电影剪接的魔力 The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing is a 2004 documentary film directed by filmmaker Wendy Apple. The film is about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles.

Finally, in the film, I see Walter Murch, who is one of the greatest modern editors.

I first saw this name on a book “In the Blink of an Eye - A Perspective on Film Editing” which was wrote by him. This book was very thin, and very easy to read. After that I was aware of how great Walter was, as he was the film editor of “Cold Mountain”, “The English Patient”, “Apocalypse Now” and the trilogy of “The Godfather”.

Walter has the most scenes in the film. When doing the film-cutting, he has a lot of his own habits. For example, he likes standing, which is easy to follow the film’s rhythm; he likes choosing one or two pictures for each shot, and sticking them on the wall in order to get some clues when doing film cutting; he does not like to go to studio to keep himself an impartial person who only concerns with what is shown on the screen (he even suggests all of the directors to travel after finishing filming, so that the editor can get enough freedom in the stage of rough cut.); there is also a small detail, there are two small cardboard paper-men on each side of the screen where Walter watch the finished film. This is because we will face a big screen in the cinema, and these two paper-men can make Walter have the feeling of watching a film in the cinema. For this documentary, like some said, it does not involve editing skills, because technique is a hardware which you can learn from the book of final cut pro or Avid. Originality is the most important thing for editing, and it is also the re-creation of the film. As what is mentioned in the film: editing is manipulating.

终于在影片里看到Walter Murch本尊了。现代最伟大的editor之一。 

最早见到这个名字是因为他写的一本书 In the Blink of an Eye -A Perspective on Film Editing。这本书很薄，而且很易读，之后才知道Walter有多牛逼，是《冷山》，《英国病人》，《现代启示录》，《教父》三部曲等名片的剪辑师。 

Walter 在影片里面出场镜头算是最多的。他剪片有很多自己的习惯，比如喜欢站着，方便跟随影片的节奏；比如喜欢每一个shot选择一到两张照片，然后贴在墙上，为在剪片的时候提供线索；比如他不喜欢去片场，这样可以使自己作为一个做公证的人，只管种屏幕上所展现的 （他甚至建议所有导演在拍完片后选择出去旅游，给editor在rough cut 阶段充分的自由）；还有一个小细节，在Walter看成片的屏幕上，两边各有一个纸片的小人，这是因为电影院我们面对的是大屏幕，所以两个小人相比屏幕给Walter在电影院看片的感觉。如今看到这个纪录片，虽然就像有些人说的，没有涉及剪辑的技巧，因为技巧这个东西是硬件，你可以随便买本final cut pro 或者Avid自己去学，但是editing最重要的就是创意，是对影片的再创造。正如影片说的：editing is manipulating.

Character

In order to tell stories, a documentary is required to provide a reasonable basis of characters at first. My initial idea was to record “fishermen” and state that the job of “fishermen”, if fact, is far away from our city life. Therefore, people are more interested in stories and the characters in the stories. Each country has its own different social state, and if you want the social state to be acceptable by the audience of other countries, choosing a good story that can communicate with each other emotionally might be the best way.

Before starting the documentary, the tentative idea and orientation about hero should be determined. In fact, the thought for choosing actors of a story film can be used to the casting of documentary as well. Only when a typical fisherman is found can stories about fishermen be told. Although they all belong to fishermen, they are different in many aspects, such as personality, family relation and even visual effect. Whether the right “characters” can be chosen is directly related to the quality of stories told by the documentary. After field research, my British heroes’ image for the story gradually becomes more and more clear: “They have to undertake this fisherman job since a very young age; they might come from a place far away from big cities, and therefore, they maintain some distance to urban life; sometimes three generations work together, that is, experienced grandfather, skilled father and the son who started learning fishing recently; finally, all of these will go on".
That is why I chose the fishermen of Adrian Noble family. When I first went for interview, I fortunately met them, who were collecting their things after fishing and preparing to go home. They were exactly three generations - grandfather, father and son. We made a nearly two-hour interview. They were very enthusiastic and willing to tell their stories to help me. This undoubtedly highlighted my documentary.

