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The technique of film editing (1958)

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Ft. 31 Closer shot of che children. They 20 scramble for the food and each retires in turn with his small piece. One small boy remains in frame : he picks up a small parcel of stale food and avidly bites into it. 32 An Indian crowd. Everyone is 4 holding dishes above his head, appealing for food. 33 F.S. An old starving Indian woman, Commentator (D) : 5 gesticulating with her hands, ap Why ? pealing for food. 34 Overhead shot. A large Indian What is the reason for it ? 8 crowd on a hunger demonstration. Fade out. The makers of The World is Rich viewed (and cross-indexed for reference) some 800,000 feet of film in search of the right material. Some impression of the variety of material they have drawn on is given by the sources of the first few shots : 1, 6 and 8 are from an American documentary, Harvest for Tomorrow ; 2 and 3 are from Flaherty's The Land ; 4, 12, 13, 15, 16 from a March of Time film ; 7 from a Colonial Film Unit documentary ; 11 and 14 from Minnesota Document ; 17-23 were specially shot. The criterion of selection was, in each case, that every shot should make its impact directly, without the aid of words. Each image must make a strong impression when seen on its own and communicate its point without any shade of ambiguity. In shot 1, for example, the whole screen is filled with a vast view of ripe wheat : the shot is taken from above and the sky-line (which might have given the image a kind of picturesque landscape significance) does not at first appear in the frame. In the same way, every subsequent shot is chosen for the same quality of making an immediate and forceful impression. The directness of the impact of the whole passage thus depends on each shot making its contribution to the total effect : none of the shots take their meaning only from an association of ideas. The whole excerpt quoted is a prologue to a film essay on the world food situation and concisely states the two sides of the problem which are investigated in detail in later reels. It will be noticed that though the commentary occasionally makes a small point to strengthen an effect, each new aspect of the theme is in the first place established visually. 206