Rule of Six in Editing
The rules of six refer to the theory created by Walter Murch (American film editor most known for his work on Apocalypse Now, 1979) which refers to the criteria to a perfect cut within a film a cut that consists of emotion, story, rhythm, eye trace, a 2D plane of the screen, and 3D space. Nofilmschool.com
The Art of the Cut, Greg Keast. Talking about Editing
"You will be creating a psychological experience of reality and manipulating the overall mood by tempo."
Emotion (51%)
The feeling of the scene and how it will affect the audience emotionally in that section of the work. Does the cut/edit match the tone of your film, if you were making a serious Drama you would edit differently to a comedy like The Hangover (2009) as you are trying to establish different emotions depending on its audience.
The Hangover (2009)
Story (23%)
How the editing furthers the narrative of the video as it continues the dialogue of a scene with a shot-reverse-shot, does it flashback to an important piece of information from a different time in the film like in Momento (2000). Or does it share important information that is needed for the audience to know what's going on? Basically, does the edit move the story along in a meaningful way?
Memento (2000)
Rhythm (10%)
Heavily connected to the emotion and story aspects of editing, the rhythm keeps the pace of a scene. By editing to the beat of the music (non-diegetic) and cutting to the energy of the scene, fast-paced quick cuts using a handheld camera/shaky camera for a car chase scene like in Baby Driver (2017).
Baby Driver (2017)
Eye Trace (7%)
When an edit keeps the most important part of the frame near where the last shot had them. For example in the film Seven when the police arrive at the scene of another homicide all the important information is in the centre of the frame. This follows Eye Trace as it easily allows the audience to keep track of the scene during the cuts from the interviewer talking about the case to the office floor painted with greed in the centre of the office carpet.
Seven (1995)
Two Dimensional Plane on Screen (5%)
This is transforming our reality into the two-dimensional reality on screen and follows the 180-degree rule as characters maintain a relationship from left to right of each other in the scene and the camera follows this line to not confuse the audience s they can easily keep track of the characters.
Storybinder The Shinning (1980) Example
Three Dimensional Space (4%)
The physical space around the scene, positioning of certain props actor positioning, etc. This is essential in order to maintain emersion in the scene, however, it is the last rule because despite emersion being important what is more important is that a scene engages the audience's emotions and invests them in the narrative/story. An example of a great scene breaking this rule is this scene from Goodfellas (1990) as props and actors positioning constantly contradict each other.
Goodfellas (1990)
Use in Advertising/Promotional Video
We can use these editing rules from Walter Murch to help sell/advertise products by helping us engage them with narrative and emotion.
Advert Example: Diet Coke (1994)
Emotion
Advert uses editing to establish a desire from the audience as it makes the man look wanted/desired by the women on the hill as they use intimate closeups of the reactions when he takes off his shirt in combination with the shot-reverse shots. By making the audience feel this desire for the man it makes them have a desire for the product as the creators have used male gaze techniques like fragmentation to sexualise the man and the product of Diet Coke.
Story
The advert showcases the rule of the story in editing as we see the story of a group of women having a picnic as they give the gardener a diet coke. The audience watches the coke can through the grass with panning/tracking shots. We see the journey of the product to the man as it cuts back and forth along with the non-diegetic music of Etta James "I just wanna make love to you" (1960) makes the scene feel like a meet-cute from a rom-com like What if (2014) as the footage goes into slow motion and the sound effects are edited into a dream-like echo and enhanced with the high key lighting. As the story of romance and desire seduces the audience into buying the product themselves.
Rhythm
The advert follows a quick pace narrative with the music by Etta James, this is both to match together an engaging sequence as the music perfectly fits the stolen glances of seduction between the characters and for the men undressing but also allows the advert to showcase their product quickly and effectively as we see a story encouraging its consumption with the heightened sexual tension of sound and camera techniques, and keeps the add at an exact minute making it cheaper to make and buy ad space for.
Eye Trace
The editor in compilation with the cinematographer uses shots that focus on the centre of frame e and use blur effects to draw the focus of the eye to the actors and the product of the diet coke can. Keeping the audience engaged and their focus clearly drawn to the most important aspects on screen they want them to pay attention to. The product and the sexual tension between the women and the man.
Two and Three Dimensional Space on Screen
We see the characters clearly following the 180-degree rule, as the positioning on the man on the left and the women on the right allowing the audience to easily keep track of the characters positioning from each other, and the seen keeps continuity between the actors with there positioning and relationship with the setting remaining the same throughout the scene, the only continuity error being the changing lighting outlining the fragmented figure of the man as he undresses.
Overall
The advert uses the techniques of Murch to sell their product by making the audience engaged with a seductive emotion and relationship with the characters within it. By having these feeling in the advert they make them transfer to the product encouraging people to buy the product in hopes they will have a similar experience to the characters in the footage as it silently claims you will become attractive like these paid models/actors by drinking diet coke.
Overall I think the advert uses sexual references as a weapon and has quite outdated male gaze techniques like fragmentation that portray both the men and women in the advert in an unrealistic light with unnatural beauty standards and I think this advert could be greatly improved with more modern conceptions of gender and relationships.
Reference List:
Apocalypse Now (1979) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Nofilmschool.com "6 'Rules' for Good Cutting According to Oscar-Winning Editor Walter Murch" Written by V Renée, November 30, 2016 (Online), available at:
https://nofilmschool.com/2016/11/6-rules-good-cutting-according-oscar-winning-editor-walter-murch#:~:text=Walter%20Murch%27s%20Rule%20of%20Six&text=%22The%20ideal%20cut%20is%20one,in%20importance%20in%20his%20eyes.
Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People "Walter Murch - The six criteria of film editing (293/320)" 7 Sept 2017 (Online), available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s49Al2CMfTI&ab_channel=WebofStories-LifeStoriesofRemarkablePeople
The Hangover (2009) Directed by Todd Phillips
Memento (2000) Directed by Christopher Nolan
Baby Driver (2017) Directed by Edgar Wright
Seven (1995) Directed by David Fincher
Storybinder "The Rule of Six: How to Edit Effectively with Walter Murch’s Eye Trace" Written By Alyssa Maio August 1, 2019 (Online), Available at:
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/walter-murch-rule-of-six/#1-emotion
The Shinning (1980) Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Goodfellas (1990) Directed by Martin Scorcese
Diet Coke Advert (1994) Directed by Rocky Morton
Etta James "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" (1960)
What if (2014) Directed by Michael Dowse
Arttouchesart.com "Editing, Rhythm and Emotion: How Film and Video Editing Works" Written By James Harding May 30th, 2018 (Online), Available at:
https://www.arttouchesart.com/editing-rhythm-and-emotion-how-film-and-video-editing-works
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