Chinese heroes’ image in stories: “They also usually come from a place far away from big cities, such as some small islands; they catch fish, which is different with British fishermen, and only in this way can provide a vivid vision to the audience; since they do not have particular requirements for fish species, I will focus on the Chinese fishermen’s fish-killing and family support”. Therefore, I chose Guangming Zou, a local fisherman from Dengbu island.

纪录片要讲故事，首先要有一个合理的人物基础。我最初的想法是想拍“渔民”，以及“渔民”这个职业离我们的城市生活其实很遥远。所以人们更感兴趣的是故事和故事里的人物。每个国家都有各自不同的社会状态，要让这种社会状态呈现在其他国家的观众面前并为他们所接受，选择好一个可以沟通彼此情感的故事可能是一个最好的方法。
在纪录片开拍之前要有对主人公的设想和定位，剧情片选演员的思路，但其实也可以用在纪录片的选角上。“要讲好‘渔民’的故事，首先要做的就是在渔民中找到一个典型。”同样是渔民，无论是性格上、家庭关系上甚至视觉效果上都有很多不同。有没有选对“角色”，直接关系到纪录片能不能讲好故事。经过实地调研，这样对于“故事”英国的主人公的形象逐渐鲜明起来：“他们必须从很小就开始渔民这项工作；他们应该来自一个远离大城市的地方，与城市生活有一段距离；有三代同时工作的，有老练的爷爷和成熟的爸爸还有刚开始学习捕鱼的儿子；最后，一直延续下去。”
所以我选择了Adrian Noble一家渔民。当我第一次去采访时，就很幸运的碰到了他们一家人正捕鱼回来在港口收拾东西，准备回家。他们当时正是三个人，爷爷、爸爸和儿子。与他们通过了将近2个小时的采访，他们非常的热心，很愿意讲述他们自己的故事来帮助我。这无疑让我的纪录片增加了很多色彩。
对于“故事”中国的主人公的形象：“他们基本也需要来自一个远离大城市的地方，比如一些小岛屿；捕捞的海鲜需要鱼英国渔民不同，这样才可以让观众的视觉有鲜艳感；对鱼他们的家庭没有特定的选择，我会把重点放在中国渔民杀鱼和家里人的支持。所以我选择了来自登步岛的当地渔民Guangming Zou。

时间的风景 TimeScapes (2012)

The documentary is just like a collection of shooting works, which are made into a movie. Beautiful, each frame is frozen as an extremely beautiful picture. When the blue sky turns into the universe and clouds into pink marshmallows, you can feel pleasant and free like your sweat, and you can do nothing but praise the beauty of nature.

Time is originally an abstract concept, but the director expresses it with specific things: the starry sky, sunrise, waters and so on, making the time touchable for the audience. Watching the stars shine in the sky, the sun rises from horizon line and water flows down from the mountains, we can conscientiously feel the elapse of time. At first look, it might be beautiful, but its real content is desolate. I did not feel so much but aesthetic sense at first watch. But it is at the second time when I watched it by fast-forward method, the sense that time takes you ahead was realized. When you want to die or want to live, this documentary should be chosen for appreciating. Besides, the soundtrack is really sad. You can see what has happened in different spaces at the same time, and also, how a space changes in different times. From the universe, the starry sky to specific human beings, all of them are “dancing” along with time.

As for the scenery about time, the director elongated the time axis of time lens, showing the audience minor changes that they usually pay no attention to. There are so many beautiful images, so I will choose to describe several ones that are easier to remember:

The young girl who dances with the music, the space detection station that moves in accordance with the changes of galaxies in space, they have combined human’s dance and universe’s dance together. With the music, epinephrine is secreted with

In the second scene, lens goes closely to the river and quickly moves in the valley along with the direction of the water flow. A series of dynamic beauty provides us a sense of urgency and curiosity.

Time Scapes - the name itself has expressed all the content.

