>>The reel changes ARE edits (in the sense of 'cuts'), btw.

 

hmm . . . maybe, maybe not . . . if an edit is understood as any mechanical process of attaching one length of film to another, regardless of what images are on those two lengths of film, then yes, reel changes are ipso facto edits

 

but if we understand editing more phenomenologically  as a shift – however big or small – is the perceptual POV provided by two lengths of film where they join, then reel changes of the kind hitchcock employed are not strictly speaking cuts

 

mike

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