Question about the a certain editing technique done in the Age of Innocence

[Richard Herd]

Are you asking about how to cut film?

The trick to that bit is a locked off camera.

[Roberto Martinez]

k, that’s what I was wondering..but it also looks as if there’s a dissolve of some sort when the people walk in.

[Richard Herd]

Here’s the facts: https://www.ascmag.com/store/product.php?productid=5240&cat=328&page=1

I searched google for “american cinematographer and age of innocence” and found the back issue, for $1.

Enjoy!

[Roberto Martinez]

Thanks!

[Rob Ruzic]

That’s a beautiful sequence. These are just jumpcuts with dissolves placed over the cuts. I’m not sure what the official term for this technique is (jump-dissolve?).

Schoonmaker used the same technique back in After Hours, in a shot where Griffin Dunne runs up a flight of stairs and she dissolves from him at the bottom of the stairs to the top. I seem to remember some shots in Casino where she used this technique, too, but I can’t remember the specifics (some shots of money changing hands?)

[Roberto Martinez]

So they were what I believed them to be..jump-dissolves or w.e lol
I don’t remember that shot from After Hours..I guess I’m going to have to give that another look.
I do remember it being in Casino when some died but can’t remember the details..
Thanks for your reply.

[Chris Buttacoli]

How about calling it the “poor-man’s-timelapse” technique?!! lol

[Mike Cohen]

Sounds like a good way to compress time.

Something like this was done in the movie Ronin. As the camera is moving quickly through a crowd of people, it looks like it is all one shot, but there is a dissolve between two dark jackets in the crowd, thus making the real time 1 minute run through the crowd take about 8 seconds – invisible to the audience.
Transitions are supposed to be invisible to the audience, aside from linear wipes or Home Improvement style wipes that are designed to call attention to themselves.

Mike Cohen