THE ROLE OF EDITING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC NARRATIVE IN INTERACTIVE MOVIES
Ingeborg Fülepp, 1992
Film editing is one of the oldest technique of film language. From the beginning of film history till today Lindgren said: "Development of film in its basic is the development of editing".
The first theoretical thoughts about film language appeared already in the beginning of this century and from then on film editing became an instrument of an analysing, systematising thinking, or as Pudovkin said: "The determined creative of editing had influenced filmmakers in their creative process." Script writing, directing, acting, photography and set design had already existed before film making and were adopted by the film industry. "Editing on the other hand was born in the process of making the motion picture. It is certain that without this significant new skill the motion picture would never have become the art it is today." Rene L. Ash
It is not only the level of the image, but also the complexity of combinations of sound and image which inspire. While the film was still projected withought a synchrony sound, film makers were experimenting with the possibility to "find an optical equivalent to build temporal musical construction", as Theo van Doesburg named that a "Bachs Dream". Doesburg also through about the viewer, who does not only see a film as a silent performance, but also can experience "film acoustically as well as optically." On the other side Eisenstein was investigating to find the principals of cubist paintings in the field of film making - still images were being expanded through the dynamics movement.
Many of the editing principals were developed before the invention of sound film such as, for example. Eisenstein's "Montage Attraction". One can agree with Siegfried Krakauer that film as art and also editing, with the invention of the sound and dominant dialogues is suppressed and lost significance for several years. Sequences from the films of Giffith, Gance and Eisenstein in their attractive complexity of the film language had reached a peak in the history of film. Even when many is forgotten, there are some of the most interesting works of the experimental films which had influenced the development of film editing and therefore also film language (Walter Ruttman's "Berlin-Symphony of the City", Abel Gance's "Napoleon", Rene Clair's Entre Act" etc.)
At the turning point of the film history, when electronic and digital media are dominating also in the film industry, we can find a further development of the film language at that point where the old technologies are bridging to the new ones. Fast interchange of edited sequences in music videos has some similarities with some classical silent films, but don't have anymore the meaning that they had, even when their surreal images remind on some experimental films from the same period (Chien Andalou by Bunuel/Dali for example).
Contrary to the film possibilities, video technique, gives possibilities to the editor-director to manipulate with the images with the varieties of the digital processed - special effects. The role of the editor through these possibilities has changed. It is not longer enough to have the sense for the dramatic narrative, rhythm and organisation of the film structure, but a modern editor must show the talents such are usually apt to a painter or a designer. Further development of the film language is therefore possible by combining these skills. Electronic media and digital technique can also help to simulate film production but essentially they are adding new aesthetics.
The task of a modern editor is not only to be educated on the classical film field and to learn new technologies, but also to have a vision a perspectives of the future. Multimedia systems are enabling to connect so called old media (film, video) with new media (computer graphic, computer animation etc.). Working with interactive multimedia systems, one can simultaneously learn and create, view and intervene. To think about the future movies as interactive, it is very helpful to use experience from editing films. A large number of combinations and possibilities to re-edit, or re-structure a dramatic narrative, it is a task of a good editor. In interactive movies, the viewer is becoming an editor, who can organise given footage in a variety of a personally chosen order. Therefore, to create a movie which would be possible to re-organize without loosing dramatic coherence would be a task of the new dramaturgist and also of a film director.
Movies of the future will become more fragmented in their dramatical narration. Through the possible variations of elements of the narrative, the story-line might get a new quality. Multimedia system will give even more possibilities to a passive viewer to became active, to participate in adding a new, personal quality to the film structure. By changing the shory line, adding special effects, changing the music, making own sound effects, visions of the future can be put in practice.