Unit 16: Assignment 1: Film and Video Editing Techniques

Editing is the process of putting together already recorded clips, better known as rushes and individual shots to create a cinematic whole. Rushes are the unedited clips already recorded on a camera, which are usually giving to an editor on a recorded disk to start the first edit. During the rough editing phase of a project, the overarching structure of a movie begins to take shape. In addition, a ‘rough edit is like an outline of a finished movie, and many details remain to be worked out’ [Documentation 17/03/13]. It is regarded as a language because only a few people are able to simply turn recorded footage into a master piece, it is once said that it is not only to content that makes a film but it is the way in which the editor puts it together. Film editing is regarded as the invisible art because it is the art of being able to engage the viewer without them even noticing it. Viewers should never ever notice an edit, once viewers begin to notice the edit, they become disorientated which altogether means the editor did not do their job properly. Furthermore, the art of film editing includes the art of being able to manipulate time and space. The art of film editing includes being able to compress something which happened along the stretch of years into minutes. Film editors must be able to piece together images and shots to create meaning, also create understanding for audiences.

In the film industry, research has proven that the basic building block is the shot and its most fundamental tool is the cut. ‘Each shot has two explicit values: the first value is determined by what is within the shot itself and the second value is determined by how the shot is situated in relation to other shots’ [Barson, 2006 p.238]. In traditional filmmaking, editor formally known as cutters, literally were having to trim film with a sharp edge or razor, in order to get shots precise and then having splice shots together with tape.

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Film editors are responsible for taken the footage which was shot by both the cinematographer and director, then selecting the shots which he or she believes are good enough to use The film editor must take into account that some shots may have faults such as something mistakenly got in the way of the camera whilst filming or the sound of that particular shot is disrupted, which inevitably the editor cannot stop neither fix. Once the film editor believes he has the right shots, he will then arrange the shots into scenes or sequences. Film editors also help makes suggestions to the director so they both can achieve objectives and create a bigger picture. Being a film editor is known to be not so much of an easy job, film editors should be able to work for long lengths of the day. ’Editors are responsible for managing the spatial relationships between shots, the temporal relationships between shots and the overall rhythm of the film’ [Barson, 2006 p.238].

It was once said that both cinema and film had no future. Can you imagine a world where film never existed? Before or these major budget films emerged into cinema and before directors began experimenting with shots and concepts, film makers were known to be people who just shot and collected footage of everyday things, nothing more special than that. Earlier film makers such as Lumiere Bros. and Thomas Edison among others, were single-shot actualities. In the late 1800s they began shooting pretty much random and basic footage, such as footage out of their own gardens, footage of trains going past, even footage of people just going about their regular business such as picking up groceries and doing shopping, it was regarded as the magic of capturing movement that captivated audiences. Being that film was a new thing, even just seeing those footage in a theatre was all new and exciting to audiences but after a while, it began to get old and boring, people lost interests and critics began to slander and question the future of film. Film makers were used to just taping regular things, earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit or cut footage because they assumed that splicing together different shots of different things from different positions would simply confuse audiences. Film makers kept it very much simple and basic, no editing and no cuts.

‘D W Griffith was the first great film maker to understand the psychological importance of editing’ [Youtube3 0:11-0:21 29/03/13]. He did more than anybody else to advance the storytelling techniques porter had used. It is known to be that Griffith was the first person to use close in a very large and new way. People were confused when seeing these close ups for the first time. Many critics and a few audiences could not believe he was using these shots which shown the whole of a person’s face, critics believed audiences wanted to see the whole of a characters body not just the face. Critics indeed thought that audiences would not be able to understand and interpret the close up shots the way Griffith did but indeed they were wrong. Audiences after watching a few of Griffith films began to see movies in a way they have never seen before, They began to see it the way Griffith envisioned in the whole time, that is why today he will always be remembered as the pioneer who moved film from something basic to something more exiting and diverse. He was able to draw audience in emotionally into his films, in a way that no other filmmaker had done before.

Before there was any advancement in film editing, most editing used to be done in camera. In camera editing is the technique of creating a sequence without the use of computers or the need of cutting and aligning tape. The art behind in camera editing is the ability to create a wider picture for the audience by simply stopping and recording the camera to change from shots and scenes. A lot of planning and work goes into in camera editing, it is not something that someone can just wake up one morning and decide to do. Before you begin to create a film using the art of in camera editing, it is clear and known that you must plan properly to ensure that the audiences are able to completely engage with the film with a good understanding and awareness of what is going on. Whilst the director gave the orders of what the camera men should be shooting, the cutter which is now known as an editor would have to take on the task of holding the strips of film to the light and cut them with scissors, cementing the two pieces together at the desired point.

