The pace of a movie depends on the time that believes itself in it, and on how the assembly arranges the duration of the planes and relates the facts that are narrated.
The pace of a movie depends also on other technologies, as the movement in the scene, the use of the chamber or the sound. With all this it is possible to create a uniform compass or a dynamic tempo (intensive or slow) to create different emotions.
Here it is the link of the sequence. I really recommend you to see it because it will be very helpful. Our part stars in the minute 1:24:
Here it is also the sequence divided in 20 scenes, to make you easier understand what we are talking about:
During the phases of creation of the movie and especially during the assembly, it is fundamental…
- To decide when it skips from a point of view to other one.
- To measure with a compass the movements between plane and plane.
- And to decide how much time is going to remain an image on screen.
Let´s start. First of all we will talk about: alternation, repetition and tempo.
In this sequence is difficult to analyse alternation because alternation is based on the silence, on how and when it appears. Here we only can hear it once, so that there is not a big alternation to talk about because it lasts very little. But in addition we can say that it appears in a perfect combination with a blackout. Well, as you can guess the women are afraid, are scared; that means they would scream for anything.
Secondly, there is repetition but not connected with a metronome and obviously it is not connected by his alternation either. It exist a repetition on the planes. In a line of succession of the scenes, we first can see general planes, then they are focused more on the first planes to make the planes get a general perspective until the last 4 or 5 scenes more or less – this is another topic that you can read about in my blog alejandrosolweb -.
This sequence represents the spontaneity of the facts, the rapidity and the uncertainty with which the spectator must be until he understands what is happening. This means that there is neither a definite series of repetitions nor alternation, for what it is of «tempo» either, not to allow to our brain and perception to get accommodated in a zone in the one that we can manage to feel what is going to happen.
Rhythm of stationary objects
Here it is a sequence of images where you can see how the combination of the vertical and horizontal lines reveals the complete visual rhythm. The dotted lines show how the frame has been divided into a variety of areas: (P. Lacasa, 2015)
Pay attention to the images numbers correspondent to the scenes:
To conclude this part of the article I´m going to explain what you have just seen.
This sequence is built with two main elements: human bodies and straight lines (showers, water, etc). This means that human bodies, including their heads, create a rectangular form, so as a consequence we will see a lot of vertical and horizontal lines. Then we must know that this sequence represents a shower room, where the woman who were in the concentration camp were taken to the showers. Shower. An object which has got principally horizontal lines; although when the water falls. In this moment we will see more vertical lines.
The biggest contrasts appear in the scenes 8, 9 and 10. In that moment we changed our perception about seeing human faces (vertical and horizontal lines with an order) to see crusaded lines between them.
Later, when the water appears in the fourteenth scene (14) it appears also vertical lines which get mixed with the ones before.
Rhythm of moving objects
As I said before: “This sequence represents the spontaneity of the facts, the rapidity and the uncertainty with which the spectator must be until he understands what is happening” the objects (people) do not stop moving in any moment but, if you read my “How is movement created in a film?” article, you will understand that the objects do not pass by in front of each other, they do not stop, and while you are watching the film you do not have time to think about how are they moving one by one.
They move their heads, they move their arms, and the scene where you can see people changing their position is in the seventh one (7), when we have a general plane where we can see many bodies.
Editorial rhythm
In this part we have two topics to talk about: alternation and repetition.
In the first scenes it exist repetition. We see that the objects are situated more or less in the same position, and it goes like the same for 6 scenes. Then this effects brokes and we see alternation. You just need to go up in the article and repeat the serie of images about the rhythm. So that after the seventh scene (7) there is an alternation in the rhythm, any scene is similar to the one before until the eleventh one (11), when the repetition appears other time to make the spectator feel more relaxed in the moment we see that the room is not a gas chamber.
The event
“A single action, a scene or a group of scenes or an entire story can be called an event. This event can be simple (a hand opens a door) or complex (a person is born, lives to be 90, and dies). Any event can be broken down into a number of subevents” (P. Lacasa, 2015)
I dare to affirm that this sequence is a continuous event.
There is no change in the time, is a moment represented without no type of stop, is a continuous, clear situation and without distractions foreign to what happens inside the room. This way of representing the time, that is to say, as is, names “time of continuity » but even this way we can divide it in subevents.
- The doors get closed
- We see a group of scared woman inside of a room
- We see them now but inside of the room, it seems to be a gas chamber
- We see an elderly woman, a child and a middle-aged woman
- We see the group of women
- Again two women looking up
- The showers throw water
- They shout, are surprised, breathe relieved and smile
Rhythmic patterns
It might exist a combination between the three types of rhythmic patterns. I will explain. First of all we star with a slower undulating flow-line (1-2), but a few moments later it changes to a one with a very big peak and a valley (2-3). After that we are moving around between and slower one and a rhythmic one (3-12) and its growing and growing until we recognize that the room is not a chamber gas, that is a shower room (13-14). Finally, from 15 to 20 we can say that it has a great rhythmic peaks and valleys, without energetic scenes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTEF, 2015. “El cine como recurso didáctico Módulo 4b – Lenguaje cinematográfico: Ritmo. Ritmo y montaje”. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte | Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías Educativas y de Formación del Profesorado. Available on: http://www.ite.educacion.es/formacion/materiales/24/cd/m4_2/ritmo_y_montaje.html
INTEF, 2015. “El cine como recurso didáctico Módulo 4b – Lenguaje cinematográfico: Ritmo. Expresar con el Ritmo”. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte | Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías Educativas y de Formación del Profesorado. Available on:
http://www.ite.educacion.es/formacion/materiales/24/cd/m4_2/expresar_con_el_ritmo.html
MARTÍNEZ-SALANOVA SÁNCHEZ, E. 2012. “El tiempo cinematográfico” in Cine y Educación. Available on: http://www.uhu.es/cine.educacion/cineyeducacion/tiempocine.htm
LACASA, P. 9 December 2015. “Session 7 2 Audiovi Rhythm” in Prezi. Available on: https://prezi.com/ds1vcqqmyqi1/session-7-2-audiovi-rhythm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
I hope it was helpful and you liked it. You can comment!
See you soon.
By Alejandro Soler Redondo
CINE GRATIS 