Blog: Advanced Editing Notes: 3. Soviet Montage and 4. Realism

3. Soviet Montage and Formalism

a. What was Pudovkin's concept of constructive editing and how did it manifest itself on film?

Pudovkin insisted that each shot should make a new point. He believed that each shot created new meanings to itself. He believed that riffith's close ups were too intrusive to the actor/actress, which showed no meaning to the shot. The way Pudvokin put close ups together was in a way to create meaning, and stating that long shots were too far from reality. An example of this is when a there was a close up of this man, then it cut to a close up of this bowl of soup, then back to the man, show his emotions and his need to eat the soup.

b. What was the Kuleshov effect and give me an example of how is it used in today's film's?

Kuleshov believed shots were linked together framentarly through details to produce a unified action. The Kuleshov Effect shows that the emotion is produced not by the actor’s performance, but by the juxtapositions. The viewer creates the emotional meaning, once the appropriate objects have been put together by the filmmaker. 

c. What was Eisensteinian Montage and how does it work in the "Odessa Step" sequence?

Eisenstein believed life was about constant change and this dialectical of contrasting opposites, because all phenomena are in a state of becoming. Eisenstein also believed art of film was in the edit, that each shot must be incomplete, contributory rather than self-contained, but not too linked.  Eisensteinian used this technique in the Odessa Step. Critics of Eisenstein argued that his films lacked a sense of realism. They also guided the audience too much. 

4. Andre Bazin and Realism

a. What were Andre Bazin's frustrations with Classical and Formalistic film making?

Bazin claimed that he was not a film maker. Bazin was responsible for creating an approach to analyzing a the body of a Director's work in order to discern patterns in style and themes. He believed that editing could destroy the effectiveness of a scene. Distortions in using formalist techniques, especially thematic ediing, can violate the complexities of reality. Formalists were egocentric and manipulative.

b. What do Realist filmmakers strive for in their work?

Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.  Realist filmakers strive to ensure that each shot was as realistic as possible, and that it flowed smoothly, rather then doing unnecessary cutting to a shot. By not following these guidelines, realist filmmakers cannot create this sense of reality. 

c. What techniques to realists use in their film making?
Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.  Details within a shot are presented more democratically, without the special attention a close-up inevitably confers. 

Trailer Review - 8 Mile

The trailer I chose to do for my review is 8 Mile. Although it doesn't have great cinematography, it makes up for it with a powerful story line. 8 Mile is about a wanna rapper who has to go through the obstacles placed in front of him to reach his dream of becoming a successful rapper. He has to go through the harshness of the environment that he lives in, the threat of losing his job, not being able to win a rap battle to gain street credit, etc. These obstacles  not only make it difficult for the main character to succeed, but also push him farther from his dream. This trailer shows snippets of what the main characters has to go through on a daily basis in order to get closer to reaching his dream, while also showing the difficulties of life that he has to also endure a lot.

Like many other movies, this one establishes its narrative by showing the audience what the main character's life is like and what they have to go through in their everyday lives. As in relation to 8 Mile, we see B-Rabbit's life as harsh and really gloomy, however, must live in this environment until he flourishes out of it. In the trailer, it establishes how harsh life is for the main character, along with showing his environment and how it plays a role in deterring him from reaching his goal. Also, it shows the basic plot line; we see him struggling to reach his goal, and how it really affects him along with his mom and daughter. Throughout the trailer, we see tiny glimpses that hint us towards what we think of, such as what life experiences are like and what significant events alter the way he is.

 The cinematography, throughout the trailer, was mostly all the same, yet it was still able to display what the story was about. Many of the shots had a dark tint to it, symbolizing that his environment is harsh and dull. These shots are able to communicate to the audience that the main character lives in a difficult environment and has to endure it in order to reach his dream. Also, many of the shots seem simplistic as it only depicts what the actors are talking about, but the background and their surroundings also add onto the constant harsh tone that is constantly shown. Also, there are many shots in the trailer that show what the main character is experiences; we see him either as scared, confident, nervous, anxious, etc.

