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first try, the attendant, without knowledge of Harold s attempted tackle, drops
the rope so that as Harold hits the dummy, he brutally falls, since there is
nothing holding the dummy up. On the next try, the attendant, again un-
aware of Harold s attempts, pulls the dummy upward so that Harold misses
it completely. This gag continues with further variation. What is interesting
about it is that it is mounted in a single medium long-shot which contains
all the elements of the gag. The dummy hangs in the middle of the screen;
the attendant with the rope is on screen-right while Harold runs at the dummy
from screen-left. Unlike other gags with the tackling dummy, where Lloyd
simply cuts from tight shots of the tacklers to tight shots of the dummy, Lloyd
includes all the elements of the gag in medium long-shots. We see how the
attendant s attention is diverted from the tacklers. We see how the attendant
accidentally and inadvertently manipulates the dummy to Harold s discom-
fort. Unlike most of the rest of the scene, this is one of the few points where
all the interacting variables of the event are not synthetically conveyed via
the editing of fragmented details.
In the gags that follow the one just cited, Lloyd returns to the use of edit-
ing. For instance, there is what might be called a straight-arm gag. The coach
is warning his team not to tackle opponents around the neck because they
138 Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd, and Langdon
might be hurt. For instance, an opponent might straight-arm a high-bounding
tackler. The coach illustrates this using Harold.
The straight-arm gag has two units. In the first, the coach hits Harold in
a medium close-shot. This is followed by a medium-shot of Harold flying
backwards and landing on the slanted, double-door of a cellar. Harold stag-
gers back to the coach. The second unit of the gag repeats the first; the coach
wants to be sure that his team understands his point; he straight-arms
Harold again. However, in the time between these two demonstrations,
editing has informed us that, as Harold dragged his way back to the coach,
the cellar doors were opened. Consequently, when the coach straight-arms
Harold this time, Harold reels back in the second shot, stumbling through
the open doors. Ensuing shots depict him crashing down the cellar stairs and
landing on the cellar floor.
Clearly, the shooting procedure used in Lloyd s edited gags, such as
the straight-arm gag, are quite at variance with what we have observed in
Keaton s The General. The previously cited dummy gag, which is the excep-
tion in The Freshman, is the norm in The General. An analysis in terms of
visible intelligibility can explicate the composition in the dummy gag, but in
the other gags Lloyd is quite satisfied with merely enabling the audience to
know what is happening, but not to see how it happens.
For instance, in the curtain-raising gag, one feels that Keaton would have
included a shot from the side of the action in which the audience could simul-
taneously see both Harold on the pedestal and the upperclassmen in the
wings. Likewise, in the straight-arm gag, one imagines that the Keatonesque
method of shooting would involve a shot of Harold in the foreground with
the open cellar doors in the background. Indeed, if our model of Keaton com-
position in The General is correct, one would expect the Keaton variation of
this gag to have the cellar doors opening while Harold was in the shot so
that the audience could see how the doors could open unbeknownst to Harold.
The analysis of Keaton s style in terms of visible intelligibility that we
offered for The General cannot be mapped onto Lloyd s The Freshman. The
data resists it. Large numbers of Lloyd s gags are created on the editing table
via Griffith-like editing techniques. This is not to say that all the gags in The
Freshman are edited. A rather large number of them are; indeed the largest
consistent bulk of them seems to fall into this category. There are also a few
long take shots with highly determinate compositions. Thus, visible intelli- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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first try, the attendant, without knowledge of Harold s attempted tackle, drops
the rope so that as Harold hits the dummy, he brutally falls, since there is
nothing holding the dummy up. On the next try, the attendant, again un-
aware of Harold s attempts, pulls the dummy upward so that Harold misses
it completely. This gag continues with further variation. What is interesting
about it is that it is mounted in a single medium long-shot which contains
all the elements of the gag. The dummy hangs in the middle of the screen;
the attendant with the rope is on screen-right while Harold runs at the dummy
from screen-left. Unlike other gags with the tackling dummy, where Lloyd
simply cuts from tight shots of the tacklers to tight shots of the dummy, Lloyd
includes all the elements of the gag in medium long-shots. We see how the
attendant s attention is diverted from the tacklers. We see how the attendant
accidentally and inadvertently manipulates the dummy to Harold s discom-
fort. Unlike most of the rest of the scene, this is one of the few points where
all the interacting variables of the event are not synthetically conveyed via
the editing of fragmented details.
In the gags that follow the one just cited, Lloyd returns to the use of edit-
ing. For instance, there is what might be called a straight-arm gag. The coach
is warning his team not to tackle opponents around the neck because they
138 Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd, and Langdon
might be hurt. For instance, an opponent might straight-arm a high-bounding
tackler. The coach illustrates this using Harold.
The straight-arm gag has two units. In the first, the coach hits Harold in
a medium close-shot. This is followed by a medium-shot of Harold flying
backwards and landing on the slanted, double-door of a cellar. Harold stag-
gers back to the coach. The second unit of the gag repeats the first; the coach
wants to be sure that his team understands his point; he straight-arms
Harold again. However, in the time between these two demonstrations,
editing has informed us that, as Harold dragged his way back to the coach,
the cellar doors were opened. Consequently, when the coach straight-arms
Harold this time, Harold reels back in the second shot, stumbling through
the open doors. Ensuing shots depict him crashing down the cellar stairs and
landing on the cellar floor.
Clearly, the shooting procedure used in Lloyd s edited gags, such as
the straight-arm gag, are quite at variance with what we have observed in
Keaton s The General. The previously cited dummy gag, which is the excep-
tion in The Freshman, is the norm in The General. An analysis in terms of
visible intelligibility can explicate the composition in the dummy gag, but in
the other gags Lloyd is quite satisfied with merely enabling the audience to
know what is happening, but not to see how it happens.
For instance, in the curtain-raising gag, one feels that Keaton would have
included a shot from the side of the action in which the audience could simul-
taneously see both Harold on the pedestal and the upperclassmen in the
wings. Likewise, in the straight-arm gag, one imagines that the Keatonesque
method of shooting would involve a shot of Harold in the foreground with
the open cellar doors in the background. Indeed, if our model of Keaton com-
position in The General is correct, one would expect the Keaton variation of
this gag to have the cellar doors opening while Harold was in the shot so
that the audience could see how the doors could open unbeknownst to Harold.
The analysis of Keaton s style in terms of visible intelligibility that we
offered for The General cannot be mapped onto Lloyd s The Freshman. The
data resists it. Large numbers of Lloyd s gags are created on the editing table
via Griffith-like editing techniques. This is not to say that all the gags in The
Freshman are edited. A rather large number of them are; indeed the largest
consistent bulk of them seems to fall into this category. There are also a few
long take shots with highly determinate compositions. Thus, visible intelli- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]