The technique of film editing (1958)

shots. Until they find their final place, they are used almost anywhere because one wants to use them. They have a tremendous quality in themselves but it is very hard to discover immediately what exactly it is. One tries them here and one tries them there, but only when one finds their right juxtaposition do they become alive and acquire their deeper meaning. So far little has been said about the sound-track. Mentioning what is heard on the track during a specific shot is misleading and does not explain the function and significance of the track as a whole — as an integral part of the sequence. The track was not added as a simple accompaniment, nor was it needed as a lift to inadequate images. If you take the track away from the drilling-sequence you will find that the picture by itself is already eloquent. The elements Danger, Magic, etc., are already inherent in the image-composition. But something is missing : the element of sound. The composition of the drilling sequence as a whole was conceived from the very beginning with the sound as an element of equal signifieanee. The same breakdown of elements I used for the selection and continuity of images was applied to the sound. These elements do not necessarily come to the foreground in the track and in the image at the same time. Picture and track, to a certain degree, have a composition of their own but when combined they form a new entity. Thus the track becomes not only an harmonious complement but an integral, inseparable part of the picture as well. Picture and track are so closely fused together that each one functions through the other. There is no separation of / see in the image and / hear on the track. Instead, there is the / feel, I experience, through the grand-total of picture and track combined. Though the track gives the impression that it is constantly an actual sound of the image, speaking strictly technically, it is not. Many details in the drilling operation happen simultaneously, and while the image shows one detail, the track may : (1) sound the same detail, (2) sound the same detail plus (in the mixed track) sound another detail, happening simultaneously, or (3) occupy itself exclusively with another, off-screen detail. Usually when close-up sound-effects are heard in this sequence, another, more general noise is heard simultaneously, representing the total effect of noise heard on a derrick in operation. Sometimes this general and other secondary noises are pushed quite far into the background. In this way one sound standing out in the midst of sudden silence, is more ear-shattering than the combined din of many noises. (See for instance the clattering of the chain around the pipes.) This brake applied to the quantity of sound during increased activity on the screen intensifies the emotional impact. Finally, one word of summing up. One cannot start with an exclusive theoretical or intellectual reasoning, saying for instance : between scenes 1 and 2, I will think this, or between scenes 2 and 3 that. A lot of fumbling must go on before you reach the point where the sequence conveys the desired emotional effect. Nor should too much attention be paid to the mechanical transitions from scene to scene : these play only a comparatively minor part in the composition and unity. What makes a sequence emotionally convincing is an imaginative selection of shots and a clear development of the thought-process underlying the continuity. 155