Learning Focus: Editing Were focusing on developing knowledge around these core questions: - How does the editing

in the film disrupt the suspension of disbelief? - How/why can this connect to the construction of identity? - How does the use of intercutting reinforce these ideas, particularly in reference to the idea of identity as a palimpsest?

Process
- A little from me about traditional editing processes

- Understanding the concept of suspension of disbelief

- Close examination of Hayness attitude towards editing by watching sequences - Discussing connection to the our recent ideas about distancing the audience

Traditional Editing
- Essentially based around invisibility - Idea of continuity editing is that the viewer shouldnt notice the edits - Hollywood style editing avoids jump cuts or any editing styles that draw the viewers attention to the fact that editing is taking place - Intention is to establish and maintain the viewers suspension of disbelief

Suspending Disbelief
- An unsaid social contract that takes place between the viewer and the film-maker - We always know that what we see on screen is a fiction. We always know this, even if the film is a documentary. - As a consequence, we cannot believe what we see, but we must see it as reality if we are to feel real emotions, if we are to be entertained, etc. - And so we willingly suspend our disbelief, i.e. the answer to why are you getting so upset, its just a film? is, I was suspending my disbelief, more me it was real.

Sustaining this...
- In order for willing suspension of disbelief to be sustained, the film maker cannot draw the viewers attention to the fact that they are watching a film (think Inception, as soon as the dreamer is aware that theyre dreaming, the dream starts to become unstable) - And because editing is a hugely unnatural process, it has to be made as invisible as possible to sustain the suspension of disbelief - Thus, continuity editing attempts to smooth over the essential discontinuity that exists in the editing process

In Im Not There
- Its a combination - Within timelines, there is a lot of continuity editing, to help give us some investment in each timeline - Between timelines, the editing is jarring - we jump in time and space, and we jump between visual styles - Were interested in the impact of the editing between sequences and the effect of this has on any suspension of disbelief

Watching it happen
- Do your best to keep up - not always easy

- Focus on cuts between timelines

- Note down the two shots involved in the transition and what timelines they come from, e.g. Jude LS to Billy CU We do this so that you can be specific when youre talking about examples in your response writing.

Why?
So, an editing style of this kind draws the viewers attention to the fact that they are watching a film - they cannot suspend their disbelief as a consequence. Why would Haynes want to disrupt the suspension of disbelief?

The Bigger Picture

In a really similar way to what the music does, the use of a discontinuous or non-continuous editing style draws our attention to the fictional nature of the film. We become much more aware of the cuts, and as a consequence we are made much more aware of the film as a construction - literally as a piecing together of different scenes. Once again, the form of the film represents this key concept of identity as a fiction/construction. The film reminds us that it is not presenting us with reality, it is presenting us with a construction - and because the film about about Bob Dylan, it reflects on the fact that Bob Dylan himself is a fiction/construction.

Intercuts/Insert shots
As weve seen, the editing is not defined by cause and effect, but is far more dream like - its about interconnections rather than direct causes and their effects. One of the most jarring techniques that Haynes uses to achieve this are insert shots. The best way to describe these is to show a couple of examples...

From the directors commentary

Haynes talks specifically about how it was the editing process that brought a lot of the final structure to the film. Initially the stories were more interwoven, with shorter times on each, but Haynes and his editor decided that they need to find a balance between what was watchable and what really make you think like you were living all of these lives at the same time.

And so were back to multiplicity - the editing is designed to reinforce this sense of multiple identities all existing at the same time. It takes us back to that notion of the palimpsest - whatever we are seeing on screen always already has echoes of what has come before. Theres never a clear slate.