Maximum Firepower of Flash Cuts
These are some miscellaneous notes about video. I have written something similar before.
I am not a professional in this field, so please consider these the notes of an amateur. Also, please be aware that due to the nature of this article, it contains many images with intense flickering.
Flash Cut Expression Techniques
The Gakumas MV released the other day was a huge topic on the timeline. The director is Shun Yamaguchi. Recently, whenever I think "this is an amazing video" and check the credits, Director Yamaguchi or Furokuro is almost always there. It is still fresh in my memory that I was shown some insane motion in a Tennen-sui Sparkling Lemoncommercial a little while ago. I really like the work he created under the ridiculous name "Banban Account Creation Taro".
Putting that aside, in this Gakumas MV, a flash cut technique was used in the interlude.
This technique of displaying images at high speed to guide the viewer's gaze to common elements, making it look like continuous movement, is called a flash cut. I have known about this expression itself for a while, but I did not know the name. According to
this site, that is the name for it.
This expression technique has existed for a long time, and I think PAPERS (1991) is particularly famous. Considering that flash cuts already existed in the early days when video editing shifted from television and film to something individuals could do, it is clear that this method, which looks novel and impressive, is actually an application of a classical technique. Seeing it used even today without feeling outdated shows just how inherently impactful this expression technique is.
Come to think of it, it is mysterious; even if you cannot recognize each image unfolding at high speed, if there is some common element there, your eyes will unconsciously find it. Even if they are completely different things (pictograms and finger movements in Sun-Faded), the brain compensates and recognizes them as a series of movements. It can be said to be a psychological approach that turns the brain's illusions against itself.
Among the things I have seen recently, the ones used in "Shenzhen East" and "The Two of Them Today" left an impression on me. The former has the pleasantness of the development including the cut-up of ambient sounds, and the latter has the fun of finding and creating the movements of the anime ED from the original manga. And what both have in common is that they used flash cuts only at key points in the video. In other words, it is used only in situations where you want to give the strongest impression to the viewer. It is truly a maximum firepower expression technique that gives the viewer an intense centripetal force and impression.
By using it only in critical moments, the gaze is guided and you cannot take your eyes off it. You end up following the visual flow drawn by the creator without any room for argument. It is the moment when the initiative of the video is swapped. It is also where the creator's skill is tested in terms of the timing and method of exerting that power.
Intense flickering is a heavy burden on the viewer, and there is a danger that it could be perceived as subliminal if done poorly, so I don't think flash cuts are very common in terrestrial broadcast works. The only one that comes to mind is the opening of "Keizoku" (1999). That is perhaps why it is an expression that demonstrates its ability in personal works like OtoMADs or MVs specialized for online release. It is also a place where I feel the freedom of personal video production.
There are many videos made only with flash cuts, but methods are taken to reduce the burden on the viewer, such as minimizing flickering or making the color tones similar. No matter how high-firepower an expression is, if it continues for a long time, the viewer will get bored. It is a difficult balance. When it comes to whether you can create a pleasant video without boring the viewer or burdening them, I think this expression is indeed difficult to handle.
Division of Roles with Time-lapse
By the way, there is time-lapse as a video expression that unfolds photos at high speed in the same way.
I was wondering if there were any movies that used flash cuts, and I suddenly remembered the ending of "The Crazy Family".
Looking back at it again, it has a strange feeling that you can't quite pin down as a flash cut, time-lapse, or stop motion. To put it bluntly, it's a very unsettling piece of footage. However, that is in line with the content of the film, and it's clear that this eerie imagery was created with a specific intent.
Time-lapse is a technique often seen in travel videos, where footage shot over a long period is compressed into a short time, allowing you to see movements that cannot be perceived by the naked eye. I think footage of a cumulonimbus cloud billowing and growing is easy to visualize. Even if you watch clouds normally, you don't really get the sense of them growing, but by compressing time, that process becomes clear. Time-lapse can be called a form of visual expression that manipulates time.
Flash cuts are a technique that creates a sense of speed and rhythm by compressing a series of different images, so even if they share a general image of "footage moving quickly in a flash," their purposes and intentions are completely different.
If you watch the footage with that in mind, you might find it even more interesting. In "Sunfaded," which I introduced at the beginning, I feel that the protagonist's sense of loneliness, left behind in the crowd moving at high speed as depicted in the first half of the work, was amplified to the maximum by the flash cuts inserted during the interlude, and that its maximum firepower was strongly exerted there.
Expression has intent, and reading that intent is one of the joys of watching film. I think it's more interesting if you think about "why this method was used."