Class 1 - Physical, Emotional and Event rhythm
Hi there. Here are my notes from today’s class. Information taken from the book:
Pearman, Karen. Cutting Rhythms. Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2009.
“The world’s external rhythms are a primary source of knowledge about rhythm in film, because they are the rhythms that frame our existence, expectations and knowledge of the movement of time and energy in life.
Editors need actively to perceive and shape the flow of time and energy through movement to shape a film’s rhythm.”
- Cutting Rhythms (p7)
“Movement is the visible and audible manifestation of energy and time...” – Cutting Rhythms (p10)
Mirror neurons cause the viewer to experience the movement he/she watches. - (p11 -12)
Breathing and blinking with actor is another method used by editors to manipulate the viewer’s experience. – (p20)
Three types of rhythm:
Physical Rhythm
“One experience the spectator has of movement is the sensory experience of physical movement – of purely visual and aural aspects of shaping of time, space and energy...Following along with the arcs and flows of movement is a kind of ride in and of itself, in which the contraction and expansion of dynamics in space, time and energy are a physical experience”
Emotional Rhythm
[May be] ...barely separable from the first...and have the same source, but is experienced differently.
The editor’s attention when cutting psychological exchanges is not so much on the motion of the images as on the “dance” of the emotions. The editor is still shaping the physical movement (that’s all she has to work with), but she shapes it with her focus on how it conveys emotion, not on how it conveys pattern or spectacle. The term used for the rhythms an editor shape from movement experienced as emotional movement is called Emotional Rhythm.
Event Rhythm
An event is the release of new information or change of direction for characters as they pursue their goals. Each significant change in the story or structure is an event. Some are big and have repercussions for the plot as a whole: others are minor and change the direction of the plot a bit”
These changes can happen in rapid succession or only appear once or twice in the whole film.
“It is what happens in a story as distinct from the emotional changes (which may, of course, be the source of the story changes) and image flow (which expresses and reveals the events).
“These three types of rhythm – Physical, Emotional and Event rhythm – are cumulative. The physical rhythm sets up a kinaesthetic empathy. The emotional rhythm relies on the physical, which is reframed as emotionally laden, to have its impact. And the event rhythm relies on both the movement of image and sound and the movement of emotion to communicate or convey its information.
All three strands of rhythm are ultimately just one strand of rhythm – that of the edited film – but making distinctions does have practical uses for the editing process.”
Emotional Rhythm
A: Throwing the energy ball
· All catch energy the way it was thrown
· Energy is invisible. No one here kept their eyes on the person who threw the ball. They followed the invisible ball to the next person.
This is exactly what an editor does to create emotional rhythm. She is catching your eye with the emotional energy and then throwing it to the next shot.
B: Questions you can ask:
1. Where is the optimal energy point for the throw?
2. How will it be caught?
3. What will the effect be?
Simpler way:
C : Every action has a reaction.
D: Every action can be broken up into:
Prepare
Action
Recovery
4. Where should you cut to achieve your emotional rhythm?
E: Characters have objectives and actions.
OBJECTIVES – What the character REALLY WANTS.
ACTION – May I have a cup of tea? Stretching out hand.
What he is doing to GET what he really WANTS.
5. How will you reveal the character’s objectives via your editing?