The editing throughout the trailer is pretty unique. There is a lot of face pace cuts that show the intensity of the story line, along with words that summarize what each shot is about. The face pace shots really catch the attention of the audience, while also making the movie seem like a "must see". The words that pop up state what the main character is going through in his situation, and is really interesting in how it really has a nice touch to the film.

The sound was crucial in bringing out the film as a success. Throughout the film, the main character is rapping, either in a rap battle, with his friends, etc. There are also instances where there is a altercation between two forces, such as the main character and his opposing enemies. The sounds of gunshots, people fighting, the grunts, all add into the film's main intent.

Run Lola Run Presos

I. Interpretation of the film as it related to your assigned section and use of film language.

My interpretation of the film was vague and somewhat weak. The analysis I did wasn't there because I was too nervous and couldn't remember it. My assigned section was the plot, however, I literally told the plot without talking about the underlying meaning of it. I used little to no film language that didn't really demonstrate my knowledge of the topic.

II. Strengths of your presentation

I was able to talk about the plot with some analysis that somewhat informed the audience of the meaning of certain things. I was able to describe the main parts in the plot and somewhat analyze the author's intent within it.

III. Challenges and Areas for Improvement

Major challenges I faced was the oral presentation and analysis itself. I was prepared to analyze the plot, but I froze when I went up to present. My plot analysis, as said before, was vague and weak. I need to work on my confidence in order to fully talk about my points of analysis. I also need to stop reading off the slides as it tends to show that I'm weak in certain areas of the film. If I can improve on these requirements, I'll be better off in presenting certain parts of film.

Short Film Treatment

Logline: Jacob owes money to a loan shark. Loan shark captures his girl friend. Jacob is given a time allotted to get the money or his girl friend will be killed.


Beer cans on the table, trash on the floor and clothes hanging on the couch. Man is still asleep with despair.
He dreams of his girlfriend being taken away from him and receiving the threat of her death.
Man awakens from dream sad and depressed.
Man thinks of how he must get the money to pay off the loan shark.
He decided to rob his neighbor's house.
Man breaks into his neighbor house.
He is able to break open the bank and steal the money.
Neighbor opens the front door just as man is about to open it.
Man is forced to put neighbor to sleep out of panic.
Man calls loan shark and tells him that he has the money.
Loan shark tells man to meet him at his house in the remaining time left or else.
Man runs off to meet Loan shark.
Man makes it to the house.
Girlfriends voice is behind the closet door.
Loan shark assures man that he'll give her to him for the money.
Man gives Loan shark the money and opens the door.
Girlfriend is lying in the chair, wrapped in rope, with tape recorder next to her.
Girlfriend was already killed.
Man looks back at Loan shark.
Man is shot.
Man wakes up from dream.
Girlfriend comforts him and tells him to go back to sleep.

Volleyball Segment Critique

I basically came up with this idea because I thought it would be interesting to do a segment on something I probably would never want to do. I was able to interview the volleyball players I knew, such as Anissa and Gabby, and they were able to give some pretty good responses to our questions. Our questions were somewhat direct as to the individual itself, but somewhat general as to the team as a whole. I envisioned there to be many intense shots that would accompany the music's pace and that the b-roll for the interviews would match what was said exactly.

For the interviews, I basically just chose the upper spirit court and the front of the school. I thought that by keeping it simple, it would ensure the simplicity of the film but show intensity. I think the b-roll was good. There are a lot of shots that look up to the subjects and many of the b-roll shots accompany what the people say in their interview well. We had a lot of trouble with the positioning of the people because we wither placed them with too much headroom or in the direct middle of the shot. Many of the shots, such as the b-roll shots, were smooth, such as there was no shaking of the camera and their was no focus problems. There was only one problem we had with lighting and that was during the b-roll when I tried to focus on the players but weirdly it got dark and I was forced to zoom out to regain the light. The audio in the interview came out as expected with little to no errors.

