Adriano D'Aloia

The present study examined whether cinematographic editing density affects viewers’ perception of time. As a second aim, based on embodied models that conceive time perception as strictly connected to the movement, we tested the hypothesis that the editing density of moving images also affects viewers’ eye movements and that these later mediate the effect of editing density on viewers’ temporal judgments. Seventy participants watched nine video clips edited by manipulating the number of cuts (slow‐ and fast‐paced editing against a master shot, unedited condition). For each editing density, multiple video clips were created, representing three different kinds of routine actions. The participants’ eye movements were recorded while watching the video, and the participants were asked to report duration judgments and subjective passage of time judgments after watching each clip. The results showed that participants subjectively perceived that time flew more while watching fast‐paced edited videos than slow‐paced or unedited videos; by contrast, concerning duration judgments, participants overestimated the duration of fast‐paced videos compared to the master‐shot videos. Both the slow‐ and the fast‐paced editing generated shorter fixations than the master shot, and the fast‐paced editing led to shorter fixations than the slow‐paced editing. Finally, compared to the unedited condition, editing led to an overestimation of durations through increased eye mobility. These findings suggest that the editing density of moving images by increasing the number of cuts effectively altered viewers’ experience of time and add further evidence to prior research showing that performed eye movement is associated with temporal judgments.

This article illustrates the first steps of a research project concerning the “Subjective Experience and Estimation of Moving-Image Time”. After introducing the theoretical background of the research, that links time perception to the embodied experience of movement, the article presents the main empirical results of an experiment aimed at assessing how spectators’ time perception is affected by the style of editing and the type of represented action in short video clips. Though the style of editing played a major role in influencing SEEM_IT, it also significantly interacted with the type of represented action. The article reassesses these findings by discussing them within the theoretical framework of the research.

This essay examines the motif of the upside-down image in cinema and focuses on the perceptual and cognitive activity of the spectator. In the first part, I refer to Maurice Merleau-Ponty discussion of psychological experiments on retinal inversion and describe the dynamic disembodiment/re-embodiment as a way of providing the spectator both the thrill of unbalance and the perceptual re-orientation functional to the cognitive comprehension of the film. In the second part, I analyse the formal and stylistic modes of representation of the upside-down image of the character in selected film scenes. In particular, I argue that the rotation al camera movement is a filmic “gestures” that simulates the human bodily movement.

This essay examines the motif of the upside-down image in cinema and focuses on the perceptual and cognitive activity of the spectator. In the first part, I refer to Maurice Merleau-Ponty discussion of psychological experiments on retinal inversion and describe the dynamic disembodiment/re-embodiment as a way of providing the spectator both the thrill of unbalance and the perceptual re-orientation functional to the cognitive comprehension of the film. In the second part, I analyse the formal and stylistic modes of representation of the upside-down image of the character in selected film scenes. In particular, I argue that the rotation al camera movement is a filmic “gestures” that simulates the human bodily movement