“The Inception of Movie Editing: The Art of D.W. Griffith”

I watched D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance recently — the first time since college — and was once again blown away by the movie’s visuals. Then I stumbled upon this blog post from Michael Joshua Rowin:

This past summer audiences marveled at the complex structure of Inception, a film containing dreams within dreams, all taking place and affecting each other simultaneously. Director Christopher Nolan accomplished this sophisticated form of storytelling using the technique of parallel editing, in which separate scenes in different locations or periods are cut together to make it appear as if they are unfolding at the same time. But when compared to the work of a filmmaker who directed a hundred years before Nolan, Inception doesn’t look all that mind-blowing. Considered the father of narrative cinema, D.W. Griffith practically invented such techniques like parallel editing, pushing them to unprecedented levels of complexity and depth.

Here is a video version of the blog post:

Takeaway: Screenwriters can use parallel editing in our scripts by cross-cutting action between two or more locations. Simply establish the respective locations with a Primary Slugline (Scene Heading), then indicate shifts from one locale / point of reference to another by using Secondary Sluglines (Shots) to ‘edit’ the action.