Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"When you were taking classes at New York University, did the editing class teach the axis principle and continuity editing?" Early the next morning, Walter Mersey came to the office full of energy and began to teach Ronald the secret of editing—— Six principles to distinguish what is good and what is bad.

"Yes, the principle of axis is to keep the camera on one side of the two dialogue characters, and do not move to the other side casually. Otherwise, a character will suddenly appear on the left and right of the audience, which will cause confusion in the audience's thinking. .

The principle of continuity editing is that when editing a person's actions, try to keep them looking continuous. For example, when a person is sitting on a stool and wants to stand up. When switching from a close shot to a medium shot, you need to find a point where the two pieces of film have the same movements to connect them. Try to keep the standing action continuous to avoid the audience feeling strange. "

Ronald explained the standard answer in the film editing class. He saw that Walter was in good spirits today, with a hippie-like beard and a clean shave. He was wearing a plaid suit, and his temperament had changed from a hippie to a very Hollywood elite.

"So, when you watch a new movie, have you carefully observed the editing techniques? Do you always maintain these two principles?"

"No, today's films seem to be influenced by the French New Wave director Godard, and editing often breaks the continuity principle and makes jump cuts.

Some Japanese film directors, such as Akira Kurosawa, don't adhere to the axis principle very much, but I didn't feel anything awkward when watching them. It seems that these two principles are often broken. "

Ronald often pays attention to some technical details that others ignore in Scorsese's film appreciation classes. The film review assignments he writes are often different. He does not talk about artistry or ideological aspects, but talks more about technical details.

"Very good, what I will teach you today are the other four editing principles, namely mood, story, rhythm, and focus of attention." Walter put a reel of film on the editing machine and started playing it.

"This is the first 10 minutes of Apocalypse Now. You can see here that the protagonist played by Martin Sheen is full of angry emotions, and the audience is also infected by this emotion. When editing, you have to ensure that the audience's emotions flow smoothly.

As the story and emotions moved forward, the audience gradually discovered that he was a US Army officer who accepted a mission in Saigon and finally embarked on an adventure.

And the storytelling flows very smoothly. "

"So the first three principles seem to be closely integrated?"

"Yes, it is not easy for us to separate them. Let's look at the fourth principle of focus of sight. The scene of the helicopter propeller gradually fades out, and the audience's focus of sight still stays on the position of the propeller on the screen, so we connect the fade-in scene of the ceiling fan. It should also appear in this location.”

"I understand that when editing, you need to pay attention to which part of the screen the audience is looking at, so that the focus of the next picture continues to be there."

“That’s right, don’t let the audience guess where to look next.”

"So mood, story, rhythm, focus of sight, axis principle, and continuity of action. So those that meet these six principles are good ones and should be picked up according to the principles. Those that don't meet the principles are bad ones and should be cut." Luo Nader concluded.

"Don't you think there's something wrong with your statement?" Walter Mersey raised his lips, "Why are the last two principles often abandoned in today's movies?"

Indeed, Ronald looked back at the beginning of Apocalypse Now, and the axis principle was violated by the scene where the protagonist accepted the mission, and the action continuity was not followed at all. The strange thing is that I didn't feel awkward when I watched it.

"I feel that the most important thing is the emotional experience of the audience. As long as this is met and the principle of axis and continuity is violated, the audience will not feel it."

"Very well. Principles are important, but what's more important is knowing when not to follow them." Walter nodded. This student knew everything, and his understanding was really good.

“If we rank these six principles, mood, story, rhythm, focus of sight, axis principle, and continuity of action.

Any one principle is more important than all the subsequent principles combined. If you cannot have both, in order to ensure the principle of superiority, you can violate the principle of inferiority. "

"For example, the axis principle is very intuitive, and we always feel that it should not be violated. As long as it is violated, the audience will feel that the two speaking characters have swapped positions, which is very dramatic.

But Akira Kurosawa's films don't take the axis principle into consideration because his story and rhythm are so good that the audience won't feel that the camera is off-axis when watching it. The superior principle can always block the inferior principle. "

Ronald quickly wrote down the secrets. This was the true story.

"To give another common example in American movies, there is always a scene in the movie that always deliberately violates the axis principle. Do you know what it is?"

Ronald thought for a while, but still shook his head to express that he didn't know.

"It's a passion scene, because emotionally, we want the audience to feel the power of the hero and heroine's passion. When the passion comes, we always forget everything else and feel like the world is spinning.

Therefore, when editing passionate scenes, good editors will deliberately violate the axis, giving the audience a spinning feeling and letting them feel the power of passion. "

Ronald nodded, "So if you satisfy the audience's visual focus, they will ignore the axis and continuity principles that you violate. But the audience will not ignore the mistakes in emotions, stories, and rhythm. The upper principle can block the lower principle, but not vice versa."

