Editing: Realism, Classicism, Formalism

Editing

Editing has been grouped into 3 groups, Realism, Classicism, and Formalism, in order of amount of editing. Realism is the use of long static shots and minimal editing, letting the viewer determine what is the most important thing in the scene, it was made famous by the neorealists of Italy in the 1940's. Classicism is cutting in a very modern sense, cutting to dramatic action, letting the editor explicitly express what is the most important thing in the scene. Formalism is the juxtaposition of images in a montage, with editing creating meaning form related or unrelated imagery. This technique was pioneered by Russians in the Soviet Union.

The film I chose to express these 3 styles of editing is the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Formalism

Example

Formalism is the juxtaposition of images to create meaning. Is this scene, the Ape moves forward on the first step of evolution towards man. The ape figures out how to use a bone as a tool and thus a weapon, and we see him crush more bones. The cutting in a a falling pig creates meaning in the context: we can see that the ape will or is thinking about using the bone as a more of a weapon than a tool. It is a thematic montage, IE  a montage of related images to create a theme to connect them. Another example of formalism is at the end of the film. Kubrick juxtaposes images of babies in embryos and inverted color landscapes. What you would expect of an eyeline match from the old man (a few seconds ago an young astronaut) leads to him as an older man in bed looking at a monolithic black pillar. 

Realism

Most of the movie is cut is a mix of the classical and realist styles of Kubrickian editing. Therefore, I will examine both ends of the spectrum. In this shot sequence, The camera never moves and we never get any cuts to their faces individually or over the shoulders. The deep focus in this shot allow us to realize the ominous HAL in the background reading the lips of the astronauts. The scene itself lasts over 3 minutes, with no cut aways or the like. Kubrick uses this and the lack of a consistent score throughout the film to give the viewer a sense of uncomfortableness and emptiness, fitting for the long voyages in space. Also, this realism makes us feel as if we are in the scene, and Kubrick uses all the visual vectors in the scene to suggest that HAL is the most important thing in the scene.

Classicism  

  Classicism is editing in a classical way; cutting to action to dramatize certain things in the scene. In this scene, the astronauts discuss the monolith just found on the moon. This scene is cut very normally compared to the rest of the film, it make us feel a bit more comfortable. Much like our character, who is surrounded by friendly people, we can feel more at ease. This ease later creates a contrast with the long static silent shots when the crew reaches the monolith. We have classical cuts to people talking and cut aways to object in the scene.