section 1- unit 3- Film editing

Film Editing - What is it?

This is the post-production process of making a moving image text, by the selection and ordering of a range of shots (the footage) into a continuous sequence.

Editing can bring in audio (dialogue, score and sound effects), titles (credits) and still images.

Editing can help to enforce a theme, narrative or atmosphere, due to the pace and combination of elements selected.

This could be through the use of a montage, the use of continuity editing, or the timing of music combined with the footage to create a mixture of emotive responses in the audience (from happy to sad, from horror to humour).

If editing is done well, you normally would not realise it has been edited at all. Editing has been called the ‘Invisible’ art.

Editing can include:

            Visual mock-ups

            Sound effects by a foley artist

            Musical score

            Range of footage

            Credits / titles

Its effect can be to:

            Create a montage - a short selection of footage compressed to illustrate time passing or to represent different narratives happening simultaneously

            Exaggerate the emotion of an actor’s performance

            Illustrate the pace and timing of an event - speed things up or to slow them down

            To help the director highlight messages and values to the audience they may not have seen / need to spot (from metaphorical messages to generic codes)

            Act as another point of view

            To help contrast scenes of different subject matter / locations

            Just experiment with the medium as an art form

Order of Editing

            Editor’s Cut | This is the rough cut or assembly edit. It is the first cut and is usually based on the raw footage shot each day (the dailies or rushes). The dailies can help the editor see where the director is going with a film. This cut will then be refined as the production and post-production work continues.

            Director’s Cut | Once the principal photography is finished, and once all his/her work on set has been completed, the director will then work directly with the Editor to create the Director’s Cut. This is normally within ten weeks of principal photography finishing (due to legislation). This is when the Editor and Director will edit the film as a whole and see if additional footage needs to be secured.

            Final Cut | This is when the production company gets involved as does the studio. There is a DGA (Director Guild of America) term, “Alan Smithee” (check it out on Wiki) which means that a Director does not want to be associated with the Producer’s final cut and disowns the project.

Continuity

This is the conventional and traditional form of editing for Hollywood films. It uses establishing shots, shot reverse shots and the 180 degree rule to place the audience in the centre of the action.

A sequence should be physically continuous, for example; if someone takes off a jacket in one shot, they should still be wearing it in the next.

If the director is representing a chase, the editing should match the action - so it appears that the characters are moving in a certain direction.

Continuity helps to advance the narrative and illustrates a verisimilitude for time, location and the action. Continuity means that the performances, action and narrative continues or is continuous from the start of a film to the end.

Montage

‘Montage’ is a French word meaning to assemble or put together. In France, ‘montage’ can be used as another word for editing. In modern, Hollywood cinema ‘montage’ is the use of rapid editing to compress narrative.

Transitions | Cuts

This is when shots are placed together. There are a number of ways that transitions can appear. Here are a few to get you started:

Cross Cutting | When action from two locations is edited to represent that these things are - usually - happening at the same time.

Cutaway | The continuous action is interrupted by a cut to another shot, normally within the same setting (for example the shot prior to this one. If the subject is running down a road, it might cutaway to some bins in his pathway).

Cut To | The most common transition, the shot simply moves to the next one.

Diagonal Down Right | Shot peels, like a page, downwards from the left.

Dissolve | Shot dissolves into the next.

Fade | Shot fades to black / white before fading back to the next.

Jump Cut | Shot jumps to the next, showing different camera positions (some consider this to be a shocking effect for an audience).message">An error occ

L Cut / Split Edit | Using Audio and Moving Image editing - this is when the picture and sound are matched but the transitions are not. Normally dialogue is edited between the speakers. The L edit means that a shot of another element may be brought in - for example a POV shot of one of the characters, whilst the dialogue continues followed by a cut to the speaker.

Match Cut / Graphic Match | This is when two shots of similar items / subjects are placed next to one another to create a metaphorical link or to move the narrative forward

Page Curl Up Left / Right | Shot peels, like a page, to the next one.

Pixellate | Shot pixellates into next.

Wipe | The shot moves from one side of the screen to another. This can be in a range of shapes - for example a circle which billows, or just as a line with travels from one side of the screen to another.

Editing Rules

180 Degree | Two subjects in the same scene should always be shot within the same axis (of 180 degrees).

                       

30 Degree | Camera should move at least 30 degrees between shots of the same subject for a succession of shots / a sequence (this is to create a less jarring movement than a jump cut