这部纪录片就像将一本摄影作品，做成了一部电影。很美，每一帧定格下来都是一副极美的图片，看天空如何变成宇宙，看白云如何变成粉红色的棉花糖，自然真的是极美的，就像人的汗水真的是极畅快淋漓的，当平日里习以为常的蓝天在眼中变成宇宙。
时间本来是抽象的概念，导演用具象的事物：星空、日出、流水等让观者体会时间究竟是什么东西。当你仰望星空、看太阳升起、看水从山上流下时，才能切切体会时间的流逝。可能有一丝丝美，但是背后却是悲凉。第一遍看，没有太多感觉，顶多是唯美感。第二遍，跳着看时，时间带着你走的那种变化才真切体会出来。当你想死或者想活的时候，都可以看看这部纪录片。这配乐实在悲凉。同一时间下，不同空间发生了些什么；不同时间里，同一空间又有什么变化。从宇宙星空到具象中的人，是怎么跟随时间而“舞动”的。
时间的风景，将时间镜头的时间轴拉长，让观众看到平时不注意的轻微的变化，很美的画面很多，挑几幅比较容易记住的场景描述一下：
随着音乐扭动的美少女，和随着太空星系变化的太空侦测台的扭动，将人类和宇宙的舞动出奇的结合到了一起，随着音乐，肾上腺素一同分泌。
第二个场景是镜头贴着河面，随着河流一同在河谷中快速移动，一系列的动态美，给人紧迫，好奇的感觉。

时间的风景，名字本身就韵味了一切。

Interview

Interviewer：Joshua Thomas

Location：Whitby

Recorder：Yuanxiao Zhang

Recording time: 1 hour

Interviewee: Fishermen

1. The main fishing target
2. Tools used for fishing
3. How the fishing tools are made
4. How to use fishing tools and the specific process (do demonstrations if possible)
5. The interesting or dangerous things met during fishing (please talk about them: for instance, the scars left by some kind of danger)
6. Whether have time to rest in the course of voyage and what you usually do in these times.
7. How to solve the food problem in the course of voyage
8. How to handle the caught seafood (private selling, sell to the market or particular purchasing merchant)
9. If the price is a problem during selling
10. Fishing time period
11. How family members think about this job
12. Whether government ever interfered with this sector (and if so, what the Government’s policy was)

13. Traditional seafood dishes

1.  捕捞的主要对象

2.  用什么工具捕捞

3.  捕捞工具怎样制成的

4.  怎么使用工具捕捞，具体过程（有可能的情况下，请做示范）

5.  在捕捞过程中是否曾遇到过有趣或危险的事情（请讲述一下：比如在遇到危险时，所留下的伤痕）

6.  在航海过程中是否有休息时间，一般这些时间做什么。

7.  在航海过程中怎么解决食物问题的

8.  捕捞回来后如何处理海鲜（自己出售、卖给市场、有特定商人收货）

9.  在出售时是否有价格上的问题？

10.捕鱼时间周期

11.家人是怎么想这个工作的

12.政府是否有干扰过这个行业（如果有，政府的政策是什么）

13.传统海鲜美食

冒充者 The Imposter (2012)

This documentary begins in mystery and ends in horror – a disturbing vision of the lengths we go to, to fool ourselves.

Bizarre true-life stories, in documentary or feature form, have long been a staple of the Sundance film festival – increasingly so since the breakout debut of Andrew Jarecki's startling Capturing the Friedmans in 2003. This year, the shock ticket looked to be Craig Zobel's dramatized piece Compliance, in which the staff of a small-town fast-food joint are pranked into astoundingly serious sexual misconduct. But while it never strays into such lurid territory, Bart Layton's documentary The Impostereclipses it with a story that is really two in one: starting as a macabre Patricia High smith-like Ripley story and ending as a full-blown American gothic horror.

It begins in 1994, when 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay goes missing from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three years later, a boy answering to a similar, but by no means identical, description turns up in Linares, Spain. Without really conducting any in-depth inquiries, his sister arrives to whisk him home, where even his mother doesn't seem to notice that her once fair-haired son is now a bottle-blond with a five o'clock shadow, speaking with a pronounced French accent.

