Key Terms and Concepts:
- Sergei Eisenstein thought the conflict of two shots (shot A: the thesis, and shot B: the antithesis) creates a whole new idea (shot C: synthesis).

-Eisenstein thought linked shots were mechanical and inorganic.

- Eisenstein also thought the transition between shots should be rough, sharp, jolting, and violent. Smooth cuts were an opportunity lost to show harsh collisions between two ideas, or shots.

- Cuts should be made at a shot’s maximum point of tension or climax. Thus, editing rhythm should be dynamic, with constant succession of climaxes and tensions.
-- Shots with contrasting volumes, durations, shapes, designs, and lighting intensities should collide against each other.

- V.I. Pudovkin thought emotions should be conveyed with physical images, with series of shots with locale and objective correlatives.

- Eisenstein thought images should include images that are thematically or metaphorically relevant, whether they are in the locale or not.

-Dielectical- the result of the conflict and synthesis of opposites

- In the 1920's, soviet film makers expanded Griffith's associational principles and established the theoretical premises for thematic editing, or montage

-Pudovkin states that Griffith's use of the close up is too limited and is merely an interruption, offering no meaning of its own

-Pudovkin insisted that each shot should make a new point. Through the juxtaposition of shots, new meanings can be created

-Lev Kuleshov, Pudovkin's mentor believed that ideas in cinema are created by linking fragmentary details to produce a unified action

- Kuleshov believed that the emotion of a film is not produced by the actors performance, but by associations brought about the juxtapositions. In a sense the viewer creates the emotional meanings, once the appropriat objects have been linked together by the film maker

-Values of tthe film maker would inevitably influence the manner in which reality is percieved


Films Referenced
-Moulin Rouge (USA, 2001) – The musical numbers are edited in explosions of split-second shots. The fast cutting, derived from music videos and advertising, make the musical numbers about the directors as much as the actors.

-Rear Window (USA, 1954) – Thoughts are dramatized by cutting from shots of the spying hero to the neighbor’s apartment. The audience is moved by the editing rather than the content and acts as a characterization, as well as an associational montage.

-Dead men don't wear plaid (USA, 1982) - Reiner's comic parody of this film and other noir genres of the 1940's is a tour de force of editing

- Lifeboat (USA, 1944) - the photo contains the raw material for every shot in the film. Formalist insist that the artistry lies not in the animals per se, but in the way they are taken apart and reconstructed expressively.



Critical Questions for Review with Answers
1. Is there emotion conveyed through fast, explosive cuts? If so, what?
2. How did Eisenstein's ideas differ from Pudovkin?
3. What kind of images are metaphorically or thematically linked if you are trying to express sadness?
4. Eisenstein thought linked shots were mechanical and inorganic. Are they? Why or why not?
5.What are the associated principles and established theoretical premises for thematic editing called?
6. Why was using two different shots for the feared objects the scared actors more common?
7. What was Bazin's belief of relaity?
8. How can a director preserve actual time and space?

Links-
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/cinema/editing2.html -- editing terms/ideas
http://www.zerocut.com/tech/film_terms.html -- terms
http://www.carleton.edu/curricular/MEDA/classes/media110/Severson/eisenste.htm -- Eisenstein Bio / ideas
http://www.unofficialbaziniantrib.com/- tribute to Bazin and his belifes.