Berliner, T, Cohen DJ 2011, ‘The Illusion of Continuity: Active Perception and the Classical Editing System’, Journal of Film & Video, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 44-63.
2 thoughts on “Berliner, T, Cohen DJ 2011, ‘The Illusion of Continuity: Active Perception and the Classical Editing System’, Journal of Film & Video, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 44-63.”
This article uses both film studies and perceptual psychology to explain how classical editing devices exploit and accommodate the cognitive processes people use to perceive the physical world. The article utilises discussion of other scholars and psychologists that discuss the role of constructive perception in their research on spatial continuity. The article also focuses on the relation between Hollywood’s classical editing system and what cognitive psychology calls active perception, which enables the human perceptual system to interact with the environment rather than passively observe it. The central argument of this article is that continuity in both real-world perception and cinema perception, is an illusion, enabled by the fact our brain conjoins fragmented images following a set of patterns and logic.
Continuity editing is something really difficult to perfect. While studying this topic I was aware of the tendency both myself and some authors had to lean towards the idea that women have historically (and currently) made good editors due to a supposedly feminine inclination towards detail and perfection.
Throughout my research I could find no evidence of this truly being the case, but none the less it has not been properly studied so perhaps there is something to it.
This article uses both film studies and perceptual psychology to explain how classical editing devices exploit and accommodate the cognitive processes people use to perceive the physical world. The article utilises discussion of other scholars and psychologists that discuss the role of constructive perception in their research on spatial continuity. The article also focuses on the relation between Hollywood’s classical editing system and what cognitive psychology calls active perception, which enables the human perceptual system to interact with the environment rather than passively observe it. The central argument of this article is that continuity in both real-world perception and cinema perception, is an illusion, enabled by the fact our brain conjoins fragmented images following a set of patterns and logic.
Continuity editing is something really difficult to perfect. While studying this topic I was aware of the tendency both myself and some authors had to lean towards the idea that women have historically (and currently) made good editors due to a supposedly feminine inclination towards detail and perfection.
Throughout my research I could find no evidence of this truly being the case, but none the less it has not been properly studied so perhaps there is something to it.