We didn't believe that a voice-over in the beginning was necessary because we let the intensity of the screen shots and b-roll explain everything. Out segment was pretty much informative because their was information about their team, their expectations, and how they operate their practice. We only used a voice-over in the very end as a way of ending off the piece on a suttle tone. I wanted to people to remember our piece with that "wow" feeling mainly because of our opening's quick pace shots.

The interviews and the b-roll match very well. Whenever a person talked about a certain thing, there was a shot of their practice that supported their saying. We used basic title sequences from live type with the Capuchino colors. In the beginning, we used screenshots of the players to build up the viewers anticipation, then added b-roll of their practice that was also a montage of shots. In some of the interviews, the people said some interesting things but we couldn't find any b-roll to accompany it so the interview seemed somewhat long. Throughout the segment, their was no continuity errors and it seemed very fluent with the interviews and b-roll.

I honestly loved the beginning of the segment. The building of anticipation, in my opinion, was the only good part of the segment and the b-roll that accompanied it was very exceptional. If I had more time, I would redo all the interviews and ensure that it would actually look like interviews. After doing this segment, I realized that I need to review my notes on how to position people in interviews and also to ensure that the lighting in my b-roll is not too dark.

Character In Time

This picture of Obama explains a lot about time. All over Obama's body are things he has to deal with, such as the Haiti disaster and the Iraq war. Within his 4 year term, he's expected to solve all of these issues and bring the U.S. back to its feet politically, economically, and socially. As portrayed, Obama's doesn't have enough time to solve all of these issues and it will be a struggle for time. The emotion in his eyes show that their is no hope of accomplishing this or even defeat. His hand on his mouth may mean that it will be too difficult to accomplish this. The words all over his body vary from small to large, meaning minor to major crisis’s. As shown, there are a lot of major crisis’s that will need more than 4 years to solve, not including the minor ones. Overall, this image displays how Obama has to deal with these difficult problems in order to ensure that the U.S. stays a float.

Short Film Analysis

MEMORIES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85HDu87TGy0

Memories is a short film based on the revival of memories and cherrishing moments long ago for the main character, the old man. Throughout the film, the main character conitinualy finds these strips of film that reveal moments that meant a lot to him. For example, the main character's foot is entangled by the first strip of film that shows either his childhood or possibly his son.

The main character then embarks on this journey to find more of these strips of films that would reveal more of these past memories. Towards the end of the short film, the main character goes through this picture book that relate back to these strips of film and eventually ends with the old man closing his eyes.

Throughout the film, there are many close ups on the main characters face that display many of the emotions he feels. These close ups really set the tone of happiness and also show how the main character changes his character. In the beginning, the main character seems to be grumpy and uncaring, but as he gathers these strips of film. his expressions began to lighten up. There are also many quick pace shots that sort of add on to the intensity of the film. This means that as the main character began to find more of the film strips, the quicker the film's pace went. Also, towards the end of the short film, as the main character finds more and more of these strips of film, there are a few cross dissolves that quicken up the pace of the film too.

 There is also a few pan shots that capture the main characters emotions in finding these strips of film. The camera is mostly on a waist shot level and usually pans from the main character onto the strips of film. This is repeated numerous times throughout the film, but is effective in establishing the happy tone. Sometimes there are traveling shots when the main character walks through the streets in search of the film strips.

The lighting in this film is also pretty unique. Their is an effect throughout the whole film that makes the setting seem somewhat dark and gloomy, such as though it was a rainy day. This establishes the probability of how the main character felt in the beginning of the film, but doesn't contribute to the renewed feeling of joy during the rest of the film. This could refer to low-key lighting.

As far as the editiing, in my opinion, it was well done. There are many continuity shots that somewhat add on to how the main character is feeling after finding the film strips. For example, in the end of the film, there is a perfect example of great continuity editing that supports how excited the main character was to go home and look at the film strips.

The music was also good because it really contributed to the film's tone and how the main character's journey to find the film strips was an accomplishment. It also gives the film a sympathetic tone to how the main character feels throughout the film and it gives us, the audience, the impression that this man is able to be happy once again due to these film strips.