I don't know if anyone has made this correction:
A jump cut in film is not a series of directional shots gradually moving
into a particular location. It is a "bad edit": the picture "jumps" in a
way that looks like a bad splice. As Wikipedia correctly puts it:
"sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that
vary only slightly. . . . gives the effect of jumping forwards in time."
Jump cut is a meta- technique rooted in the old days when film broke and
was spliced by removing a few frames.
The technique of moving in on a location through a series of ever-closer
shots is something different, traditional and conventional.
To see the gradual-closing-in technique, look at the opening of Hitchcock's
"Shadow of a Doubt." To see jump cuts, see the newsreel at the start of
Welles's "Citizen Kane."
Glen M. Johnson
Professor and Chair of English
The Catholic University of America
Washington, DC 20064
202 319-5488, 202 238-2028
On Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 11:09 AM, Wolfgang Hochbruck <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ...true -- and the LoM passage might be read as sequential
> jump-cuts alright. But a _really_ cameratic zoom-in is
> difficult to do in literary fiction (and i am still trying
> to figure out HOW Belasco did it at the beginning of _The
> Girl of the Golden West_). It is possible and has been done
> in stream-of-consciousness passages of modern novels, but
> in the 19th c. conventional syntax structures would still
> have blocked that route.
>
> best,
> w
>
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2016 09:58:25 -0500
> Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Are we talking about a zoom-in (a single camera moving
> > in) or a sequence of
> > jump cuts, each one closer to the scene of action? They
> > are not the same.
> >
> > Kevin
> > @
> > Mac Donnell Rare Books
> > 9307 Glenlake Drive
> > Austin TX 78730
> > 512-345-4139
> > Member: ABAA, ILAB
> > *************************
> > You may browse our books at:
> > www.macdonnellrarebooks.com
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Hal Bush
> > Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2016 7:56 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Life on the Mississippi passage
> >
> > Yes! Joe & Wolfgang; even more specifically; a zoom-in,
> > establishing shot.
> >
> > Psycho! good one! also thought of: The Birdcage
> > (terrific opening zoom
> > right into the club); Saturday Night Fever (not exactly
> > zoom in); The Dark
> > Knight; (are there others?)
> >
> > Alternatively: there is the amazing scene in Gandhi
> > zooming out from the
> > funeral.
> >
> > -hb
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 4:08 AM, Wolfgang Hochbruck <
> > [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > > ...actually, I feel like i should chime in here because
> > Joe said "Zoom
> > > in" first, and then "establishing shot", and he is
> > right on both counts,
> > > only that narratologically "establishing shot" is the
> > general category,
> > > including also bird's eye, pan(orama) shot etc. The
> > really wild thing
> > > is that what Twain uses here - and what Belasco adapted
> > for the theatre
> > > -- is really a cameratic technique before any camera
> > could do something
> > > like it. Like with a number of other developments, the
> > technology here
> > > followed the writer's imagination.
> > >
> > > best wishes,
> > > w
> > >
> > > Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
> > > Department of English /
> > > Centre for Security and Society
> > > Albert Ludwigs University
> > > 15 Rempart St.
> > > D- 79098 Freiburg
> > >
> > > Am 25.08.2016 08:18, schrieb Joe Alvarez:
> > > > Establishing shot, that's probably the closest one
> > yet. The description
> > > from=
> > > > Life on the Mississippi reminds me of the
> > opening--establishing
> > > shot--of Al=
> > > > fred Hitchcock's Psycho.
> > > >
> > > > Joe Alvarez
> > > > 900 Havel Court
> > > > Charlotte, NC 28211-4253
> > > > Telephone: 704.364.2844
> > > > FAX: 704.364.9348
> > > >
> > > > Sent from my iPad
> > > >
> > > >> On Aug 25, 2016, at 1:47 AM, Peter Salwen
> > <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > >> =20
> > > >> What you called the"birds-eye view" might also be
> > called an
> > > >> establishing
> > > >> shot
> > > >> Not by Twain, though.
> > > >> =20
> > > >> On Aug 25, 2016 1:27 AM, "Joe Alvarez"
> > <[log in to unmask]>
> > > wrote:
> > > >> =20
> > > >> How about "zoom in"? That is what is happening in
> > your description.
> > > >> =20
> > > >> Joe Alvarez
> > > >> 900 Havel Court
> > > >> Charlotte, NC 28211-4253
> > > >> Telephone: 704.364.2844
> > > >> FAX: 704.364.9348
> > > >> =20
> > > >> Sent from my iPad
> > > >> =20
> > > >>> On Aug 24, 2016, at 8:33 PM, Wesley Britton
> > <[log in to unmask]>
> > > wrote:
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> I have a question about one passage in Life on the
> > Mississippi. I
> > > suspect=
> > > >> i=3D
> > > >> t
> > > >>> will be very familiar to many of you.
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> It's the passage where we first get a birds-eye
> > view of a place along
> > > the=
> > > >>> river before Twain narrows his focus to one town,
> > then one street,
> > > >>> then
> > > >> on=3D
> > > >> e
> > > >>> house, then a sleeping man on a porch.
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> Back in grad school, a professor used a term to
> > define this technique
> > > of
> > > >>> moving from the general to the specific, but I
> > can't figure out now
> > > what
> > > >>> term he meant.
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> Any ideas?
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> Dr. Wesley Britton
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> Author, Beta-Earth Chronicles
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> www.drwesleybritton.com
> > > >>> =3D20
> > > >>> =3D20
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Prof. Harold K. Bush
> > Professor of English
> > 3800 Lindell
> > Saint Louis University
> > St. Louis, MO 63108
> > 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> > <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>
>
> Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
> Dept. of English / Centre for Security and Society
> Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg
> Rempart St. 15
> D-79098 Freiburg
> Germany
>
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