As filmmaking and film itself began to develop, filmmaker began playing with concepts and ideas. Filmmakers wanted to develop film even further so they thought of ideas which could intrigue audiences, showing critics’ that indeed cinema and film could have a long-lasting future. Lev Kuleshov was a great pioneer in showing how different shots can be interpreted differently. The filmmaker was able to create different emotions for the viewers after showing identical footage of an expressionless actor appeared after each of these shots; a dead woman, a child, and a dish of soup. The viewers watching this film reportedly assumed that the actor was reacting to each stimulus by changing his expression appropriately showing tenderness for the young child, sorrow for the dead women and hunger for the food.

Modern films today are now able to utilize a varied amount of shots such as the long shot, mid shot and close up shot. All those shots helps makes films much more interesting and exciting and also help makes film seem much more realistic. Point of view shot is when we the audience appear to look through the eyes of a character, we see what they see. The well-known film rear window (1944) by Alfred Hitchcock is a brilliant example of showing how point of view editing can allow audiences to feel engaged into the as the way the character is. The film is based on a man who is convinced that one of his neighbors murdered his wife. The character has become injured and is not allowed to leave his apart to allow the injury to heal but whilst looking out his apartment window he begins to see things he has never before seen and almost slightly becomes some sort of a neighborhood investigator. We the audience begin to see the outdoor area in his own perspective. We the audiences begin to feel like we are in the characters shoes.

Editing is also used for pace creation, for example in action movies the shots are usually set out in such fast pace, which creates a rush for audiences and anticipation. When the shots become shorter it usually means something dramatic is currently going on which could be something like a high speed chase between two people usually good vs. evil which is commonly used in films such as James Bond and Mission Impossible, the short shots usually conveys something drastic is going to change or something is currently going on.

Edwin S Porter was a great pioneer in the art of editing and film, him and Thomas Edison the inventor of the motion camera and projector. Edwin S Porter created over 250 films and amongst those, the films which stood out and were able to move the art of film and filmmaking forward were Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). Edwin S Porter was one of the first filmmakers to be able to explore the art of cross cutting editing in depth, engaging audiences and allowing them to see the wider picture. ‘The film was assembled in twenty separate shots, along with a startling close-up of a bandit firing at the camera’ [ecdshsm 27/03/13]. It has been said to be that No earlier film had created such swift movement or variety of scene ever before. Amongst the filmmaking community and within the united stated The Great Train Robbery (1903) was enormously popular. ‘In 1905 it was the premier attraction at the first nickelodeon. Its success firmly established motion pictures as commercial entertainment in the United States’ [ecdshsm2 27/03/13].

As film developed, several early filmmakers performed as magicians. The jump cut, which was probably discovered by accident; a deliberate mismatching of two scenes, evolved into the first "special effect" of movies, began to take affect for magician. Within the same scene, an actor could be made to "disappear" by stopping the camera, removing the actor, and resuming the scene without moving the camera. George Méliès a Parisian magician, produced dozens of elaborate "trick" films using this effect as one of his primary marvels.

George melies, better known as the cinemagacian invented and popularized some of today’s well known camera transitions and most used camera techniques. The fundamental elements of film he helped create and developed includes the dissolve, the fade-in and fade-out, slow motion, fast motion and stop motion’[Meta Filter 14/04/13]. George melies was one of the first ever directors to also use innovative animation and special effects. The face in which the rocket landed on which was intended to be the moon was created by melies and his team. The moon was not created using computer generated images as animation is created today but instead done by hand by using A variety of material.

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The art of editing helps unfold a unravel stories. Many may have seen multiple directors’ say what can make and break a film is the editing. Hollywood film editor Zach Staenberg also believes the art of editing is to unravel a story he states; "At the end of the day, all this stuff [filmmaking process/editing] has to work to tell a story. If you're not telling a story, it doesn't matter how much razzle dazzle there is. It's not about the tools, it's about the story” [Presentation Zen 15/04/13].

With editing comes power, the power to manipulate both time and meaning. Once the director hands over the final footage to the editor, the editor has the power to then ideally create a story of his own. There are many techniques and strategies editors can use to create meaning to viewers. Russian Filmmakers saw editing as “writing” a film with shots. They believed the editing was the organisation of the film – it did not merely progress the story. The most famous of all these is Sergei Eisenstein

The purpose of editing is to create meaning in a film. Without the editing there is no film editing helps tell the story editing also helps engage the audience, for example using a variety a shots to tell a story from different perspectives helps create a wider picture which keeps audiences engaged in the film right from the beginning to the end.

