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In passing, it is perhaps worth noting that Pudovkin has described a similar passage from his own experience :
I wished to show a terrific explosion. In order to render the effect of this explosion with absolute faithfulness, I caused a great mass of dynamite to be buried in the earth, had it blasted, and shot it. The explosion was veritably colossal — but filmically it was nothing. On the screen it was merely a slow, lifeless movement. Later, after much trial and experiment, I managed to edit the explosion with all the effect I required — moreover without using a single piece of the scene I had just taken. I took a flammenwerfer that belched forth clouds of smoke. In order to give the effect of the crash I cut in short flashes of magnesium flare, in rhythmic alternation of light and dark. Into the middle of this I cut a shot of a river taken some time before, that seemed to me appropriate owing to its special tones of light and shade. Thus gradually arose before me the visual effect I required. The bomb explosion was at last upon the screen, but in reality, its elements comprised everything imaginable except a real explosion.1
Why, it may be asked, is it necessary to distort the tempo of natural events, or even to use purely artificial means — as Pudovkin showed — to achieve an effect of reality ? The answer is at least twofold.
Firstly, successful reportage must be concerned with showing only the most significant aspects of an event ; it does not deal in absolute, literal reporting. Secondly — and this is why Pudovkin's edited explosion was more effective than the record of the real one — a natural event has a " feel " of its own, it evokes a certain emotional reaction which it is the film-maker's job to capture and which may be the clue to authenticity of presentation even if the details are not exactly right. The impression of cool yet hurried efficiency which is a feature of the firing sequence from Merchant Seamen is expressed in film terms by rapid cutting ; the changing emotional tension as the submarine gets nearer to the surface and brings the moment of danger closer, must in a film be expressed through the editing — through the variations of tempo and the constant shifting of emphasis. Clearly, these emotional overtones are not implicit in the uncut film and are only brought out on the cutting bench.
1 Film Technique by V. I. Pudovkin. Newnes, 1933, p. xvi.
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