Customer Reviews

Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm a (prose) writer and have read about screenwriting (McKee's Story and Truby's The Anatomy of Story) to gain a different perspective on storytelling. But it wasn't until I read Robert Olen Butler's From Where You Dream (Chapter 4, "Cinema of the Mind"; a comparison of film vs fiction techniques), that I realized how helpful it might be to explore other aspects of filmmaking. And then, on cue, came Karen Pearlman's primer on film editing -- an element so crucial to storytelling that she says, "Editors write the last draft of the script."

To be clear, this is primarily a book for film students or editors early in their careers. Focusing on rhythm to shape a story, she first discards the off-putting adjectives that editing is "intuitive" and "magical." Instead, she opens the process to show a tangible set of tools and skills that can be learned, practiced and internalized -- until they do operate in the subconscious background of seeming intuition. It's textbook-ish -- academic in tone (yet very readable) and content (including exercises and case studies), with end notes, a bibliography, and an index. My only quibble is that some of the case-study photographs are printed so dark they're indecipherable.

Then consider this passage:

"Editors compose rhythms in the sense that someone might compose a flower arrangement: not by making the flowers, or in this case the shots, but by choosing the selections, order, and duration of shots."

It sounds exactly like second-draft prose writing, and confirms a second audience: creatives who would benefit from getting behind the scenes of a less-familiar medium to explore very familiar aspects of storytelling: pace; perspective; distance; tension and release; arcs of action and emotion; scenes of dialogue; multiple storylines; speeding/slowing/collapsing time.

And I suggest even a third audience: highly motivated film buffs -- those who devour the bonus-material commentaries on DVDs -- who will find the material in this book revelatory. Knowing more about film editing and the collaboration inherent in film has already made me a more knowledgeable and appreciative film-goer.

The least you need to know is that Cutting Rhythms is an interesting book. I say this in the same way I would say watching bacteria replicate is interesting i.e. genuinely so. This book reads like the thesis work it started out as. Author Karen Pearlman apparently got interested in the science and art of dancing and bodies in motion then, like a true academic, decided to see if she could analyze her chosen profession of film editing in light of her chosen hobby, as it were.

The result is, and I beg your apologies again, interesting. It's always so when one attempts to fuse two things that on the surface couldn't be more different; in my humble and untutored opinion, Pearlman succeeds.

I have heard it said that all capital "A" Art aspires to music and film editing is no different, I expect. Pearlman proposes to dissect something which on the surface appears to defy analysis and in this well-laid-out book, she grabs the reader's interest and doesn't let go. Beginning with the Introduction, in which she describes what she's about to tell you (including this little tidbit: "Cutting Rhythms hypothesizes that the editor's intuition is an acquired body of knowledge with two sources--the rhythms of the world that the editor experiences and the rhythms of the editor's *body* [emphasis mine] that experiences them." This caused me to snicker a bit) through all the 12 chapters in which she skillfully does, this is an excellent bit of work.

I am particularly enamored of Chapter 6, Physical Rhythm, which she describes as "the rhythm created by the editor when she prioritizes the flow of the visible and audible physical movement in the film over other types of movement (such as emotional interactions of characters or larger patterns of events in stories)." She contrasts this with emotional and event rhythm which she covers in detail in chapters 7 and 8. Manipulating Physical rhythm creates meaning directly through action and the editor uses, she posits, techniques such as "rechoreographing" which involves changing the sequence of movements in action scenes and "singing the rhythm" which draws on a "kind of synesthesia" that allows the editor to use their background knowledge of energy management (the building and release of tension) to shape the film.

Using examples from various films, she ably shows she understands not only the actual, cerebral skills of editing, but has transcended that to the philosophy of it. This is a deep-level piece of thinking about editing film that is sure to enliven any editor's work.

One of the most important aspects of professional film work is editing. Perhaps the most important.
An editor can "make or break " a well shot scene. Naturally, depending upon the content in the scene
and with a myriad of choices from the cinematographer, Close-Ups, Singles, Twos, Wides, Establishing, etc.
the editor can create pacing, tension, romance, excitement, lassitude, calm and a thousand other moods/feelings
by choosing the rhythm of the sequence as he cuts, laps,dissolves,etc., from edit to edit.
"Cutting Rhythms" breaks down the issue of rhythm in an accessible way that allows the filmmaker to apply
the explained principles to the work at hand.It's about possibilities rather than prescriptions since every script is different.
The author presents questions editors or filmmakers can ask themselves about their work, along with a clear
and useful vocabulary for working with those questions.
The way the question is answered yields the formula for the shot sequence.
A fascinating and workable approach to a complex subject.

