linear vs. non linear films (is the film in chronological order?

ellipsis (plural is ellipses): a deletion of time in the film. Audience does not see every moment of the story time. The story of The Haunting takes place over several days, the film's running time is less than 2 hours. A flash forward is an ellipsis.

flashback: A scene from earlier in the story which is shown later in the story.Usually it is the result of someone telling about something which happened in the past which the audience then gets to see. Questions have been raised as to whether or not a "flashback" needs to be truthful since we "see" it.

Circular: Film ends where it started.

Tricks and Gimmicks There is a question whether gimmicks or devices should be there for their own sake (look ma! I learned this in film 101) or whether the device should be used only to add to the meaning of the film. Compare the editing in this film, Memento with that of Pulp Fiction.

Editing

Editing vs. splicing

Splicing deals with the physical putting together of two strips of film by removing the emulsion and then gluing the two strips together
Editing is the processes of putting the shots together in a way that is meaningful. Editing is to grammar as shots are to words.
Editing involves relating one shot to another.One might cut from one shot to another based on form or action or any number of things. Classic cuts in film on form are the matching between the circular shape of the drain in the bathtun and Janet Leigh's eye in Psycho. Another is the matching of the shape of the thrown bone to the space ship in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with its 5,000,000 year leap forward in time.
Editing establishes rhythm in the film. (see for example Psycho which by constantly shortening shots creates tension since the film seems to "accelerate".
Editors work in the post production phase of the film, although they may be very involved with the director during pre productin and production phases.
Editors work closely with directors and often may have a great influence on how the film is finally organized. Some directors like to work with specific editors with whom they have similar aesthetics.

One may use a "cut" or a transition. A cut is a shift in the film with no optical effect between the scenes. Dissolves involve effects like fades. Fade in in means the screen goes from a single color to that of the actual scene. In fading out, the scene gradually darkens until it goes to a single color. If a director is using a point of view shot (i.e.e the audience sees what the character sees, and the character becomes unconscoius, the film is likely to fade to black, This is of course, not the only time such a transition might occur. Dissolves (one scene appears to fade out while another fades in) are also a kind of transition. Iris in and iris out are two other forms of transitino. In the first the screen closes down into a small circle and finally into darkness. In "iris out" a small circle appears and the picture fills the screen as more and more is revealed in an ever opening circle. One can think of "Iris in" as moving back from a hole through which one has been peeking, while iris out can be rhought of as moving closer to a hole and seeing more and more through it.

One may make different kinds of edits take on meaning. For example a film may use fades when moving into flashbacks so that that particular transition indicates something to the audience.

It is also possible to decide to divide the screen into several areas "split screen" in which two different things are shown simultaneouly that may be going on in different places. For example someone is being attacked, and rescuers are coming. One one side of the screen we might see the attack and on the other the rescuers approaching. This would allow a real time event to be shown on screen while showing two actions happening simlutaneously It is also possile to cut back and forth between the two and "lengthen" the time of the attack, since one can show both actions through their full time, thus doubling the length of the scene relative to real time

Classic or traditional editing was to be seamless. The audince was not suppose to notice it. A classic examply of pushing this to an extreme is Alfred Hitchcock's Rope in which almost all the shots are quite long - some as long as 10 minutes in length (no edits). At the end of the shots it was necessary ro swicth reels of film since 10 mionutes of film was the maximum the cameras could use. This meant there would have to be an edit at that point. Hitchcock cleverly arranges to have the camera at a specific point where the screen is filled with say a solid color (e.g. the back of someone's dark suit) so that the edit is invisible. The films is notable for the fact that reel time=real time. That is to say the amount of time it takes to show the film is the same anout of time which elapses in the story taking place on the screen. High Noon is another film like that.. Rope is also notable for being the one film in which there are arguments about whether or not Hitchock actually got into any scene.The general belief is that he is walking on the street in the opening shot but some people dispute this.

Non classical or non traditinoal editing does the reverse. It calls attention to itself. Today's film, Memento is clear example of editing calling attention to itself.
The vast majority of films are linear - taht is to say they proceed in a straight time line. The beginning of the film is at the start of the story, then of the film is the end of the story.
Some films break the linear pattern in part through flashbacks, wherein the audience sees something which happened earlier in time at a later moment.
A number of films lately have played with non linear tempora; codes. Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Memento are just a few.

In Memento the use of editing further or adds to the plot of the film. While watching the film, consider the ways in which the editing enhances the plot.

AFTER THE FILM

How is the film constructed? There are two major threads tp the film - one filmed in black and white, one in color. The direction of the films runs differently. The opening shot which is color and runs backwards is a clue - yuo need to read the color sequences in the reverse order in which they occur in order to have them in their correct temporal sequence. The black and white portions of the fiml are read forward. B&W segments alternate with color segments: Color1/BW1/Color2/BW2/color3/BW3

In actual time BW1 is followed by BW2 which is followed by BW3

In actual time Color3 is earlier than color2 is earlier than color1. The result is that the end of color2 is the start of color 1. Yikes!

The two trains finally collide at the end when we realize that the BW segment appears in actual time before the color segments. One clue to this is taht in the final BW sequences we see color flashbacks.

There are flashbacks in the film which are generally clear since they are in different locations than the pervious scene and there is no intervening BW segment. The film is about a person's (in)ability to remember. The fimls tests the movie viewer's memory as well, since it is obligatory that one be able to remember the scenes well enough to put the togetehr in the right sequence as the film progresses. In effect linking the viewer with the main protagonist.

Would the film be the same with more traditional editing?

Back