In 2009, Pixar Animation Studios released a montage entitled The Married Life, a brilliant five-minute masterclass in narrative exposition (Bradshaw, 2009) that centralises around the life of two lovers: Carl and Ellie. The montage is an excerpt from their multi-award-winning feature film, UP (Pete Docter, 2009). There are several editing techniques within the context of rhythm-making which have been applied onto The Married Life in order to craft an overall impactful and emotionally engaging cinematic experience, one of the techniques being “trajectory phrasing”.
Trajectory phrasing is an editing technique, theorised by film writer, director and editor, Dr. Karen Pearlman. In Pearlman’s words, she says that it is used to “shape the direction and energy of movement phrases in film editing” (Pearlman, 2016, p.19). Trajectory phrasing can be achieved through a careful composition of mise-en-scene, and a combination of several editing tools such as cutting and transitioning, resulting in a rhythmically harmonious flow of energy.
To visualise this theory is an excerpt from Goddard’s conversation with Agns Guillemot from the article, Montage My Fine Care (Cahiers du Cinéma, 1956), to which he says, “.. You notice a young girl in the street who attracts you. You hesitate to follow her. A quarter of a second. How to convey this hesitation? Mise-en-scene will answer the question, ‘how shall I approach her?’. But in order to render explicit the other question, ‘am I going to love her?’ you are forced to bestow importance on the quarter of a second during which the two questions are born.”
Figure 1: Young Ellie and Carl in The Married Life montage.
As shown in Figure 1, the audience is introduced to a young and cheerful Ellie who expresses her fondness towards a young, introverted Carl. In the next shot, Carl walks to his bedroom window and leans on his blue balloon as he looks out the window, trailing Ellie off.
The revelation shot of Carl’s “look”, with reference to Goddard’s example stated in the introductory section of this analysis, is an important component of the scene which behaves as a nexus to the trajectories that follow, throughout The Married Life’s entire plot. The scene’s lighting composition and Carl’s actions and reaction play important roles to effectively communicate the “quarter of a second ‘look’” that is exemplified by Goddard.
In order to set a suitable mood for this determining moment in The Married Life, the mise-en-scene is lit by two sources of light: a diminished warm fill light in the background, and the moonlight that acts as a key light. The construction of these two soft quality lighting together creates a dreamy atmosphere which radiates a warm and cosy energy, therefore, setting up the audience’s expectations of a positive reaction from Carl. Applying Landau’s (2014 , p. 16) theory in which he says, “.. We can direct the focus of the viewer’s attention to what we want the viewer to concentrate more on within the picture. The human eye is attracted to whatever the brightest thing is in its view”, the moonlight therefore subconsciously shifts the audience’s focus onto the brightest lit subject which is Carl’s face, and the audience forms a perception of Carl’s reaction.
Therefore, the factors mentioned above: lighting composition and character’s actions, which contribute to the materialisation of Carl’s “look”, function as tools to form a flow of trajectory within a mise-en-scene with the sole purpose of communicating the idea of The Married Life’s premise.
Figure 2: Colliding trajectories between two shots.
Figure 2 shows the pivotal, climactic part of the montage. The first shot on the left is a shot with a mise-en-scene that is designed to draw the audience in with the prominent feature which is the mural of a stork delivering a baby, a culturally famous symbol of a pregnancy made popular by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Storks” (2001). Combined with a primary use of the colour yellow, which according to Goethe (1810 , p. 307), is a colour that conveys excitement; this mise-en-scene, further enhanced by the natural daylight coming from the window, is crafted with the intention of conveying the excitement that Carl and Ellie feel, as parents-to-be.
However, the high energy radiated in the first shot dramatically drops into a low energy as the camera pans into a shot of Carl and Ellie on the right, both situated in front of their gynaecologist in a dimly lit clinic room. This low-key lighting technique, commonly used to light negative scenes, effectively breaks the audience’s initial idea of Carl and Ellie’s venture into parenthood. It offers the audience a new perspective towards the storyline and simultaneously increases their curiosity, allowing them to reason with their predictions of the couple’s future.
The seamless flow between these two contrasting energies are what Pearlman (2016 , p. 55) refers to as a “colliding trajectory”. Regardless of whether the two shots are linked together with a smooth transition like the dolly pan used in this scene, the colliding energies between the two shots create a shock factor that moves the audience’s emotions, rendering the scene a climactic and unforgettable one.
Figure 3: Two scenes which exemplify trajectory phrasing to convey the passing of time.
The first scene, shown as a series of shots that are vertically aligned on the left hand side of Figure 3, begins with an establishing shot of the characters’ primary goal of pursuing Paradise Falls. It is followed by a rhythmic series of fast cuts, highlighting Carl and Ellie’s life hurdles. The second scene on the right comprises a series of fast-cut, close up shots from Ellie’s point of view as she tightens Carl’s tie on a daily basis. The tie design changes with every shot, emulating her daily routine of tightening Carl’s tie. There is also a gradual change in Carl’s overall look throughout the entire scene to show Carl’s ageing process.
The two scenes are comprehensively cut and arranged in chronological order to maintain a cohesive trajectory that simulates a considerable time gap between each event (each shot). The implementation of elliptical editing, a transitioning technique used to decrease a duration of a plot (Bordwell, 1985) in the two scenes, shortens the duration of events to fit the limited amount of time that makes a montage what it is, and to create an illusion of time passing by, without compromising the audience’s interests towards the plot and character development.
Murch’s lecture (2001 , p. 16) in which he mentions, “If you are in an actual fight, you will be blinking dozens of times in a minute because you are thinking dozens of conflicting thoughts a minute— and so when you are watching a fight in a film, there should be dozens of cuts per minute. This would make the audience participate emotionally in the fight itself”, can be associated with the two scenes shown in Figure 3, wherethe editor arranges approximately 10 cuts per 10 seconds, activating what Restak (2008) refers to as the “mirror neurons” in the audience’s brains, giving rise to a sense of relatability with the characters’ feelings and experiences. These engaging events in the form of fast cuts that are chronologically edited to produce a unified flow of trajectory therefore prompts the audience to form a strong emotional bond towards Carl and Ellie.
In conclusion, with the application of “trajectory phrasing” as an editing technique that is delivered through a combination of well-composed mise-en-scenes, cutting, and transitioning techniques, a heavily emotional film is able to move its audience by-way-of a rhythmic consistency in the form of trajectories that is evident from the beginning of the film to its end, like that of The Married Life montage.
Goddard’s (1956 , p . 2) quote concludes the application of trajectory phrasing in The Married Life with the intention of creating an emotionally unforgettable cinematic experience, to which he says, “cutting on a look is, in effect, to bring out the soul under the spirit, the passion behind the intrigue, to make the heart prevail over the intelligence by destroying the notion of space in favour of that of time”.
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Bibliography
Bradshaw, P. (2009) ‘Up’, The Guardian, 9 October. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/09/up-review (Accessed: 1 December 2021).
Pearlman, K. (2016) Cutting Rhythms. New York: Routledge. Second Edition.
Godard, J.-L (1956). Montage My Fine Care. Paris: In Cahiers du Cinéma (1996).
Landau, D. (2014) Lighting for Cinematography: A Practical Guide to the Art and Craft of Lighting for the Moving Image. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Sax, Boria (2001) The Mythical Zoo. Oxford, UK: ABC-CLIO. pp. 153–4. ISBN 978-1-57607-612-5.
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Restak, R. (2006) The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neurosociety is Changing How We Live, Work, and Love. New York: Harmony Books.