Professor Raimund Barthelmes
Professor Hans Beller
Professor Clara Fabry
Ursula Höf
Jens Klüber
Silke Regele, Program Coordinator
“Film montage is the only new art form that the twentieth century has produced.“
Alfred Hitchcock
The subject area Montage/Editing has been taught at the Filmakademie since the 2001/2002 academic year. The practical oriented program focuses on the montage workflow within the production chain and the different stages of postproduction. In the first year of basic studies, the students become acquainted with screenwriting, directing, cinematography and cinematic experimentation, as well as how to work with Avid and Final Cut editing systems. The second year entirely focuses on classic 16 mm film editing using the Steenbeck editing table.
Over the following two years, the students attend a range of seminars, workshops and lectures. Beyond this, they participate in practical montage/editing projects in cooperation with the academy’s film producing departments. The film projects that are developed and the interdisciplinary seminars offer students the possibility to collaborate with students of other departments and establish contacts.
Teaching Concept
“Montage is a critique of what has been filmed, just as filming is a critique of the script.“ Francois Truffaut
In the German language, “film montage” is used as a general term in both film theory and film practice. On the one hand, film montage is a central category of the theoretical aspects of film composition; on the other hand, it also refers to the manual work involved in film cutting and video editing. In the film production process, film montage covers the entire process from defining the scene structure, cinematography and directing to post-editing and final cut. All aesthetic and dramaturgical aspects of the film are significantly shaped by cut and montage. Film montage is thus not just a term that evokes nostalgia for the celluloid era. Even in our modern times of digital editing computers, it continues to be a decisive element in the exploration of new creative ways of cinematographic expression.
The theory of montage can also be acquired by perception and concept building, as in our program, where students are presented films, scenes and cuts and learn to verbalize the analytical process. This is a way to recognize montage patterns that have crystallized in the course of film history. Merely reproducing these patterns as part of the academic curriculum however is not the goal. The stipulation of a normative aesthetical concept for use, just like an operating manual, is not the intention behind our educational program, nor is it teaching how to use a set of tools. Film montage is much more an open method with different models that are independent of genres, individual directing styles and also of particular cutter’s style, intention and temper. In the program, special emphasis is placed on English, since it has become the international language of the film industry. Another important factor that needs to be highlighted, just as the other characteristics of the montage as anatomy, rhythm, static and structures, drive and pace or timing, is the emotional aspect. Fellini once said that “the cut is one of the most emotional moments in filmmaking”, and Hollywood editor Walter Murch wrote “deciding on the perfect cut depends to 51% on the emotion expressed in the respective moment within the story line.”
When talking or writing about film editing, a generally paradox situation occurs: people are discussing something that usually remains “invisible”, because in most cases, the actual cut of a film is not consciously registered by the audience, since it aims at effecting the subliminal or the unconscious. A cut that is clearly recognizable as such is not the cutter’s declared objective when creating cinematographic illusions. Yet today’s viewing habits also accept the most abrupt of cuts.
The degree to which editing can potentially affect filmmaking becomes obvious when inserting the creative performance and decision-making process during editing works into a mathematical equation: if 10 shots were systematically recombined in every possible way, this would result in 3.6 million possibilities. Leading Suisse film editor Georges Janett had the following idea: “My thesis is: a given material X, an editor Y and a director Z will produce a particular result. If one of the components is replaced, the result will be altered.” In the editing room, the productive force of our imagination is challenged from the very beginning. Visionary intuition, analytic sensibility, a sense of rhythm and the editor’s intact emotional world are not least the decisive factors that make a film work and succeed.
Training Objectives
The objective of the program is to help students acquire technical skills, as well as aesthetic and social competence and thus providing them with all the means for a confident start in the working world. They will be qualified to handle the editing work for early evening series, TV movies, big screen movies, documentations and filmic essays. They will learn how to produce a clear and straight cut without any technical effects, “unplugged”, so to say. But they will also be taught how to cope with rapid editing styles as in film trailers or music clips.
Students will learn to understand the impact of images and cuts in visual and emotional terms and expand their knowledge of emotional processes. This is also seen as a process in which they cultivate their ability to take a stance and make the right ethical decision. In their capacity as content and consulting managers, they shall be capable of confidently and effectively communicating arguments to directors, customers, editors and producers, as have done their intellectual idols Aristotle, Shakespeare, Spielberg and others before. For, a true editor is not an operator but a "consultant for dramatic editing solutions" - and this is something no computer can accomplish.
by Professor Clara Fabry, Silke Regele, Professor Raimund Barthelmes, Professor Hans Beller
