Home Movies (1944)

• Judging proper scene length in editing is important. An action-crammed scene of cattle branding will command greater interest than a static scenic shot and therefore justify more footage. IT THE UMM p, PROFESSIONALS are agreed that good film editing is dependent upon smart camera work as well as skillful cutting. Even scene in a picture must be filmed with an eye toward the final editing, otherwise the editor is placed at the disadvantage of not having adequate material to work with. In amateur movie making, invariably the cameraman also is the editor and therefore his job is doubly exacting. This was interestingly re-emphasized in a discussion this writer recently had with two professionals — a studio cinematographer and a film editor, one of Hollywood's best. The cameraman was strong in his view that the amateur should always gauge his shots with full consideration as to how they are to be edited to gain the most effective continuity result. Amateur movie makers who must, to a large extent, "cut" as they shoot, are subject to three faulty habits: There is the filmer who, seemingly fascinated by the whirr of his camera, holds a scene indefinitely and hates to stop shooting. To the other extreme is the filmer who, with cost of film firmly in mind, thinks only of quickly releasing his finger from the starting button and hence misses a great deal. Then there is the fellow who has it all figured out; he shoots every scene the same length regardless of subject or action. None has the answer to proper scene length — one of the most perplexing of all amateur filming problems. Nor are there any hard and fast mathematical rules that can be laid down for the amateur to follow. Judging proper scene length comes with experience, and how long it takes an amateur to gain this experience depends upon his ability to observe and study. A scene, it has been said, should be as long as it is worth. Putting it another way, a scene should remain on the screen only long enough to picture the action, give a minimum of viewing time to a static vista, or amplify, in closeup, action occurring in a previous scene. Where scenes extend beyond their required time, they pad out the picture with unnecessary footage, slow up action and therefore lose audience interest. Movie stories are similar to written stories printed in books. There are short stories, long stories, book-length novels — no two with the same amount of wordage. The subject matter and treatment controls the length. The padding of a short story to a book-length novel is at once obvious to the reader, and similar treatment of a movie subject gains the same audience response. In general movie making where a prepared story script is not followed, the question of scene length is always present. Here the subject matter can deter • When cutting directly from long or medium shots, make sure the positions and movements of subjects match correctly as in this example of a cut from medium shot to closeup in the picture, "Old, Old Story," filmed by Pat Rafferty. mine individual scene length. A scene crammed with action, such as the calfbranding shot at top of page, will command greater interest than the static view of the scenic vista next to it. A long shot must have greater length than a medium shot from the same set-up because more area is included and more time is needed for eyes of the audience tc take it in. The nearer the shot, the shorter can be its length. A screen-filling closeup of a face is effective when flashed briefly on the screen. The audience quickly gets its significance and is ready for the next scene. To put it another way, the brief 60