Fimmaker h'biki (Stu Willis) discusses narrative compression and music videos as he edits a music video.
As an aside, and a kind of conclusion, the skill that I think the best music video directors have learnt - and have brought to the mainstream - is a deep intuitive understanding of pacing, particularly narrative compression. They understand how quickly an audience absorbs information and they've pushed the envelope vis a vis communicating that enevelop. David Fincher's films, especially, move swiftly. He knows that the information that an audience needs to get from a shot is X and once X is told, he moves on. Its an impressive feat of direction and is probably one of the areas in which music videos are criminally underrated vis a vis their influence on narrative cinema. They've pushed the unravelling of the continuity editing style in mainstream cinema.
The whole post is a great mix of technical, functional realities and philosophical, narrative concepts.
[via Cinema Minima]
Posted by johndan at May 6, 2005 11:51 PM | TrackBack