In "Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit," Karen Pearlman tries to talk about editing in a broader way than merely discussing techniques or technology. It's a kind of textbook, and one that most film students and deep film fans will enjoy. For those looking for a more basic book on editing your home videos, you might want to look elsewhere.

A big organizing idea in this book is rhythm -- not only story rhythm, but visual and kinetic rhythm. Pearlman views editing as a sort of performing art -- one that involves a sense of the entire body -- rather than as a skill that is purely technical or cerebral. This theme seems odd at first -- I'm not a particularly "kinetic" bloke -- but as the book goes on, light bulbs begin popping on. At least they did for me.

This isn't a "if you buy only one editing book, this is the one" type of tome. It doesn't try to be. Think of it as a college-level class with a teacher with a novel way of looking at visual storytelling. As such, it's probably best read by people already somewhat familiar with film and film-making.

Way back when, and when was a long time ago, I took a couple/three class in Long Beach State's (now CSULB) film school. I wound up changing my major to history and to this day I still don't know why, but I left anything that had anything to do with the arts behind, thought I was being worldly, studying the history of the world and why we were in the fix we were in. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have switched. If I'd had this book back then, I definitely wouldn't have switched.

And if I wouldn't have switched, maybe I would be making movies right now. This book was fun for me to read through. It brought back memories of what might have been, of what was and it's as interesting as all get out. Even if you're not interested in a career in film, Karen Pearlman will give you a pretty doggone good picture of what goes on in the film making process. And if you are contemplating a career in film, this book is a must. Well, I think so anyway.

This book really tries hard to capture the sort of intuitive, ineffable side of editing and put it down on paper. The author does so in maybe the best possible way- by using lots of examples(case studies) and drawing analogies between film editing and other artistic endeavors.

The author focuses a great deal on rhythm and trying to paint parallels between movement and the telling of a story.

The book is broken down as follows:
Ch 1. Rhythmic Intuition
Ch 2. Editing as Choreography
Ch 3. Timing, Pacing, and Trajectory Phrasing
Ch 4. Tension, Release, and Synchronization
Ch 5. Physical, Emotional and Event Rhythms
Ch 6. Physical Rhythm
Ch 7. Emotional Rhythm
Ch 8. Event Rhythm
Ch 9. Style
Ch 10. Devices
Ch 11. Common Scenes
Ch 12. Conclusion

As a professional photographer and amateur filmmaker/multimedia slideshow developer I felt that this book did alot to capture many of the things that I already do unconsciously. I didn't necessarily feel like this book added much to my practical knowledge, rather it provided a different perspective to viwing the filming and editing process. Probably the most interesting chapetrs for me were on Style and Devices, simply because it got me thinking about what I currently do in terms of style and devices and what I could do differently.

Overall, this is a very 'artistic' approach to the film editing process. I think this would be great to add to your repetopire if you are well versed in the technical aspects of film editing and are looking for some inspiration to change your style or identify elements you'd like to add or change. This is definately not for the amateur or newbie and NOT a technical guide by any means.

In terms of the writing, it was a bit lugubrious to slof through. I think the concepts could have been captured much more simply and clearly. The author spent a great deal of time defining terms, for example "So continuity cutting is a technique, and I am using the term "linkage" to describe a style within that technique. It might be more appropriate to use smoothness than linkage, because linkage could describe something that is abruptly linked, but I have chosen to use the word linkage for this aspect of style to remind us of the purpose behind the style: to create a smooth train of images." (p. 165) There is a great deal of that sort of explanation throughout and it gets a bit tiresome.

"Cutting Rhythms" is not exactly an academic text book, but it's not exactly a "For Dummies" book either. Its organization lends itself to practical usage by anyone wanting to get some brief thoughts on the many components of film editing. The organization is logical and builds towards a comprehensive understanding; however, one could also read up on specific techniques without going through the entire text.

Overall, the style is pedagogic with suggested exercises and chapter summaries, but it's not like a dry, academic text. The print is actually pretty large and there are many black-and-white stills throughout to illustrate the ideas presented. The author doesn't expect a great deal of background knowledge in film editing, so it will be approachable by amateurs, but it's not as basic as a "For Dummies" book. As long as you're relatively comfortable with basic film vocabulary, you'll be fine.