With editing comes challenges and problems. Verna fields and Steven Spielberg who directed and edited the film Jaws (1975) was struggling in knowing how long to keep the shark scene on for. Verna Fields believed that holding on to the scene for to long could make the whole scene unbelievable and will disorientate viewers. Spielberg took days trying to get the best shark scene and when he finally got it, the editor insisted they will only use a few seconds from that scene.

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Editing is used to also put shots into sequences. Putting the shots in a sequence is what helps create the narrative and story. When shots are perfectly aligned in a sequence the wider picture is created for audience. Audiences will have a better understanding and awareness of what is going on in a movie. To create a good sequence a master shot, face shot and close up shot on activity is always needed. Master shots helps audiences see the whole picture of what is going on, face shot helps show the characters facial expressions whilst the close up on actively helps audiences see what the character is actually doing.

There are many different techniques and conventions in film editing. It is known to be that the greatest form of editing today is continuity editing which is also known as seamless editing. The whole purpose of continuity editing is to allow different shots to flow into others shots without the audience being disorientated. ‘Continuity editing is often used when a person is moving. This allows the audience to feel the reality in what they are seeing’ [EditingCrystalr 29/03/13] Battleship Potemkin (1925) is one of the films to use continuity editing, the shots used in this film ranging from the close ups, long shots to medium shots all seemingly correlates to one another. Newer films which embrace the art of continuity editing includes an award winning, well known film, The Matrix (1999).

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In some part of the film, a brillant example of continuity editing is displayed, the transition between shots is so good that is barely at all noticed.The different shots seem to flow simultaneously into one another without the audieces noticing it.

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A montage is the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated shots or scenes which, when combined, achieve meaning; a series of related shots which leads viewers to a desired conclusion. ’The Naked Gun is pure slapstick comedy and it makes no effort to be subtle. Like Team America, the montage sequence is an over-the-top parody’ [Ask Men 20/03/13]. In each montage clip, something goes drastically wrong, but since nothing can ever go wrong in a montage and the couple is too happy to care, they just laugh their way through the sequence.

To some, the word montage could mean something entirely different to what others may think it means. In French film practice, "montage" has its literal French meaning (assembly, installation) and simply identifies editing. In Soviet filmmaking of the 1920s, "montage" was a method of juxtaposing shots to derive new meaning that did not exist in either shot alone. In classical Hollywood cinema, a "montage sequence" is a short segment in a film in which narrative information is presented in a condensed fashion.

Sergei M. Eisenstein, a pioneering director in Soviet Russian films and a film theorist, often considered the innovator of Montage, is believed to come up with the whole concept of intellectual montage. He tried to get the audience to make a connection between the two shots, and to respond to the film on an emotional, intellectual and perceptual level. He wanted to create a collision of meanings, a conflict and synthesis of opposites, in which he called dynamic editing. Eisenstein wanted to show the event from many different points of view, so a sequence that would take only a few seconds to occur in life could take several minutes in one of his films; he used those special techniques in films such as Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Strike (1924). Although most of his films were silent, one could care less because his films spoke more than any other film in that time.

A jump cut is a cut, which breaks the community forward from one part of an action to another. Jump cuts are not good transitions to uses. Jump cuts usually disorientate audiences, once audiences begins to notice edits and less of the film; at that particular moment is when the editor has not done his job properly and lost. Transitions and edits should not be noticed by the audiences/viewers instead of jump cuts editors should preferably use the zoom or make the framing of the two shots completely different to not disorientates audiences and to stay away from jump cuts.

The jump cut effect is even more disconcerting when it happens between two different subjects. For example, if a shot of one person is followed by a shot of a different person in the same position, it looks like the first person has transformed into the second one. When cutting between different people, pay attention to looking room and other positioning elements. For example: If both people are facing the camera, you have a jump shot, If one person is facing left and the other is facing right (with appropriate looking room), it looks like two people talking to each other.

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The 180-degreese rule in film making suggests that the camera(s) should remain the same side of an imaginary line. ‘The line is drawn perpendicular the camera’s viewpoint in the establishing shot of the scene. The rule enforces continuity of the film. An example is that in a car chase scene, if the car is traveling from right to left, the next shot must also be shot from the same side, meaning the car has to enter the frame right to left again. The same applies for football matches and other sport. [Slide Share2 20/03/13]

The 180 degrees rule should never be broken; the reason being is that as well as jump cuts when the 180 degrees rule is broken that also disorientates audiences. . The image below is an example of breaking the 180 degrees rule. Crossing the line when filming over the shoulder shots shifts the person’s eye line, meaning that the actors eye line do not match, in films the two people should always be on the same side of the frame in each shot, as seen below, crossing the line makes it look like the actor is looking in the opposite direction.

