As mentioned above, cinematic filmmaking demands editorial preparation.* A thorough knowledge of “hands on” editing will enable a director not only to cut the stuff he shoots but, more important, to anticipate his cutting strategy to the great benefit of his shooting. Even before he plots his staging and his set-ups the director must have a fair approximation of what kinds of juxtapositions will advance his concepts. A competent editor can cut the film he is given, and often cut it well, but he cannot undertake the planning and the shooting with creative cutting in mind. Only the director can do that—if he knows how. And that is the main problem for the future.
All directors, no matter how green, are confident that they are editing experts, that they have a “natural flair,” and therefore they need not spend time learning the craft. However, in any line of work natural flair is useless until the lucky possessor has learned how to profitably apply it, and of all the crafts of filmmaking, editing is probably the most difficult to master. This is especially true of montage; a couple of semesters in a school of the cinema will hardly scratch the surface. After six months in a cutting room an apprentice will confide that editing holds no secrets from him, even though he has not yet laid scissors to film, while an experienced feature editor will confess that it was closer to ten years before he knew what editing was about, and only then did he begin to see the great range of possibilities in his craft.
It is, of course, extremely irrational to expect young students and neophyte directors to make a headlong rush for the cutting benches, but perhaps not too much to hope that at least the odd talent, here or there, wisely in less of a hurry to “make it” (an attitude that has sidetracked more hopefuls than it has “made”) and more dedicated to future results, will take a long step backwards to gather up the severed threads of a prematurely abandoned craft, then take two steps into the future to start a long overdue renaissance of what once promised to be the most dynamic art the world had known.
Notes
* In this book the word montage is used in the Vorkapich sense to mean a creative alignment of essentially silent cuts, not as Hollywood uses it to indicate passage of time or a bad dream.
** The months I spent running hundreds of reels of von Stroheim’s The Wedding March as he struggled to cut it down from 126 reels to a releasable length was an irreplaceable experience. He never made it, but the longer he worked the more I learned.
* Some directors anticipate their shooting and their editing by the use of “story boards.” This is the equivalent of sketching cartoons for a painting, and tends to “set” the sequence in terms of static composition rather than dynamic movement. But I was surprised to read in an interview with Edwin Mullins in 1978 that Henry Moore said, “In my early stages I… made drawings… before making the sculpture…. Now I;ve gone away from that thinking because… the drawing becomes too much a key view you refer to.” Even in a static art! Equally dangerous for the lazy director is the temptation to accept the sketches as the final conception so that little further developmental thought is devoted to the staging and the shooting of the story-boarded sequence.
Postscript
One of the best films ever made. A group shot from Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion.
I have discussed filmmaking largely from a Hollywood point of view because, although I have made many films abroad, the cutting rooms and stages of Hollywood were my “film school,” and the techniques and concepts I learned there are what I know best. However, in my youth those cutting rooms and stages were peopled by men like Boleslavsky, Buchowetski, von Stroheim, Mumau, Renoir, Lang, and Lubitsch, and I am perhaps more conscious than most Americans of the heavy debt we owe the great filmmakers of Europe. If I say that I still consider Renoir’s La Grande Illusion to be the best film ever made, I think I will have said it all.
Filmography of Edward Dmytryk
The Hawk Ind 1935
Television Spy Para 1939
Emergency Squad Para 1940
Golden Gloves Para 1940
Mystery Sea Raider Para 1940
Her First Romance I.E. Chadwick 1940
The Devil Commands Col 1941
Under Age Col 1941
Sweetheart of the Campus Col 1941
The Blonde from Singapore Col 1941
Secrets of the Lone Wolf Col 1941
Confessions of Boston Blackie Col 1941
Counter-Espionage Col 1942
Seven Miles from Alcatraz RKO 1942
Hitler’s Children RKO 1943
The Falcon Strikes Back RKO 1943
Captive Wild Woman Univ 1943
Behind the Rising Sun RKO 1943
Tender Comrade RKO 1943
Murder, My Sweet RKO 1944
Back to Bataan RKO 1945
