Capítulo 45: Chapter 45: The Meaning of Intuition
Ronald tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep well all night.
Sometimes, judging whether a person has talent in something is to see if they can quickly identify the master. Only by knowing who is good can we talk about learning and improvement.
Many people have been reading books and practicing for many years, but they cannot distinguish who has real skills and who has fake skills, so it cannot be said that they have talent.
Walter Mersey was a great expert. His few answers seemed to open a door in front of Ronald's eyes, allowing him to catch a glimpse of the true secrets of the leading directors in the palace of cinema. Then he miserably closed the door.
Of course, when you meet an expert, whether they are willing to teach you or not depends on fate. Walter Mersey and Ronald knew each other well. After a few rounds of questions and answers, Walter asked Ronald to be his assistant.
The original plan was to stay in Los Angeles and wait for the start of classes in the fall before returning to New York to attend university. But when faced with this rare opportunity to study side by side with a master, Ronald did not want to let it pass.
He thought about it all night, and the next day he made a special trip to ask his former boss, Roger Coleman.
Roger Corman heard that Walter Mersey agreed to let him work as an editing assistant at Peep Show Company, and he also agreed:
"Perhaps you don't know that Walter Mersey was at the University of Southern California with Star Wars director George Lucas. Yes, they were both there. George's film debut, THX1138, was written by Walter.
Later, he entered the field of sound editing, in Coppola's film 'Wireless Conspiracy', for which Walter received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound Effects. The recording of 'The Godfather' was also done by him, although it was not credited."
"Coppola admires him a lot. If Peep Show hadn't had financial difficulties with 'Apocalypse Now', Walt would have had the opportunity to direct last year."
"Do you think I should leave university and study editing in a peep show?"
"No, no, no, Ronald, that's not what I meant. I think you should go to university."
Roger Coleman said solemnly: "Anyone who has the opportunity should try university life; it will change a person's way of thinking and their destiny.
First, go to school. Walter will always welcome you to go. You can also go study with him during your vacations."
Ronald nodded; in fact, he was too anxious.
"I heard that Mr. Mersey said he would come to New World Company today to give a lecture. Can I attend?"
Roger Coleman stood up and hugged Ronald: "Kid, you will always be welcome here."
Walter Mersey's lecture took place in the screening room of New World Company. Ronald arrived early and chose a seat next to the aisle to sit. This was the place where he saw the samples of "Rock and Roll High School." It was a bit intimate to return to a place filled with memories.
Walter Mersey was an interdisciplinary professional who edited films and edited sound. So the editors and mixers from New World came to listen to his lectures.
Walter first played a video, which was a clip from one of the first black-and-white Hollywood movies, about five minutes long.
"Has anyone noticed anything special about this movie?"
"He didn't edit it; it was a single take," replied one editor.
"Yes, in fact, Hitchcock also made a movie like this. His Rope has only 8 takes throughout the entire film. Each shot is connected by a black screen. Except for one jump in the middle, the entire film is not a single cut."
"My question is, if the movie can be filmed this way, why is it necessary to edit it?"
Walter Mersey kept questioning.
"There are two reasons. One is the difficulty of shooting. This type of shooting requires a lot of rehearsal time, and if one place isn't handled well, long shots will have to be reshot. For cost reasons, Hollywood opted for editing distant shots."
Walter Mersey continued with another video, the opening sequence of Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey."
A large ape threw a bone into the air and, as it fell, it transformed into a long spaceship.
"Another reason is that editing can challenge the limits of human imagination. If we all use Hitchcock's method, then such an imaginative narrative cannot be completed.
In this single drop, millions of years of human evolutionary history were completed. There is no simpler way to express it than Kubrick."
"That's what editing is about."
Walter Mersey was like an encyclopedic teacher, talking about film montage, recording, sound editing, etc.
Sometimes he quoted Beethoven's symphonies, sometimes he quoted Shakespeare's sonnets, and sometimes he quoted the ancient Eastern Book of Changes to explain various methods of editing and sound editing.
Ronald listened with fascination.
For example, when he talks about films, he seems more like Beethoven in classical music. One of the distinctive characteristics of Beethoven's music is the introduction of dynamic range. The music can be very loud at one moment and very soft the next.
Just like the close-up and the long shot of a film lens, you can change at any moment. In ancient Bach, such difference and contrast of hundreds of times in volume do not exist.
As another example, he talked about the use of soundtracks in films and about not telling the audience the climax of the plot in advance.
Many editors and sound editors, to avoid problems, will add a strange piece of music when they encounter scary things. When you're happy, play it happily.
But before the characters discover the danger, you add a dangerous soundtrack, and the audience won't be as scared when they actually see the terrifying aspects of danger. Because the music has reminded them: the next danger is next.