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‘A dissolve is a gradual merging of the end of one and beginning of another produced by the superimposition of a fade-out onto a fade-in of equal length’. Dissolves are often used in movies and shows for the following: flashbacks flash forwards, dreams and the telling of stories ‘[Barson, 2006 p.266]. George melies is known mostly to use to dissolve. One of his most well-known films which use the dissolve is the film Trip To The Moon 1902.

Fade in is a shot which begins in total darkness and gradually lightens to full brightness it can also be used to bring sound from inaudibility to required volume’. Fade-ins generally occur at the beginning of a film or act, while fade-outs are typically found at the end of a film or act.

Wipe is an optical effect making a transition between two shots. It appears to support an image by wiping it off the screen. The wipe is a technique, which draws attention to itself and acts as a clear marker of change

A freeze frame gives the image an appearance of a still photograph; it is clearly not a naturalistic device but could be used to create emphasis in certain scenes, which needs to empathized. A very memorable freeze frame is the end of Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, (1959) a new wave film. Director George Roy Hill frequently made use of the technique when depicting the death of a character, as in The World According to Garp (1982) and in the memorable ending to the classic western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

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A split screen is the division of the screen into parts, which can show the viewer several images at the same time. The film Kill Bill (2003) is a perfect example of how a split screen can be used to save time and move the narrative. The film Kill Bill (2003) used the split screen two show two different scenes, which relates to each other at the same time. Instead of switching between scenes which could waste time and eventually lead to the editor having to shorten certain scenes so that the film could be within the required time span, using a split screen can save time and allow audiences to see what both characters are doing at the same exact time.

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Audience interaction is brilliant for creating suspense in films. When audiences are aware of what is going on in a film as opposed to the characters, it certainly keeps the audience on edge and engaged. For example, if to say there was a bomb in a suitcase an when open it will detonate and as the person was about to open the suitcase they receive a call which diverts their attention, as the audiences knows opening that suitcase will be fatal for the character, they will always remain engaged with that particular seen hoping the character will not open the suitcase. Horror movies amongst other genres of movies most commonly use that technique of withholding information from the characters. Alfred Hitchcock, a pioneering film maker in the suspense and psychological thriller genre, has been well recognized for using these techniques in most of his movies. He has been described as the greatest filmmaker to ever emerge from the islands for his flair for narrative by cruelly withholding crucial information from his characters and also viewers, engaging emotions of the audience like no one else.He has explored this techniques in films such as Frenzy (1972), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960)

The film Psycho (1960) illustrates how the techniques of cutting to soundtrack can be used to add thrill factor to films. In the film, as a women was taking a shower someone come behind her and repeatedly begins to stab her, the movie was cut according to the soundtrack. Every time the murderer would stab the victim a harsh violin sound will begin to lay which at the same time as bring thrill to film it also brings excitement to the audiences.

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Editors can control the rythem of a film through editting. The rythem of a film is defined as ‘the pace at which it moves forward’ [Barson, 2006 p.247].Editors can control the rytthem of a film by varying the duration of the shots in relation to one another; and thus control te speed and accents. In film, it is imortant to know when to cut to different scenes or shots. When editors are cutting footage, it is important for them to cut at a pace which correlates to the mood of that particular moment. Rhythm in film is very important; action movies usually use faster paced shots to create suspense and thrill. Romantic movies usually use a range of slow pace shots to create a more romantic, passionate feel at that particular moment. When the pace of shots do not correlate to what is going in that particular moment in a film, audiences feel disoriented and may be confused. Rhythm can also be defined as the length of time the editor should hold a scene for and when he should disrupt it. The editor should know when to move from a scene and when to hold on longer to a scene, holding on to scenes may help audiences digest what it is going on in that particular scene better or it could also help emerge certain feelings out of audience. Titanic (1997) was a great film in showing how rhythm is important. The scene where both character were forced as a result of the ship sinking to refuge into the ocean at freezing temperatures was held for lengthy amount of time. Audiences were able to feel how those characters were feeling, they were able to feel their pain and as result audiences were able to have show sympathy and compassion for both characters.

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The different editors I know of and some the films they have edited includes: George Tomasini in who has done film such as Psycho (1960), Robert Wise who has edited the film Citizen Kane (1941), Thelma Schoonmaker in Good Fellas (1990), Edwin S. Porter in the Great Train Robbery (1906) and D. W. Griffith in Birth Of A Nation (1915). All of the editors I have listed worked so hard on achieving greatness. These editors have contributed something large to the art of editing. Because of these editors I have listed the art of editing will never be stagnant instead it will continue to progress and move forward. Most of these editors overcame problem and obstacles to ensure they prove a point, a point that states editing is the key in every film that holds it together.

Bibliography:

Barson.R, (2006) Looking At Movies, Second Addition, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc

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