<<
It might be handy to ask a film editor, who would know its practical
usage.
>>
It would certainly help, Alison, and I was hoping someone with the relevant
expertise would chip into the discussion.
The OED gives two sets of citations for the meaning of "jump cut" (I'll
paste these in at the end), a "literal" use (where the examples directly
relate to film, beginning in 1956) and examples of "metaphorical" use (from
1966 on). There are two problems with this. One is that the term is found
used (mostly in film contexts) before 1956, and the other is that it seems
that the term is used, from the beginning, in a variety of ways. (This
applies not just to the OED cites, but generally to other examples of the
use of the term which can be turned up in google books for its use pre-1960,
which were the ones I mostly looked at).
The sense that Jeffrey seems to be reflecting (and here again, someone with
expertise in the area would be useful) seems, at the very least, to be a
later development. It may (and I remain to be convinced of this) be the
predominant use of the term now in technical film editing.
I'll also paste into this at the end a post from Victor Steinbok to ADS-l
which explores the early use of the term, and where he comes to slightly
different conclusions from me.
<<
I've never heard it used anyway except in the Godard sense, but
I'm no expert. Anyway, especially in its sternest application, I'm
still a little fuzzy about how this transfers to post-cinema poetry. I
can quite see that cinema might influence poetry (although Muriel
Rukeyser argues something else, that cinematic language is inherently
poetic). And here examples would be really, really handy.
>>
You're quite right that there's an issue as to whether, and in what way, a
term which originated in a specifically cinematographical context in the
middle or late forties can be applied to literary texts of an earlier
period. I don't think, however, that until we've satisfactorily untangled
the meaning (or meanings) of jump-cut, that it's worth going into this.
Certainly, if jump-cut means *only what Jeffrey takes it to mean, it's hard
to see how it can be useful extended to literary texts. If, however, it's
legitimate to understand "jump cut" as pointing to a variety of ways in
which radical narrative discontinuity is presented (as I'd argue), then an
analogical or metaphorical extension becomes possible. Certainly, it does
seem as if, legitimate or not, such an extension of the sense of the term
began as early as 1966.
Robin
_________________________________________________________
OED:
jump- SECOND EDITION 1989
the verb-stem used in Comb. ... jump-cut, jump cut Cinemat. and
Television (see quot. 1953); also transf., attrib. and as v. trans. and
intr.
...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1953 K. REISZ Technique Film Editing 280 *Jump cut, cut which breaks
continuity of time by jumping forward from one part of an action to another
obviously separated from the first by an interval of time. 1962 Listener 9
Aug. 223/1 The eye-jerking, ear-jarring jump cuts which result when the
commercials are removed from imported American programmes. 1962 Punch 19
Sept. 428/1 Harsh jump-cuts that might almost be breaks in the film. 1964
Observer 12 July 25/5 A jump-cut speeded-up sequence mostly shot from a
helicopter. 1965 Time 18 June 80 He recklessly jump-cuts from scene to
scene, using gimmicky transitions. 1968 P. DICKINSON Skin Deep vii. 130 The
soft lines of the black visage jump-cut into wary maturity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1966 Punch 6 July 26/2 The restless, *jump-cutting style is sometimes
disconcertingone takes a second or two to realise that an expected bridging
passage has been waived. 1972 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 June 649/4 A series of
frenzied incidents..a matter of jump-cuts and unfinished sentences
suggestive of a painful collaboration between Ken Kesey and Ford Madox Ford.
1974 Ibid. 14 June 629/4 The reader adjusts soon enough to the breakneck
jump-cuts of the first few pages. 1975 New Yorker 20 Jan. 79/1 Once
Trintignant takes over as the filmmaker, the movie loses its playful
movie-within-a-movie spirit, and the technique, which had been a sprinting,
jump-cutting shorthand that didn't take itself too seriously, turns glassy
smooth.
**************************************************
[The following post by Victor Steinbok parallels some of the material I
presented in an earlier post to poetryetc, but was worked out independently.
RH]
---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Victor Steinbok
Subject: Re: OED pre-dating -- "jump cut"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The specific use can be pushed back into the 1940s, although there are
other uses going back further. This certainly should have been
predictable as the term appears in general "textbooks" and overview
volumes in the early to mid-1950s, by which point the term is entrenched
in the industry.
http://bit.ly/9rBWCo
Film Quarterly, Vol. 2. 1947. p. 363
> In brief, there is no reason why "subjective" and "objective" camera
> viewpoints cannot be blended- transitions can occur in one jump cut,-
> but there is plenty of reason why Montgomery's heroine should not be
> allowed to catch ...
I checked the year best I could and it appears to be accurate (1947
issues, 1948 in future tense, no years past 1948).
More interesting is the fact that there are two earlier uses of "jump
cut" in the period immediately preceding the period in question--one is
from wood processing/logging/trimming and the other is a film
engineering technique that is not directly related to the scene jump
technique.
http://bit.ly/a6QQgJ
http://bit.ly/dBu50W
Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Volume 26:1. January
1936. p. 56 [date verified]
> A dupe can be rather excessive as to graininess, but match the
> original well in contrast, and show a much less noticeable "jump" in
> quality upon the screen than if the reverse conditions were true. This
> discussion of graininess is in reference to dissolves that are "jump
> cut" into the original negative. Graininess is, of course, much more
> objectionable when dupe is run at any lengthl but under normal
> present-day conditions the graininess of the average properly made
> dupe is generally ...
The three uses are somewhat related. The idea of a jump cut in scene
selection is that two scene shots representing different temporal
developments are spliced together--possibly even with one being spliced
in the middle of the other, subsequently returning to the original
timeline. The jump-cut in logging is a cut in the tree from both sides,
as opposed to a single extended cut from one side. Finally, the
engineering use implies splicing/melting a short piece of duplicate film
as--and I am guessing here because I don't have a sufficiently long
description--substitute for a damaged piece of film. The three uses are
fairly distinctive and are not mere metaphoric extensions of previous
usage, although the phrase was employed, on occasion. (Most hits in GB
and GNA are misreads of "jump out".)
In any case, unless someone finds some more specific information from
the 1930s, it is going to be hard to establish if there is any direct
relationship between the diverse uses of the term. Unfortunately, with
only snippets--and often misleading ones at that--available from the
1930s forward, contextualization is simply not possible for most
situations without going to the physical originals. But who has the time
and resources for that!
VS-)
On 4/26/2010 8:52 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
> The first citation given for this in the OED is from 1953:
>
> 1953 K. REISZ Technique Film Editing 280 *Jump cut, cut which breaks
> continuity of time by jumping forward from one part of an action to
> another
> obviously separated from the first by an interval of time.
>
> The term is found at least two years earlier in Raymond Spottiswoode,
> _Film
> and its techniques_ (1951):
>
> "If some frames have been cut out of the middle of a shot, a _jump cut_
> will
> result." (p. 154)
>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?lr=&id=2_Yq2Zt-ErUC&dq=%22jump+cut%22&q=jump+cut#v=snippet&q=jump%20cut&f=false
>
> Robin
|
