline but is then offered a job overseas we have a new question: “Will Alex choose the risky new job or or success in the one they have?” Action implied? Choosing. Stakes? Career and success. 3. If Your Script Answers Questions Without Raising New Ones, Try Using Ellipsis. If you have a scene in an office where the question is “Will Alex meet their deadline” and at the end of the scene they do. That’s fine, unless the next scene is one of them popping champagne, and there is no new question. Try cutting off the end of the bar scene so we don’t know the answer. That way, seeing the champagne pop is a revelation. You may even be able to insert other scenes in between, keep us wondering about Alex while you raise a new question in another part of the story. Then, when you answer your first question, you have a second one open and in play. See Chapter 8 of Cutting Rhythms, Shaping the Film Edit (Focal Press, 2009) for more ideas about shaping and sustaining story tension through the rhythm of events. |
Karen Pearlman
Film maker, teacher, writer, and speaker about screen & performing arts, author of Cutting Rhythms (Focal Press) & a director of Physical TV Co. Archives
September 2020
Links Physical TV Women Film Pioneers Project: 'After the Facts - These Edits are my thoughts' publication RealTime Profile of Karen Pearlman's research Rochford St Press/Sarah St Vincent Welch review of the trilogy of films about Soviet women editors Magdalena Ball/Compulsive Reader Review of the Trilogy 'Edited By', Su Friedrich's invaluable compendium of women editors RealTime screendance portal |