Cornered RKO 1945
Till the End of Time RKO 1946
So Well Remembered RKO-Rank 1947
Crossfire RKO 1947
The Hidden Room English Ind. 1949
Give Us This Day Eagle-Lion 1949
The Sniper Kramer-Col 1952
Mutiny King Bros.-U.A. 1952
Eight Iron Men Kramer-Col 1952
The Juggler Kramer-Col 1953
The Caine Mutiny Kramer-Col 1954
Broken Lance 20th-Fox 1954
The End of the Affair Col 1954
Soldier of Fortune 20th-Fox 1955
The Left Hand of God 20th-Fox 1955
The Mountain Para 1956
Raintree County MGM 1957
The Young Lions 20th-Fox 1958
Warlock 20th-Fox 1959
The Blue Angel 20th-Fox 1959
Walk on the Wild Side Col 1962
The Reluctant Saint Col 1962
The Carpetbaggers Para 1964
Where Love Has Gone Para 1964
Mirage Univ 1965
Alvarez Kelly Col 1966
Anzio Col 1968
Shalako Cinerama 1968
Bluebeard Cinerama 1972
The “Human” Factor Bryanston 1975
Index
50mm lens 89
action scenes, set-ups 40
actors: collaborative creativity 108–113; ‘mechanisms’ 29
actor-viewer relationship 35
alienation 13
altruism 137–138
Amadeus 3–4; photo 5
angles 27
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” 122
Anzio 30; photo 85
art: altruism 137–138; and ego 45
artists, place in society 138–139
attention-getting line 46
attention-getting set-up 46–48
A Touch of Evil 57, 133
auteurs 107, 108
author’s reflections 137–145
averaging out 6
background 25
balance, imagery and dialogue 141
ballet, reality modification 92
Baryshnikov, Mikhail 50
Bazin, André 129, 143
Behind the Rising Sun, photo 121
believability 19–29; achievement of 29, 31; comedy 19–20; grammar of film 22–31; suspense 20; technique 22–31
B films, lighting 82, 84
Bierce, Ambrose 122
bits and pieces shooting 56–57
Bloom, Allan 39
body language 28, 41–43
book: orientation 137–138; scope of discussion 2–3
bringing the actor to the camera 81
bringing the camera to the actor 81
Broken Lance, photo 7
California Institute of Technology 3
camera, creative use of 56–57
camera movement 56–57; invisibility 48; manipulation of 110; problems of 50
camera position, choice of 89
camera positioning 93, 95
Capra, Frank 56
Casablanca: analysis 63–67; photo 64; separation of characters 72–74
casting: costs of 6; photo 7
Chaplin, Charlie 19–20; photo 21
character cons
truction 108
character development, believability 20, 22
characterization, choice of lenses 93
chronological direction 135–136
cinema, theatricality 61–62
close shots 23, 26, 62–67
close-ups 28–29, 93; dramatic development 73–74; overuse 41
collaborative creativity 107–113; actors’ role 108–113; character construction 108; director’s role 108; metaphor 110, 112–113; Mirage 112–113; technical manipulation 110
color, use of 88–89
comedy: believability 19–20; lighting 82
communication, filmmaking as 137–138, 141
conflict, writers and directors 22
continuous moving shot 48–49
Cornered, photo 32
costs 6
crab dolly 26–27
creative freedom 6, 8
creative use of camera 56–57
creativity: collaborative 107–113; editing 143–144; rules and rule-breaking 79–80; and society 139–140
crew 6
Crossfire 41–43, 58–59, 84, 86; imagery 101–102; photos 42, 83
cutters, and directors 128
cutting 127–136; distinct from editing 134–135; invisibility 45, 48–49; juxtaposition 130–131, 132, 143; pacing 134; photo 126; responsibilities 130–132; rules 133–134; short cuts 129–130; shot selection 131–132; and timing 48–49; timing 48–49, 132–133; value of 128–129; see also editing
Day for Night 58
demonstrative aspect, of film 14
dialogue: balancing with imagery 141; editing 141; emphasis on 134; and movement 54, 58; speed of 80; as underscoring 141
dialogue films, as dead end 140
dialogue scenes, separation of characters 74–78
directors: perspectives 22; role in editing 143
dissolves 49
Doctor Zhivago 8, 23; photo 24
documentaries 2
dolly shots 43
dramatic potential, of imagery 61–70
dream sequences 120, 122–123
dynamic composition 92
East of Eden 40
editing: chronological direction 135–136; conceptual pre-planning 143–144; creativity 134–135, 143–144; directors’ knowledge of 56; distinct from cutting 134–135; learning 144–145; levels of skill 141, 143; master shots 58–60; role in development of film technique 141; selective 37; separation of characters 71–78; singularity 135–136; see also cutting
ego 128; and art 45
Einstein, Albert 115
Eisenstein, Sergei 34–35, 61–63, 130
emotional movement 62–69
emotion, realization of 20, 22
entertainment, defining 4
escapism 13
establishing shots 23, 25, 26, 38
fade-ins 49
favoring, in over shoulder (O.S.) shot 28
Feyder, Jacques 3
fight scenes, time 120–121
figures 28
filling/squeezing frame 29, 30
film: as aid to understanding 3–4, 14–16; as business 6; defining as an art 1–2; exposure and projection rates 116; quality of 8; as social event 12–13; standards of 2; types of 2; versatility 3
