The technique of film editing (1958)

13 THE COMPILATION FILM It is my belief1 (and some day I mean to conduct the experiment), that given at random, say half a dozen shots of different nature and subject, there are any number of possible combinations of the six that, with the right twist of commentary, could make film sense. The maker of compilation films extends this hypothetical experiment into a practical method of film production. Working with newsreel and allied material which has not been scripted or shot for the purpose for which the compiler will use it, he is able to make films with a smooth, logically developing continuity. Without the advantages of a planned shooting script — without directed performances from actors, properly interrelating shots, etc. — the compiler's sole assets are his skill as an editor and his ability to exploit the remarkable suggestive power of spoken commentary. The production of compilations is made possible by the systematic preservation of newsreel and documentary footage which now forms an accepted part of the work of most newsreel companies and national film archives. The earliest examples of newsreel compilations were produced in this country from diverse material covering the 1914-1918 war, and the potentialities of the method have been widely realised in many countries since. The Russian director Dziga Vertov experimented in the genre as early as 1923 {Kine Truth, Kine Calendar) and followed his early experiments with more ambitious ventures in the early days of sound, in Enthusiasm (1931) and Three Songs about Lenin (1934). The Americans have developed their own vigorous polemical style of compilation, beginning with such early successes as Louis de Rochemont's Cry of the World (1932) and Seldes and Ullman's This is America (1933) and reaching a peak of achievement in the March of Time films and Frank Capra's war-time Why We Fight series. The Germans 1 Notes by Peter Baylis. 194