Devices

A device, for our purposes, is something that “complicates the formal

patterning . . . providing form with variations. ” 1 It is a way of construct-

ing a moment or a passage that varies the unfolding of a story from

direct linear cause-and-effect chains to more complicated and poten-

tially formally more expressive patterns of telling. In particular, for

editors, an editing device varies the form by playing with some of the

unique capacities of cinema to shape time, space, energy, and move-

ment to create experiences of tension and release.