"That's right. The reason for this is the audience's attention. The purpose of these principles is to keep the audience's attention on the screen. We must be able to foresee the audience's next shift in attention and give them new things before they lose interest."

Ronald felt that this was very familiar. Roger Corman's director's secret also talked about the preciousness of the audience's attention. It seems that successful film industry practitioners think similarly.

"So how can we predict the audience's attention?"

"Experience, intuition, and feedback from previews, there is no other way." Walter Merzi sighed, "This is why no one understands the secret of movie box office success. Every new movie is groping and weighing."

"If I can continue to dream about the movies I have seen in my previous life, wouldn't it be a powerful weapon compared to others?" Ronald decided to go back to the hotel and try to sleep and dream again.

"Remember my lecture at New World?" Walter seemed to want to tell Ronald all the important things first, so that he could write them down and then slowly understand them when he encountered them at work.

"Yes, I kept all my notes."

"Editing is not about speed. It depends on how fast you can finish editing. It is not about how many times you edit. It is also about how much money you can get by counting the number of edits. This is an art and a science. It is more appropriate to say that editing is a craft."

"The more you practice, the more proficient you will be in scientific principles and artistic choices, and the faster you will be able to find the best solution."

"Editing often requires thinking about different permutations and combinations back and forth, how to connect this one to that one, how to cut from here and connect to there. Many times you will feel that you don't have enough time. I will teach you a way of thinking that can save time."

Walter Merzi opened the drawer of his desk, took out a large-format notebook, and opened it to Ronald.

"This seems to be a photo reprinted from film?" Ronald himself is a photographer and is very familiar with the various photos in the notebook, all of which were reprinted from the film of Apocalypse Now.

"Yes, my method is to pick a frame that best represents each shot, copy it into a photo and stick it on the wall. If it is a long shot, 2-3 photos can be used to represent it.

This way, when I think about the arrangement and combination, I don't have to repeatedly disassemble and install the film, and I can use these photos instead."

"So that's how it is." Ronald looked at each photo carefully. For example, in the long shot of getting up at the beginning, Walter picked three photos of Martin Sheen jumping out of the bed, cutting his palm with the mirror, and starting to do Tai Chi.

If you have seen every film shot, it is easy to recall which scene these three photos represent.

"The exposure process of movie film is different from that of photo film. I have explored a set of parameters that can be used to copy movie film in Kodak photo studio to produce the effect of ordinary photos without losing the details of the movie film."

Walter took out a piece of paper and handed it to Ronald.

"You learn very quickly." I have nothing to teach you anymore. "The rest is to hone your skills and accumulate experience."

Ronald took it and looked at it. It was a set of parameters. It used a method of low sensitivity and long exposure. According to this method, the film can be developed into a photo with ideal effects at Kodak Photo Studio.

Ronald took the secret book and carefully put it in his notebook. He had a lot of words of gratitude in his heart.

Walter turned around and took another large glass bottle and handed it to him, "This is the honey that Angie brought you. It is brewed by our own bees. I heard that you like it very much, so I will give you another big bottle."

"Keep working hard. One day I will see the movie you directed on the screen." Walter hugged Ronald encouragingly and patted him on the back.

"You too, Walter, I will go to see your new Disney movie."

Friendship between men sometimes does not need to be measured by material or spoken. Ronald returned to the hotel with a lot of gains and sorted it out carefully. Don't forget these precious knowledge.

Ronald sorted it out carefully before going to rest.

Still lying on the bed for a while to find the feeling of dreaming.

Turn off the lights, and fall asleep in the hotel bed in broad daylight.

Hazily, Ronald seemed to dream of a white soldier, picking up a rifle and trying to save people in the hail of bullets. He carried a black soldier on his shoulders and ran back desperately, then was hit in the butt by a bullet. The black soldier was mumbling something to the white soldier.

The scene changed, and Ronald saw the face of the black soldier clearly. It was his uncle Steve. No, Steve was white. Ronald looked at the white soldier's face again, and it was blurry and he couldn't see who it was.

"Ring, ring, ring..." Ronald was awakened by a ringing phone.

"Hello, who?" Ronald answered the phone unhappily. It turned out that he was really dreaming, dreaming of his uncle who died in the Vietnam battlefield, not the movie "My Brother's Keeper".

"Your script sold for $350,000?" The person on the phone was Eddie, his advertising director business agent in New York. He was shouting, "I regret not taking your screenwriter agent business as well."

"How did you know?" Ronald sat up from the bed. How could the news be leaked?