Layton doesn't waste much time on the mystery, revealing in the film's set-up that the boy is not a boy at all but a 23-year-old drifter with a penchant for being taken in by care homes. But what Layton keeps carefully at bay for the film's trim 95-minute running time is the stranger's identity. Talking to camera, he talks us through his ruse with a sociopathic good humour, and the callousness of his thinking is matched for sheer horror only by the ineptitude of the authorities who allowed him to get away with it. In these scenes, the film resembles Man on Wire, with the stranger letting us in on his plan, just as, in that film, Philippe Petit invited us to marvel at his assault on the World Trade Centre.

This story in itself would be enough, but, like any good modern documentary, The Imposter has more twists and turns to reveal. These come courtesy of American private eye Charlie Parker, who was asked to investigate the story by a national news channel. But what Parker found out didn't just blow the lid on the real identity of the interloper, it shed a disturbing new light on the Barclays, suggesting a hideous game of double-cross in which the new "Nicholas" was actually a pawn rather than a player. Despite eyewitness accounts from almost all concerned, The Imposter never actually resolves this tantalising new storyline, and its ambiguous ending borders on unsatisfactory, given the depth of the research undertaken.

猫咪物语 にゃんこ Nyanko The Music (2007)

Human beings are not the only survivals on this world, and there are also many creatures live through the dependence on human. One of them is cat, which is also a kind of “deadly” lovely creature. It is so often that an unmindful movement fascinates us so much. They are never tired of repeating their favorite things and rarely get bored. Whether it is rainy, windy or sunny, they always have an optimist expression, comfortable and tranquil. It seems that all their life is about the things they like, regardless of everything; while sometimes, they are also so humane. 

Nyanko The Music is a Japanese documentary about cats. It does not characterize the life state of many cats than mainly describes the relationship between the lives of human and cats. In the documentary, the various moods of cats are mostly expressed by the close-ups of cats with voiceover. By using episodic interspersion method, the cats at different time points are interspersed in chronological order, which makes the whole documentary extremely enriched and full of compact sense.

After the earthquake in Japan in 2011, many Shironeko fans were so worried about it, because it was located in the disaster area then! Fortunately, it turned out Shironeko was safe, which is very gratifying. However, there is also a hardest-hit area in this movie, and that is Tashiro-jima, Miyagi Prefecture. The film recorded about 100 cats on the island, and they are divided into several groups. Among them, there is a cat that lives on the fish given by seaside fishermen in charity, and it is named Jack the Lop Ear, which is very popular.

Except Jack’s lots of fragments, there are also several moving pieces, in which the story about Heizo is the most touching one. Its hind legs have been crippled, but it survives depending on strong willpower! While the care from kind master are more admirable. Both the small animals and we human beings are creatures on the planet, so we, as a high-grade species, have the responsibility and obligation to treat those small animals around us well. Of course, situations vary, so it’s fine if you have done your best！As long as you have experienced those processes and remembered this habit in your heart, will you go through a kind of beautiful sublimation.

世界上不只有人生存，还有很多的生物依附于人生存，猫就是其中的一个，并且是一种可爱到“令人发指”的生物，它们往往漫不经心的一个动作就使人着迷。它们单纯的乐此不疲的重复做着自己喜欢的事情，很少感到厌烦。无论是刮风下雨还是晴空万里，它们总是一副乐天派的表情，闲适而宁静。它们的生活似乎仅仅是围绕着自己喜欢的事情，而不顾一切，但有时它们却是那么的充满人情味。
猫咪物语是一部日本拍的关于猫纪录片，与其说里面刻画了很多猫咪的生活状态，毋宁说主要刻画了人与猫咪的生活关系。在记录片中多使用猫咪的特写配以画外音表现猫咪的各种心情，用片段式的穿插方法，将不同时间点的猫咪按照时间顺序进行穿插，使整个纪录片变得十分的饱满，充满了紧凑感。
对于2011年日本大地震发生后，很多喜欢猫叔的人都非常焦急，因为猫叔是在灾区啊！还好最后证明猫叔很安全，这是非常令人欣慰的。但是在这部影片中，正好有一个地方正是重灾区吧，那就是宫城县田代岛。影片里面记录着岛上大约有100只猫，其中分成了好几个组织，里面有一只靠沿岸捕鱼的人施舍的鱼过活的猫，叫垂耳杰克，非常有名。
除了杰克的片段蛮多的外，还有几个感人的片段，其中关于平藏的故事的最感人。它后腿都已经残废，但是靠着坚强的毅力生存着！而善良的主人的关爱，更人令人敬佩。小动物和我们人类都是一个星球上的生物，作为高等级的物种善待在身边的小动物们使我们的一种责任和义务。当然因人而异，尽力就好！只要经历了这些过程，当心已经记着这种习惯的话，那就能给予人一种升华，美好的升华！