In the film "The Godfather", the classic scene of Michael Corleone's murder. Walter Mersey fell silent, with no background music.
The climax of the opera isn't set until the murder is completed. Only then can the emotional experience of the audience be complete.
"Ambient music is an amplifier of emotions, not a generator," concluded Walter Mersey.
"When it comes to ambient music, I believe that music should be globalized."
Globalization does not mean using music from other countries of the world, but that the music of the film should resemble what we hear in the real world and should not directly use record tracks.
Walter Mersey used the wedding scene at the beginning of "The Godfather" as an example, as it is a film that almost everyone has seen except for poor Ronald.
"When we filmed the wedding scene, we were playing music on location, so the live sound recording included noise, words, the sound of the wind blowing through the microphone, and, most importantly, we were recording from more than ten meters away from the performance. Local recording."
Here is the translation of the text into English without changing any words from the original story:
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The human ear is very sharp, and we can easily distinguish a sound source from a distance of more than ten meters, several meters, or a hundred meters.
If we synthesize the music from The Godfather's wedding directly from record tracks, we would lose most of the information from the real world.
Therefore, I used the live audio track and the recording audio track to synthesize it at the same time. When the camera went outdoors, I played more live audio tracks, so that when you watch the wedding scene, you feel like you are there.
It's no wonder that the music of "Rock and Roll High School" is a bit strange and lacks a feeling of life.
Ronald thought to himself. After participating in the shooting and post-production of "Rock and Roll High School," I was able to improve my level by listening to Walter Mersey's lectures.
"How can we better determine where a particular shot should be cut? Sometimes it's the first half second or the last half second. It feels almost the same."
"This is a very good question, and my answer is: let our intuition tell us which frame we should cut."
Ronald's ears perked up when he heard Walter Mersey also exalt his intuition.
"If you stay with a film for a long time, you will develop an intuition. The director's guidance, the actors' performances, and the interaction between the actors; a film will have its own unique rhythm.
As long as we feel this rhythm, we can find the pattern intuitively. No matter how many times I press the stop button, the video will stop at the same frame every time."
What? The editors below were persuaded and began to talk among themselves.
Is this possible? A film can play 24 frames in a second, and each frame lasts only 24 seconds. To play the film at normal speed and then press the stop button each time to reach the same frame?
"In fact, if I don't see the same frame twice, I know that I have not yet formed an intuition. I will go back and watch more films until I incorporate these emotions, feelings, and performances into my brain and internalize them into my intuition, so I can play in the same space."
"So, if you want to stop at the same square each time, is there any other trick?" he took the opportunity to ask.
"Hello Ronald. Yes, I have some tricks that help me achieve that. The simplest trick is to edit while standing," Walter said.
Edit while standing? Can you still sit? Ronald was a bit confused. The editor next to him whispered, "Walter and the others are using a KEM editing machine from West Germany at Peep Show. It's a horizontal type. You have to sit in front of the table to edit."
"Humans evolved from apes, and we are accustomed to standing and walking. When we stand, human intuition responds faster and more accurately. This is the intuition developed by humans during millions of years of hunting, which is why I am used to editing while standing."
"The second trick is to imagine watching the film on a big screen. The window of the editing machine is usually very small, and the small image will create an illusion.
In fact, when played on a big screen, the image will have more details, which will cause editing points that are established on the small screen but not on the big screen."
Walter Mersey added, "I usually use paper to fold two figurines, one male and one female, and place them in front of the editing screen, so I can imagine how the scene will look on the big screen."
It turns out that what Walter Mersey meant was that intuition is the internalization of various everyday feelings. As long as we are immersed in some kind of world for a long time, we will also make decisions intuitively, and this type of decision is often the most common, most in line with the needs of this world.
Could my intuition have come from watching movies in my past life? How many movies do you have to watch before naturally developing all kinds of intuitive premonitions? Was I a film fan in my past life?
After the lecture, Walter Mersey stopped Ronald and handed him a bottle of something.
Ronald took it and saw that it was a jar of honey.
"This is honey made by my wife Angie and me from the bees we raised ourselves. This is the best honey you have been given," Walter Mersey said with a smile.
"I am about to depart for Cannes, France. Coppola will continue reviewing the film there. I heard Roger say you are going to study at New York University in the fall. I will wait for you in San Francisco next summer."
Ronald enthusiastically hugged Mersey. Mersey was born in 1943, which turned out to be the age of Ronald's uncle.
"Remember to watch more good movies, whether they are new or old films, that is the source of inspiration," Walter Mersey warned.
The two said goodbye.
Ronald felt that everything was happening in Los Angeles and that there would be no good opportunities to advance if he stayed any longer. He should return to Staten Island, New York, to prepare for university life and his photography business in New York.
End of chapter
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