I didn't find any features that were particularly impressive, nor did I find any features that were particularly troubling. There are other options out there, but Pearlman's book is worth your consideration.

"Cutting Rhythms" is not a manual of techniques, but is a very helpful introduction to a host of considerations that get hardly any attention in other manuals. For example, Pearlman gives a very thoughtful analysis of the difference between pacing generated by different planes of action within a shot and pacing generated at the level of cutting. Her focus, as suggested by the title, is on how film editors employ intuition to create rhythm and how that rhythm both contributes to storytelling and operates independently to give texture and feeling to a sequence. An excellent complement to this book, that focuses more directly on the abstract dimension of rhythm, would be The Visual Story (another very valuable Focal Press title). Rather than provide a list of usual solutions to editing difficulties, Pearlman asks what experienced editors do and how they think when faced with such problems, and considers what questions can be asked to motivate similar intuitions about what works. She draws upon cognitive science and phenomenology and film theory, as well as upon the insights of practicing editors from the beginnings (such as Eisenstein and D.W. Griffiths) to today (such as Walter Murch), in addition to her own experience as an educator and editor, mostly of dance films. She is interested more in the process of invention, rather than with identifying what has worked in the past and is likely to have become something of a cliche.

I'm not sure I understand the reviews suggesting this is an excellent starter book for beginning editors. It's not, and doesn't really pretend to be (caveat below). It's nothing like a "how-to" guide. For that you might take a look at some other excellent Focal press books, like Grammar of the Edit. You might say that this is not so much a "grammar" of the edit as a "poetics" of editing. It's not going to be very helpful for the novice who just wants to figure out how to get started. Still, this is a fascinating book for experienced editors that is also a rare contribution to film theory and criticism. There is very little attention within film theory on editing as a process - much more attention is paid to the finished product. In that sense, "Cutting Rhythms" works as a valuable contribution to what Jean-Pierre Geuens calls "Film Production Theory", and looks to flesh out the actual processes at work in the "intuition" of the experienced editor.

I found this to be a very useful and insightful book, and believe it would be well worth study for anyone with a serious interest in cinema, as well as for enthusiastic film lovers who'd like to know more about the process. If you've read Walter Murch's book In the Blink of an Eye, for example, and want to explore further the intricacies of the filmmaking process and the considerations that go into knowing where to cut when and how to build a satisfying edit, "Cutting Rhythms" would be an excellent place to turn. I do think there is some confusion (ironically) in the editing of the book itself - and it's not always clear who the appropriate audience would be. At times it seems that the editors wanted to keep open the possibility of this being seen as a "how-to" manual - which it really isn't. More often, it reads as if it were intended for the more serious and advanced student of editing (I could imagine this being used as a textbook in a "film studies" course on editing or an advanced "film production" course on editing). In fact, though, I think the ideal audience of the book as written, is for the film teacher, one who is interested in both film theory and criticism and in filmmaking (most of the supplementary exercises, for example, are not so much activities for the individual reader as suggestions for teachers of film). As it turns out, that's me, so I was quite happy with the book - though I do think that some with different purposes and backgrounds might do better to look elsewhere.

Okay, let's cut right to the chase here and let me state clearly that this may not be the best book out there on film editing, but I am not going to base my review on a comparison between books. I am basing my review on all of the wonderful information that I was able to take away after reading this book.

Now I am not a film student, nor a professional movie producer by any means. But I am learning and I found this book to be very educational for the novice such as myself. Perhaps if I was more knowledgeable on the subject I would have a different opinion of this book, but alas I do not.

I found this book to be very enjoyable and although I wouldn't really classify it as a technical book, I did find the ideas that it gave me concerning film editing to be immensely valuable. I am looking forward to getting the opportunity to try them out and see what I can come up with.

I must agree with another reviewer that I would like to have seen a bit more variety in the movies that were chosen as examples, but I also agree that this is probably more of an issue with copyright than it is on the actual selection of the movies shown.

Shawn KovacichCreator of numerous books and DVD's.
Creator of numerous books and DVD's.

This is an educational and interesting study on how editing can have a dramatic effect in making a film. While more conceptual than technical the author still goes into great detail and provides many examples as illustration of editing techniques. Editing is one of the aspects of film that is the least thought about by non-film students and the its use is more directed to the subconscious. Certainly, its not something I ever thought much of and I found learning how different editing techniques can make a film to be fascinating. Overall, its an insightful view into the film-making process and the thought that goes into it.