Intensified Continuity

According to David Bordell, explain how and why continuity has intensified in Hollywood cinema. Also consider whether anything has been lost with this change.

David Bordell descrbibes four new ways of how continuity has been intensified in Hollywood cinema. http://chs.schoolloop.com/file/1093918504865/5099174491148334296.pdf

     Over the course of film making, the Average Shot Length (ASL) has decreased in length from 19 seconds to even as short as 2.7 seconds. This extreme change in editing has caused for rapid transitions between shots alowing for the plot of the movie, short film, or clip to progress. This, i believe, is one of the reason shots have decreased in length. "As Kuleshov and Pudovkin pointed out, clasical continuity contains built-in redundencies: shot/reverse shot reiterates the information about character position givin in the establishing shot, and so do eyelines and body orientations." Generally the audience has a short attention span including Americans; they are a prime factor in the film industry. It is probably true that Americans watch more cinema than any other coutries in the world. In order to keep an audience intrigued to the story, you not only have to have a good narrative but David Bordell describes that the shots have to be shorter. And although an average shot length of about 3 seconds should be enough to keep the story moving towards its climax the audience looses time to focus on details within the shot in order to find a deeper meaning within the story.

     The bipolar extremes of lense lengths is the second part of intensified contuity; it explored a variety of lenses that have been used throughout the film industry and the movies apart of it. From the 1910-1940s normal lenses with focal lengths of 50 mm - 2 inches and longer lenses with 100 mm - 500mm and shorter lenses with 25 mm - 35 mm were the foundation of film making. By the 1970s, cinematographers had been able to manipulate the lenses throuhg anamorphic processes which would for example distort a shot on a wide angles lense. Wide angle lenses became the standard for most shots: establishing shots, close ups, and medium shots. In addition, long focus lense is also apart of the standard shot list mentioned earlier. "Altman, Milos Forman, and other directors might use long lenses for nearly every setup in a scene." Intensified continuity arrives when new stylsitic forms of filming such as the "wipe-by" cut makes its appearence. "Here a long lense shot picks out a figure, and then something closer to the camera slides into view; cut as our view is completely masked; when the obstruction leaves the frame, we have a closer framing of the figure." Generally, even though we loose our ability to focus on whatever we want to in the film whether it may be an orrange or a coffe mug in a shot I believe it is best to trust the directors vision in deciding which shots he or she wants the audience to focus on.

     More close framings in dialogue describes the change that filming has undergone when framing a shot. From the 1930s to the late 1960s the plan americaine was another standard in filming. It composed of more than one person but in recent times it has gone to singles. Singles are shots where, as suggested in the name, there is only one person in the shot. With single shots the director is able to cut out the best performances of the character which is ultimitaley best for a film. Plan Americain consisted of medium shots that go from the waist-up, medium close-ups that go from the chest-up, standard close-ups that get a full facade, and extreme close-ups that only get a part of the face. After the introduction to widescreen film showings, the plan american was no longer good enough. Long and wide lenses dominated the shot compositions in movies. Also, tighter framing has been introduced. "Mouths, brows, and eyes become the prinicple sources of information and emotion, and actors must scale their performances across varying degrees of intimate framing."This other form of intensified continuity has proven that facial expression communicate  lot more than a full body shot. The face provides a lot of emotion and with tight framing then it often eliminates the need for establshing shots.

    The free roaming camera also intensified contuity. Utilities that allow for the camera to move in different directions with efficiency has allowed for impressive shots. Although during there introduction they seemed impressive they have developed into a cliche. But I believe that we are so used to these camera motions and that they are so visually stunning is what appeals to us continuously. "As a figure of style, the free-ranging camera may have been popularized by the late 1970s horror films which implied hovering, slightly shaky camera might represent a monsters point of view." Camera work defines a character, it will either make them look foolish or serious; we appreciate the camera work only because it will do justice to a character or not.