Editing - Alternatives to the continuity system

Behind the cut:
Examples of
Long Take
Jump-Cut
Associative Editing or “Montage”
Hollywood-style Montage

Long Take

Long takes are simply shots that extend for a long period of time before cutting to the next shot. Generally, any take greater than a minute in length is considered a long take. Usually done with a moving camera, long takes are often used to build suspense or capture the attention of audience of without breaking their concentration by cutting the film.
The opening scene from Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump follows a feather blowing carefree in the wind, eventually landing on the foot of the protagonist who proceeds to pick it up and place it in his suitcase. This scene acts as a metaphor for the whole movie, as the feather represents Forrest. Just as the feather blows around for what seems like forever, just going where the wind takes it until it eventually lands in a safe place, Forrest seems to just blow aimlessly through life, going wherever life and fate may take him with out too much consideration of his own, until he eventually lands in a happy place.

The next long take is from Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption. A white bus is seen driving up the street towards a long building. As the bus turns to drive around the building the camera goes straight over the top of the building to reveal the vast expanses of Shawshank Prison. Hundreds of prisoners in the yard are all seen walking in the same direction, seemingly toward the same place. As the camera makes it to the end of the prison yard the bus returns to the frame, meeting a group of guards at the same spot all of the prisoners had been heading towards.

This long take sequence, from Scorsese’s Mean Streets, shows Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in a state of barely coherent drunkenness. The sequence was accomplished by attaching a Steadicam to the actor’s body in such a way as to continually frame his face in close-up in spite of his uncertain movements. The position of the camera serves to capture the disorientation and estrangement of the character as he stumbles around the crowded bar. The red color of the image, together with the absurd musical accompaniment, helps to render the atmosphere of a seedy night club.

Jump-Cut

A Jump-Cut is an example of the elliptical style of editing where one shot seems to be abruptly interrupted. Typically the background will change while the individuals stay the same, or vice versa. Jump-cuts stray from the more contemporary style of continuity editing where the plot flows seamlessly to a more ambiguous story line. An example of this editing style can be found in the following clips from Capote (2005).

Associative Editing or “Montage”

The following clip is taken from Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. This unique combination of shots shows a marble lion reacting to the sailors’ rebellion in the harbor. In the context of the story, the ship opens fire on Cossack reinforcements sent to quell its revolt. Eisenstein integrates lions sculpted in various postures to suggest that all of Moscow is awakening to the people’s cause. The sequence requires the viewer to interpret, to “read” the metaphor inherent in the statues and to derive a meaning from their presence in the diegesis.

Hollywood-style Montage

Montage also describes the approach used in commercial cinema to piece together fragments of different yet related images, sounds/music, often in the style of a music video. The following sequence, from Pretty Woman (1991), is an example of the hollywood style montage. The film, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, shows the main character Vivienne as she transitions from a scantily-clad, unrefined hooker, into Edward’s elegant, poised and well-dressed companion. The soundtrack plays over the background as snippets of various clothing and body parts are shown. In the concluding frame of sequence, the final product, the “new Vivienne”, approaches the camera in a white, tailored outfit and a ladylike hat.