As some of you might know, one of my jobs is teaching film studies to 16-18 year olds.
There are lots of reasons for me to value this job, and I do.
You see, one of the most effective ways to engage a 16-18 year old with new and important knowledge is to make it really accessible to them.
Consider what they can learn in terms of social variety, social behaviours, world politics, economics, right and wrong! In film studies language we talk about these concepts as "messages and values". My students watch a variety of film from a variety of places and a variety of eras. We learn about the Weimar Republic and the German history of the 1920s and 30s in studying Expressionist films such as Metropolis, for example. Other early movie productions from other countries such as Strike, Battleship Potemkin, or French Impressionist movies or Japanese works from the likes of Yasujiro Ozu. Oh, and what about Nosferatu - there is so much more to the context, messages and values of this movie than it simply being a un-sanctioned copy of the Stoker family's Dracula story. From later eras, we delve into the worlds created by great directors such as Kubick, Spielberg, Lucas, Ford . . . the list is long. We analyze people's behavior in movies like Fincher's Fight Club, or Alex Garland's Ex-Machina. We worry over societies failings through films such as the Meirelles's City of God, or Chazelle's Whiplash. We marvel at how Miller and his crew made us think, and think hard about the world through Mad Max (which, astonishingly, was made on a budget of less than $400,000aus.)
Then there's the whole documentary film discussion! One of the most significant things we must learn, both when we learn about film and when we learn through film, is the importance of editing!
Up until the last decade or so editing was done by physically cutting a piece of 35mm film at the point where a sequence should start, again at the end of that sequence and then "splice" or basically tape it to the beginning of the next sequence and so-on. For the greater majority of films this required the skills to create "Continuity". You need a seamless transition from one view to the next. Sometimes the edit would take us from one room to another or one place to another, and at others it simply allows us to turn our heads from one character to another (Shot-reverse-shot). The cameraman and Director and all their accompanying crew go about filming the events (or plot points) that make up the story they want to tell, the editor cuts and joins the sequences in such a way that any spectator can watch comfortably and, most importantly, understand the messages and values that are being delivered.
Now let's add a layer of complication for the editor ... there is much more than visual imagery, pace of action, purpose of action or emotional drive to consider! The editor has to keep in mind music and dialogue. Sometimes music is scored and added after the film has been edited, occasionally, as with Spielberg's ET, the edits are shifted, manipulated to match the music. Those are the directors' choices by and large. With dialogue it gets a bit more tricky, you can't just cut off part of the dialogue because that gives you a better transition from one image to another ... or can you?!
There's a lot to think about here and I can only hope to wet your appetite, encourage you to think about the myriad people behind the fine finishes of a good movie and, if you feel so inclined, learn a little more about the complexities of the work they do so well. If you're young there could even be a whole new, undiscovered world of careers out there for you to explore! One of the points I have set out to make here, is that what you see on film, the moods film evokes, the thoughts a film inspires can only, in truth, be fully effective for you the spectator, if that film has been well edited. How truthful a documentary will be, how exciting a chase scene or a fantasy event or any act of romance - it all rests on all the skills of all the crew AND then their editors.
Having said all of that, I want to comment on the work of our cinematographer for the Heartsfelled project, Zak Holland, who is also our Editor. I've just viewed his first piece of editing for our opening sequence. This is a sequence where Zak had to work through complex visuals (the ghosts of times past) set in different sites around our primary film location; he had to contend with the fact that we filmed all in one, long, hot and very sunny day (great you might think but that means that the sun moved, the light changed and the shadows changed, for example, all through the day! In editing you have to find a way to match not only action but light values and colours too). On top of this he had to run the timings of each edit to match both voice-over narration and a particular piece of music. I want to go on record here as saying that, in my humble opinion, Zak's work is exemplary. This young man is a genius film-maker in the making. From this, and other examples I've seen of what Zak can make happen, I do believe people will be talking about him and his work in the not too distant future and for a long time to come.
Thanks Zak and - wow!
