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FILM EDITING montage/dcoupage

Everyone who has read a little bit about film remembers montage as what Eisenstein did. ButDcoupage? Unusually, wiki does not provide an answer.

Note5 in:

Andr Bazin: Part 1, Film Style Theory in its Historical Context [1]

an essay in Offscreen.

There are two terms used by Bazin which either take on a different meaning in their

English translation or dont have an equivalent. Montage in English terminology

implies a rigorous and expressive editing style. Most editing sequences juxtapose

shots of varying space, time, and content combining to create an over- all idea,

meaning, or tone. Editing implies the formal construction of the film from one shot to

the next and is not necessarily expressive. Bazin uses the terms interchangeably.

The second term, decoupage, has no English equivalent. The French definition is to

cut, but applied to film the word is better described as construction. Noel Burch, in

Theory of Film Practice, defines the three terms for which decoupage is inter

changeably used for as: 1) The final form of a script replete with the required

technical information. 2) The practical breakdown of the films construction into

separate shots/sequences prior to filming & 3) The underlying structure of the

finished film, which has probably deviated from the original decoupage.

Jonathan Rosenbaum posts up his dcoupage [2]entry for what he says was an aborted

Oxford Companion to Film.

GoogleBook of Film Editing By Valerie Orpen, elucidates more and ties it in with editing.

The Classic French Cinema, 1930-1960

By C. G. Crisp

page 301: Stages in development of script

There were [..] five stages listed in script development manuals: the synopsis, the

traitment, the continuit, the dialogues or continuit dialogue, and the dcoupage

techniqu. Frequently, mention is made of a prior stage, the ide de film, whichmight be an anecdote noted in a few lines or at most a few pages.

There are a few pages missing here and there, but the discussion on dcoupage runs on up

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6HpNM68U2nkC&pg=PA300&lpg=PA300&dq=decoupage+film&source=web&ots=yxteuvHoBU&sig=bMzR8ePpY95YHA-KN3RU_P-rKlk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA305,M1http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6HpNM68U2nkC&pg=PA300&lpg=PA300&dq=decoupage+film&source=web&ots=yxteuvHoBU&sig=bMzR8ePpY95YHA-KN3RU_P-rKlk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA305,M1http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UtbhRnmQj3AC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=decoupage+film&source=web&ots=T9-sXu_PT_&sig=_Hk32RHEDiJ1fKeVReaxMM3RwBU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA2,M1http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=14789http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/bazin_intro.html

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to page 15, where there is a quote from Rene Clair:

When I have finished writing the dcoupage, my film is made.

French Film Theory and Criticism

By Richard Abel

has three beginning pages of The Decoupage by Henri Diament-Berger from the Le

filmage section of a book called Le Cinma.

This is very useful because he gives an example of a decoupaged scene: a numbered list

with meters of film to be used in each shot. He then goes on to mention logical decoupage.

How meters of film convert to mins/secs, would be nice to know. Suppose if one knew how

many frames per meter (we already know 24 fps), tout a fait.

On the History of Film Style by David Bordwell

{GoogleBook}

This Screening the Past review [3]of Valerie Orpens Fim editing: the art of the expressive,

points out the not always obvious point: editing as cutting and joining.

The Classical Hollywood Cinema [4]by David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, Kristin Thompson

Chapter 6. Shot and scene. As usual there are vital pages missing, but enough to get thegeneral idea plus some.

Look on these annoying missing pages not as a reason to have to buy the book, more like

the discovery of a pile of dusty out takes from which you are painstakingly recontructing the

mind of the long gone editor of some unnamed film.

For the beginner, the first paragraph can be quite sufficient to mull over. Though what there

is of the rest of the chapter is fascinating stuff. Anyone know what a timer is? Well, here you

learn this job was to work out the total running time of a script.

Using the search option in GoogleBook to find the other mentions of decoupage.

Film Editing By Don Fairservice

An over 300 page book no index; no mention of dcoupage.

About these ads [5]

December 30, 2008 [6]- Posted by adferoafferro [7]| decoupage [8], film editing [9], film [its

techniques] [10]| David Bordwell [11], decoupage [12], film editing [13]

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1. http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/bazin_intro.html

2. http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=14789

3. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/reviews/rev_17/MDbr17a.html

4. http://books.google.co.uk/books?

id=AkUOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=film+decoupage&source=web&ots=g5-

jd0Qz1b&sig=a3KCXR275_WLFuvfPzuXxummrKI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result

5. http://en.wordpress.com/about-these-ads/

6. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/

7. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/author/adferoafferro/

8. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/category/decoupage/

9. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/category/film-editing/

10. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/category/film-its-techniques/

11. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/tag/david-bordwell/

12. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/tag/decoupage/

13. http://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/tag/film-editing/