This chapter covers how editors can manipulate time, space, and emotion through choosing which shots to include in a film and how they will be arranged. Film Art discusses four different relations that could happen between two shots: graphic relations, rhythmic relations, special relations, and temporal relations.
Graphic relations includes using contrasts or similarities between two clips; one example is making a graphic match which links shots by close graphic similarities.
Rhythmic relations is characterized by using cuts of certain lengths to create a rhythm. Additionally, this technique uses different cuts to evoke different emotions, such as flash-frames; this is often used in action films as it stresses a moment and can elicit suspense.
Spacial relations uses editing to establish and manipulate space. One example of this is the Kuleshov effect, which we talked about in class. This effect is used to reveal the emotion or intent of a character by showing a person and then the object they are looking at, allowing us to interpret what they may be thinking.
Temporal relations shapes how the viewer sees time. For instance, a flash forward manipulates the chronological order of information the viewer gets. Additionally, editing can condense or expand the duration that a certain action can take. Elliptical editing can present an action as taking less time than it actually does, while overlapping editing can prolong an action.
One specific type of editing than manipulates space and time is crosscutting, when the plot alternates shots of one story with shots of another one elsewhere. My favorite movie, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, utilizes this technique very effectively. There are two simultaneous events happening during the film: the politicians and military deliberating in the war room, and the lieutenants in the B-52.
The constant crosscutting creates suspense, as the people in the war room cannot communicate with the personnel in the B-52, unable to call them back to abandon their previous order to bomb the Soviet Union. Switching between these two simultaneous events, with each side holding limited information, builds tension for the viewer who can see the whole picture. We understand that if the B-52 successfully manages to bomb the USSR, it will activate the “doomsday bomb”, which will essentially wipe out all life on the planet. However, the people in the plane do not know that. Additionally, we see the B-52 evade getting taken down from Soviet airspace, but feel anticipation when we see that the people in the war room do not realize that until it is too late. Overall, I believe this film perfectly demonstrates how crosscutting can create suspense and highlight the motivations and emotions of two different places at once.
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