FAMU International
Editing Film and Video: History, Theory and
Practice
Fall 2005
Contact: henry.hills@verizon.net
Class times: Tuesdays
9:30-12:30
This course will approach editing from both an ideal and a real perspective. In an ideal edit, heavily nuanced, making art is the main consideration and time is unlimited. We will analyze VertovÕs ÒMan With a Movie CameraÓ as a fundamental text. In an editing job, one is working against a deadline and trying to give a clear presentation of someone elseÕs ideas. Each has its own set of potential challenges, which we will discuss. To a large degree, every edit is unique; there is always trial and error in the beginning, but there are many aspects they all hold in common. The beginning is always becoming familiar with and making a realistic assessment of the footage to be cut. A film must be totally reconceptualized between the shooting and the cutting. What is there is what is there (not what was intended or dreamt of, not what went on off-camera). Editing is then organizing (especially organizing!), reducing, and making rhythm (whether for clarity of argument, emotional development, or structural integrity); it is primarily creating meaning, clearly expressing the vision of the director. We will explore parallel concerns and problem-solving in music and writing. We will work with film strips as well as digital imagery, and explore how the materials and tools affect the decision making process. Students will learn to function on both Avid and Final Cut Pro as early in the semester as possible. We will look at a wide range of films to see how they are cut, how they are constructed. There will be set editing exercises, but the students are primarily expected to bring their own projects to discuss and work on. Editing is a largely subjective activity. No rules exist that cannot just as well be broken. The only ways to learn to edit are by doing it (primary) and by studying what others have done (secondly).
Ken Dancyger The
Technique of Film and Video Editing : History, Theory, and Practice
Helmut Kobler Final Cut Pro HD for Dummies
Lisa Brenneis Final Cut Pro for Macintosh
Sergei Eisenstein Film Form and The Film Sense
Walter Murch In the Blink of an Eye
Edward Dmytryk On Film Editing
Ralph Rosenblum When the Shooting Stops
www.kenstone.net the 2 main FCP awesome-gurus
http://www.editors-resource.com/5/avid-media-composer-manual-.html on-line Avid manuals
www.lynda.com great on-line tutorials
Nonattendance of classes will be severely frowned upon. Initiative, ingenuity, interest, and imagination will be rewarded. Failure to make an impression could be fatal. Attendance at special screenings (if any) mandatory.
Week one
Course overview
Self introduction by students--where they are, what they know, & what they expect. Self introduction of instructor.
Introduction to the film strip. Film is where moving-image-thinking began. If you donÕt understand the basic physical nature of film, you donÕt understand the ideas it produced. The parallel mechanisms of the camera and the projector. Introduction to the frame. Demonstration of the splice. Exercises in making splices. Introduction to the viewer & the rewinds. The concept of a negative and a workprint. Introduction to the trim bin. Introduction to the flatbed.
The beginnings of editing: screenings of PorterÕs The Great Train
Robbery, selections from D.W. GriffithÕs Intolerance, ÒOdessa StepsÓ
scene from EisensteinÕs Battleship Potemkin, & Hills Kino Da!
(on the idea of sync)
Discussion of theories of montage of Eisenstein and Peter Kubelka
Introduction to digital editing principals (text: William Gibson ÒNeuromancerÓ).
Basic proficiency in editing with Final Cut Pro (&/or Avid), whatever it takes. Exercises!
Half-way! Presentation & group discussion of student work. Ezra PoundÕs edit of ÒThe WastelandÓ.
Brakhage ÒCatÕs CradleÓ and ÒWindow Water Baby MovingÓ montage (horizontal) & ÒPrelude:Dog Star ManÓ superimposition (vertical). Discussion of BrakhageÕs 60s theories and the Art of Vision. Gertrude Stein ÒStanzas in MeditationÓ. Musical examples by Albert Ayler & James Tenney.
HitchcockÕs ÒVertigoÓ & ÒMarnieÓ. The psychoanalytical edit. And is it in fact editing when itÕs all planned out in advance?
Surreal films: (ÒBallet MechaniqueÓ, ÒChien AndalouÓ, ÒRose HobartÓ) vs. Aleatory writing theories & practice: (Cage ÒWilliams MixÓ, Burroughs ÒThird MindÓ, MacLow ÒAsymmetriesÓ). Subjective/non-subjective hallucinations.
The music video (Harry Smith ÒEarly AbstractionsÓ, Kenneth Anger ÒScorpio RisingÓ, Bruce Conner ÒCosmic RayÓ & ÒBreakawayÓ, Henry Hills ÒGothamÓ & ÒLittle LieutenantÓ) and its opposite (ÒMoneyÓ). Steve Reich tape pieces, Terry Riley. The concept of trying to do something new.
Lars von Trier The Five Obstructions. Group exploration of editing in films selected by students for their interesting editing (Prior assignment; pick a film then a segment of that film in which you admire the editing; look at it silent). A glance at comics (Little Nemo, early MAD, Kim Deitch). The idea of Òlanguage writingÓ. Plunderphonics. Music of John Zorn. Or does irony rule?
Presentation of student work. Talk about jobs. Summary, and suggestions of places to keep looking.
(This same course will be presented next semester in a substantially different version.)