film editing, theories of 129–130
film editor: ambiguity of title 127–128; see also cutting
filmmakers, incentives 11–12
filmmaking: challenge of 140–141; as communication 137–138; European 147; motivation 138, 139
film noir, lighting 82–84
filmography 149–150
financial risk 6
flashbacks 119
Ford, John 23, 25
frame, filling/squeezing 29, 30
Full of Life 99, 101
full shots 23, 25, 41, 43
giving, vs. sharing 137
Gone With the Wind 46–48; photo 47
grammar of film 22–31
Grant, Cary 41
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre 8
Greystoke 141
Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, photo 117
group shots 27–28
gunfight at the O.K. Corral 122–123
Heaven’s Gate 6, 135
Hitchcock, Alfred 27, 98
Huston, John 107
imagery 97–104; balancing with dialogue 141; The Caine Mutiny 99–100; Crossfire 101–102; dramatic potential 61–70; Full of Life 99, 101; metaphor 99–100; and movement 53–54; Murder My Sweet 98–99; Psycho 98; role of words 98; three steps 97–98; transposition 98; The Verdict 102–104; viewer interpretation 98
interior long shots 25
in-the-meantime 123
intra-sequence cutting 38, 39
investment 6
invisibility 45–50; attention-getting setups 46–48; camera movement 48; cutting 45, 48–49; and self-consciousness 49–50; of skill and technique 50
involvement 20, 22
isolation of elements 37
It Happened One Night, photo 55
juxtaposition 130–131, 132, 143
Kazan, Elia 40
Keaton, Buster 19, 61
Kracauer, Siegfried 37, 122, 129
La Grande Illusion, photo 146, 147
Lang, Fritz 50, 82
Lean, David 23
Lemmon, Jack, photo 111
lenses: and characterization 93; choice of 89–93; distortion effects 91, 93; manipulation of 110; motionless compositions 92–93
Lerner, Alan Jay 45
lighting 81–86; B films 82, 84; comedy 82; costs of 82; Crossfire 84, 86; film noir 82–84; manipulation of 110; reality modification 88, 89, 91; responsibility for 86
limiting factors 53
Lindgren, Ernest 128–129, 141
Lloyd, Harold 19; photo 18
long shots 23, 25, 95
Loos, Adolph 72
loose groups 27
Lorre, Peter, photo 142
M, photo 142
malleability, of film 53
Marx Brothers 8
master shots 26, 54, 56, 57–60; editing 58–60; sequence shots 59–60
medium shots 26, 27, 41, 43
mental movement 104
metaphor 43–44, 99–100, 110, 112–113
methodology 81; see also rules and rule-breaking
Mirage 112–113; photo 36
Missing, photo 111
monologue 43
Monroe, Marilyn 41
montage 34–35, 62–67, 98, 141, 143
mood-building shot 59
mood creation 40
Moore, Henry 87–88, 128
Morley, Christopher 138
motionless compositions, shooting 92–93
movement 53–60; and dialogue 54, 56, 58; emotional 62–69; and imagery 53–54; mental 104; mental and physical 40
moving master shots 43, 59–60
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 141
Murder My Sweet 98–99
Murnau, F.W. 39–40, 50, 82
musicals, techniques 60
narrative film 2–3; and theater 4
narrow angle lens 89, 91
observation points 27
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 8
On Filmmaking (Dmytryk) 25
opening shots 26, 49
overcranking 120
over shoulder (O.S.) shots 28, 67–69, 93
pacing 39, 116, 118, 119–120, 134
Peattie, Donald Culross 138
plot construction, believability 20, 22
poetry 138
points of view (POV) 35, 59–60, 72
positional actor-viewer relationship 35
postponement 123–124
postscript 147
profile two shot 28
profit 6, 8
protection shots 132
Proust, Marcel 35, 37
Psycho 98
Pudovkin, Vsevolod 128
Raintree County, photo 106
realism, temporal/spatial 38–39
reality modification 87–95; ballet example 92; camera positioning 93, 95; choice of lenses 89–93; lighting 88, 89, 91; reasons for 88; shot tilt 95; signs 87–88; use of color 88–89
recall 127
Renoir, Jean 39
restraint 110
risk, financial 6
rules and rule-breaking 79–86; and art 139; cutting 133–134; and film types 80–81; and individuality 79–80; lighting 81–86
Russell, Charles M. 25
Safety Last 19; photo 18
safety valves 20
Sarris, Andrew 107
scripts, presence of writer 108
selective editing 37
selectivity 37
self-consciousness 49–50
selfishness 137–138
separation of characters 71–78; The Carpetbaggers 73; Casablanca 72–74; conversation 73; dialogue scenes 74–78; viewer engagement 72–74; The Young Lions 74–78
sequence shots 34–35, 38, 39
set-ups 22–23, 33–44; action scenes 40; attention-getting 46–48; chess analogy 34; choice of 40–41; definition 33; importance of 33; information included 41, 43; isolation of elements 37; mood creation 40; photo 32, 90; planning ahead 34; point of view (POV) 35; power of 44; relevance 38; selective editing 37; self-conscious 49–50; variety of 33–34
Shakespeare, William 115, 140
Sharff, Stefan 28
short cuts 129–130
shots, as signs 87–88
shot selection 131–132
shot tilt 95