Picture Composition, 2nd Edition

2

Alternative technique

Jump cuts

You may have seen films or TV programmes where you become very conscious of the camerawork and continuity editing conventions are not followed. Music videos are often full of ambiguous images, rapid changes in location and an apparent complete disregard for the invisible technique tradition. Many commercials tell a 30-second story in a similar way.

Figure 2.1 ‘Breathless’ (1959; dir. Jean-Luc Goddard). A continuous shot with the same foreground framing is edited so that the background occasionally ‘jumps’ to a new locale

Some filmmakers have consciously rejected the central philosophy of the invisible technique ...