Chapter 1 Motion Picture Language 15An example of a very obvious jump cut begins from when a person
is in a close up. There is a cut to the next shot, and it is the same person
in the same composition, now talking at another point in time. This is
a technique used sometimes in documentary film when the filmmakers
have footage from an interview. One example is from the opening of
Spellbound, a 2002 documentary directed by Jeffrey Blitz about a group
of contestants in the National Spelling Bee. In the first sequence of the
movie, one of the participants in the competition is trying to spell a word,
and his attempt to do this is cut into a series of shots from what was
originally one long shot recorded during the event. With this particular
sequence, it adds energy and humor to the opening while it compresses
time in an interesting way.
If you watch this sequence, or one like it, you will see that it plays
with our concept of time. Filmmakers use the tools of editing to play
with time in a variety of ways. Jump cuts are very rarely seen in classic
Hollywood cinema, but they have become normal, even fashionable, in
movies, television shows, and commercials of the late twentieth and early
twenty-fi rst centuries.Continuity Editing: Space
As viewers watch the screen, they are also reacting to the space created on
the screen in front of them. Remember the two armies facing each other?
Not only is it important to pay attention to time when we make cuts between
shots, but it is also important to consider space when we make edits, just as
when we saw the armies running at each other.
In order to respect relationships of space in continuity editing, think
about our concept of viewer and screen. Th e world on the screen in front
of the viewer generally seems to be a continuous one, unless we are led
to react to it in a diff erent way. When we see the two armies fi ghting,
we watch them from one side of the battlefi eld. If the camera suddenly
switches to the other side of the battlefi eld, we will lose the perspective that
we were given initially. Th e screen direction that was initially established
has been altered, and now it will look as if the opposing army is actually
running away.Understanding the Axis
Imagine there was a line drawn between the two armies. In cinema, this is
called the axis. To preserve continuity, the camera must always be set up on
one side of the axis. Otherwise, there will be a change of screen direction that
can be confusing and cause the sequence to seem jumbled or odd.
In Figure 1-21a, you see a boy throwing a ball. When you see his little
brother catching the ball, what will be the angle for the shot? In Figure 1-21b,
the camera has stayed on the same side of the axis when we cut to the younger
boy catching the ball. Now consider a diff erent angle: in Figure 1-21c, theVIEWFINDER
“I have always felt that
visual literacy is just
as important as verbal
literacy. What the fi lm
pioneers were exploring
was the medium’s specifi c
techniques. In the process,
they invented a new
language based on images
rather than words, a
visual grammar... These
are the basic tools that
directors have at their
disposal to create and
heighten the illusion of
reality.”–Martin Scorcese–
Director of fi lms including
Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull
(1980), Th e Departed (2006);
also a noted motion picture
historian and fi lm preservation
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