Pudovkin's Editing Techniques

The other day while I was browsing the internet regarding editing techniques, I came across a video on vimeo which discussed the techniques by Pudovkin. Pudovkin came about with five editing techniques which helped form cinema in terms of editing and placing shots together. Today, these techniques can be widely seen in most movies.

Pudovkin believed editing to be a method that controls the "psychological guidance" of the viewer rather than a mere method of placing separate scenes or pieces together. He called this relational editing. This can be clearly seen in his five different techniques of editing. These five techniques are:

1) Contrast
2) Parallelism
3) Symbolism
4) Simultaneity
5) Leit Motif


1) Contrast: This is one way of juxtaposition. It's showing two different shots put together show contrast between them to the spectator. An immaculate example given for this is the baptism scene in The Godfather, which cuts away to shots of people being killed. The contrasts shows the extent to which Al Pacino's character is willing to go.

.Anotherperfect example of this would be the iconic bone throwing scene from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this scene, the first shot is of the monkey throwing a bone up into the sky, it then cuts to a match cut of a space station in space. Parallelism in this scene helps convey how far mankind has evolved.

2) Parallelism: Is used to convey a jump in time mostly. Spielberg does this in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. Indy dons the iconic hat as a young child the image then dissolves to that of Indy many years later wearing the same hat.

3) Symbolism: This can be seen in Lawrence of Arabia when the main character lights a match and blows it out, cutting to a shot of the sun setting over the horizon in the desert. This underscores the searing heat of the desert sun as it finally submerges below the horizon.

4) Simultaneity:  Also known as Cross-Cutting. The Red Herring scene in The Silence of the Lambs portrays cross cutting finely. In this scene when the SWAT team buzz the door of buffalo bills house, the audience is led to believe it's that house. It then cuts to clarissa, at buffalo bills actual house and it turns out the swat team are at the wrong one. This shows how vulnerable Clarissa is and in how much danger she's in.

5) Leit Motif: Is a musical technique used in cinema to describe a recurring scene or shot in a film. This is done with certain music themes which help the spectator identify certain scenes that are about to occur, which have some sort of meaning or symbolism. An example of this is the emperor's march in Star Wars. It shows the viewer that a certain "motif" will occur.