Scripts (story)

This question was proposed because I was depressed when my documentary teacher asked me to write a script before shooting. I became completely confused: how can a documentary have a script? Documentaries are all about real things, and there will be so many unforeseen circumstances, which is impossible for me to predict. Then the teacher explained the reason. Such scripts are different from movie scripts which take section, rather than lens as basic unit. Before shooting, one should decide what kind of scenes he wants to shoot, such as family, corporate, and event site, etc., and then estimate how much time each edited section will be presented on the screen. So there will be a basic content in the mind and you won’t forget it during shooting.

My theme is fishermen this time. I have decided two different countries for shooting: one is Britain, while the other is China. This work is mainly to record the life and work of fishermen. Chinese fishermen generally catch fish, while British catch crabs and lobsters. If there’s any possibility, I hope that I can go fishing with them. I need to record their preparations before setting sail, their fishing at sea, their daily life on board, as well as unloading scenes after returning. As for the outdoor scenes, I will take the fish-killing in fish market and the netting of fishermen at home. Of course, there is also local beautiful scenery. I will arrange two cameras in each country to be shot, for large scenes and close-ups respectively. I will also make two interviews with fishermen, where they will talk about various difficulties they experienced in many year’s fishing and about their happiness as well.

It is impossible to be purely objective for documentaries, which will inevitably carry the director’s subjective consciousness more or less. But there is one principle - to guarantee that the life is authentic and natural. Only based on this can a director find related materials from their own viewpoint. The director’s subjective viewpoint is expressed in the position of the machine, the viewing angle, the focal length selection, the camera movement, as well as recording and editing. What it demonstrates finally is not only life itself, more importantly, is the director’s attitude toward life via audiovisual language.

提出这个问题是因为我自己很郁闷，我的纪录片老师要我们在拍之前先写一个剧本，我当时就傻了，纪录片怎么能有剧本？纪录片不是都是真实发生的事情，突发的情况这么多，我怎么能预料得到。后来老师解释，这个剧本不像电影剧本，以镜头为单位，而是以场为单位，拍之前要想好我要去拍些什么场景，比如家，公司，活动现场等等，然后估摸一下每个场景剪出来呈现在银幕上会有多少分钟，这样会有一个基本的内容在脑中，就不会到时候拍起来忘了。
我这次的主题是渔民。拍摄地决定在两个不同国家，一是英国，二是中国。片子主要会记录渔民的生活和工作。中国渔民会捕捞一般的鱼类，英国渔民会捕捞螃蟹和龙虾。在有可能的基础上，我希望可以跟着他们出海捕鱼。我需要记录出海前他们的准备工作，在海上他们的捕鱼工作，他们在船上的日常生活，还有回来卸货的场景。外场景我会拍摄鱼市场内杀鱼的场景和渔民家人在就家中织网的场景。当然还有当地美丽的风景。每个国家拍摄地我都会安排两个摄像机。分别拍摄大场景和特写。我还会做两段对渔民的访谈。通过访谈讲述他们在多年的捕鱼工作中经历的种种困难和幸福感。
纪录片不可能做到纯客观，纪录片不可避免地带有导演的主观意识。但是有一个原则——必须保证生活的原汁原味。以此为前提，导演才能用自己的视点寻找相关的素材。导演的主观视点表现在架机器的位置，取景的角度，焦距的选择，摄影机的运动，再加上录音、剪辑。最后表现出的其实不只是生活本身，更重要的是它通过视听语言体现出导演对生活的态度。