The filmmaker and percussionist Ryan Oksenberg is explaining his way of connecting rhythm in filmmaking.
“I think about what I’m working on and translate it into beat and establish a pace. […] Ask yourself, what exactly is it that makes a song catchy, or makes us dance or feel something? How do people talk and relate information to each other? How long do we take to process good news and bad news? It’s all rhythm.”[1]
Ryan Oksenberg is reading out loud the dialog of actors and finding the rhythm in their words, getting to know the speed and pauses spectators need. Cutting a film, the filmmaker thinks of a musical piece establishing and building a climax. Oksenberg uses long takes that “obscure an audience’s sense of time, but the real-time aspect of the long take makes you stressfully aware of the seconds ticking by.” The length of the shots gives a measurement of time which is creating suspense as well.
“When editing is used thoughtfully, creatively and musically it not only produces a powerful sensual experience but also contributes to our deeper understanding of film”. For example, in the film Requiem for a Dream by Darren Aronofsky quick cuts of widening pupils [2], needles, quick camara movements empower the “dramaturgical and emotional effect”[3]. The addiction is shown through repetitive visuals like a constant pattern which is creating a rhythm.
Walter Murch writes in “In The Blink Of An Eye” that emotions are the most important basis to cut footage. From emotions the criteria “descends with the story, rhythm, eye-trace, two-dimensional plane and lastly, three- dimensional plane. […] Murch prioritizes three of them; emotions, story, and rhythm.” [4] Catching reactions and making the audience feel through [5] will keep a film in the audience’s memory.
Rhythm helps creating emotions through generating “full immersion” and “keeping the flow of storytelling uninterrupted”.[6]
[1] https://filmmakerfreedom.com/blog/rhythm-in-film [01.07.2021]
[2] Vgl Danijela Kulezic-Wilson: The Musicality of Narrative Film, p.47
[3] Danijela Kulezic-Wilson: The Musicality of Narrative Film, p.47
[4] https://unknownreel.home.blog/2019/09/17/a-perspective-on-film-editing-in-the-blink-of-an-eye-book-analysis/ [01.07.2021]
[5] Vgl https://filmmakerfreedom.com/blog/rhythm-in-film [01.07.2021]
[6] Danijela Kulezic-Wilson: The Musicality of Narrative Film, p.46
