ABSTRACT
Rhythm in film is made from patterns of movement. Movement is what editors mirror neurologically, what activates their kinesthetic empathy, and what they work with intuitively to shape the film’s rhythm. A composer delineates the form and structure on which the musicians base the performance of their craft. A screenwriter does the same for the cast and crew of a film. The composer makes up the music and its rhythms, whereas an editor does not exactly make anything up. Editors compose rhythms in the sense that someone might compose a flower arrangement: not by making the flowers, or in this case the shots, but by choosing the selections, order, and duration of shots. There is a nonmusical meaning to the word “conducting” that might be more useful for describing what an editor does. The Choreographic Cognitions team explains that time is the artistic and expressive medium of contemporary dance.
