Technique of Film Editing, Reissue of 2nd Edition, 2nd Edition

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It is my belief

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(and some day I mean to conduct the experiment), that given at random, say half a dozen shots of dif-

ferent nature and subject, there are any number of possible combinations of the six that, with the right twist of com-

mentary, could make fi lm sense.

The maker of compilation fi lms extends this hypothetical experiment into a practical method of fi lm pro-

duction. Working with newsreel and allied material which has not been scripted or shot for the purpose

for which the compiler will use it, he is able to make fi lms with a smooth, logically developing continu-

ity. Without the advantages of a planned shooting script — without directed performances from actors, prop-

erly interrelating shots, etc. — the compiler’s sole assets are his skill as an editor and his ability to exploit the

remarkable suggestive power of spoken commentary.

The production of compilations is made possible by the systematic preservation of newsreel and documen-

tary footage which now forms an accepted part of the work of most newsreel companies and national fi lm

archives. The earliest examples of newsreel compilations were produced in this country from diverse mate-

rial covering the 1914 – 1918 war, and the potentialities of the method have been widely realised in many

countries since. The Russian director Dziga Vertov experimented in the genre as early as 1923 ( Kine Truth,

Kine Calendar ) and followed his early experiments with more ambitious ventures in the early days of sound,

in Enthusiasm (1931) and Three Songs about Lenin (1934). The Americans have developed their own vigorous

polemical style of compilation, beginning with such early successes as Louis de Rochemont’s Cry of the World

(1932) and Seldes and Ullman’s This Is America (1933) and reaching a peak of achievement in the March of

Time fi lms and Frank Capra’s war-time Why We Fight series. The Germans used the compilation method to

produce such powerful propaganda documents as Baptism of Fire (1940) and Victory in the West (1941).

The success of these fi lms bears witness to the immense potentialities of the compilation fi lm as a means of

dramatising fi rst-hand historical records. In competent and scrupulous hands, the unrehearsed, spontaneously

shot material can be dramatised and edited into faithful renderings of past events. But it must be stressed

that the authenticity of the original material does not necessarily guarantee that the fi nal impression of the

fi lm will be a truthful one. In the process of dramatising the newsreel shots by editing and commentary, the

Chapter 13

The Compilation Film

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Notes by Peter Baylis.