Didactics of Composition and Order. Development of Teaching Editing Theory at FAMU

This study aims to research the progression of film editing theory education at the Department of Editing at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague from 1964 to the present. The study focuses on the didactics of editing theory - which concerns the analysis of the textbooks, syllabus of study and practical education - and through it uncovers the intellectual transformation of the editing theory itself. This transformation occurred in a historical context and was deeply influenced by the institutional development of the Department of Editing. Thus, the secondary intention of this study is to briefly summarize the history of the department along with its most important figures, who defined the teaching and reflection of editing theory. The key person to the whole study is Jan Kučera, an important Czech film theoretician, who established the Department of Editing at FAMU and laid the foundation of the editing theory from which Josef Valušiak and Martin Čihák - his future successors, theory teachers and other important figures of this study - draw upon to the present. One of Kučera's essential premises of editing and film theory overall was the semantic hierarchy and semiotic structure of the work of art, and this notion still defines the thinking of editing students. This study also covers the question of whether there is a continuity and tradition in the teaching of editing theory (which this study prefers over education of editing practice) at the Department of Editing at FAMU and reflects this unique pedagogical approach.

Keywords: theory of film editing, Department of Editing FAMU, pedagogy, Jan Kučera, hierarchy