I have applied for a role as an Editor in a film studio and as a part of the application process, I was asked to produce a blog which will demonstrate my understanding of the techniques and applications of editing for film and television.
What is Editing?
Editing means to bring together and alter recorded footage to tell a story and bring forth a new meaning.
History Of Editing
- Louie Le Prince- A French Artist and the inventor of the first moving picture camera in 1888 and was the first person to shoot a moving picture sequence using a single lens camera and a strip of film with his film "Traffic Crossing Leed's Bridge". He recorded 20 frames but the footage couldn't be shown on screens.
- Lumiere Brothers- They were French inventors who created and early modern camera and projector which they named the Cinematographe. This was later shortened to cinema which still stands today as the main term for films in modern day. They had the fist public showing of cinema which showed 10 of there short films such as "Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory". Despite remaining unedited, their films were important as it inspired filmmakers such as George Albert Smith who would later go onto creating the first edited film and other aspiring filmmakers.
- George Albert Smith- After witnessing the Lumiere Brothers creation, he picked up a camera and began to make films. He was a British magician who began making films in 1897 with his first film being "The Haunted Castle". His first notable film was "Hanging Out The Clothes" in 1898 which was famous for being the first British Sex Comedy which was filmed with a static camera and had no presence of editing what so ever. The first edited film would come the following year with Smith's film "The Kiss In the Tunnel" as it showed the first cut between scenes in cinematic history. George Albert Smith would continue to experiment leading him to create the first form of parallel editing in his film "Grandmas Reading Glasses" in 1900. He started to use these techniques to experiment creatively with his stories. An example of this would be creating the first dream sequence in 1900. He continued to develop as a creator as he created the first screen wipe in 1903. All these techniques still hold up today in modern day cinema. A prime example would be George Lucas who used a lot of screen wipes in his world famous Star Wars trilogy.
- Steven Spielberg is a modern pioneer who developed on these early techniques and developed them to give his films a whole new form. An example of this would be the opening sequence of Jaws in 1975 where the shot would cut between medium and close ups of the girl swimming and the first person perspective of the shark. This presents the audiences with two different perspectives of the scene and simple cuts between them was used by Spielberg to create tension for the audience. film experts believe that the editing in the film was the key to its success. One of Spielberg's staples when editing his films is The Match Cut he uses in a variety of films. This is where the composition, movement or audio in one shot is duplicated into the next. He used this editing technique to link two scenes thematically. People often praise Spielberg's work as what he does with these techniques is inventive. Another one of Spielberg's masterful editing transitions is the sound bridge. It makes the sound match between scenes in a transition to demonstrate characters or even provide contexts to the scene.
A1 Types and purposes of editing for film and television
When it comes to editing in TV and Film, there are 2 main types of editing:
- Continuity Editing- Is the process of combining and matching related clips to form a sequence to divert the audiences attention from the pre-existing consistency of the story at hand with their location and timing in mind. This is used to shape the narrative and smooth over the discontinuity of the post production process. The process supports the viewers assumption that reality is contiguous between shots. Continuity editing is often referred to being the classic Hollywood style of editing and was developed by early directors such as D.W Griffith with his film "The Birth of a Nation"
- Non-continuity Editing- Shots are mismatched to purposely disrupt the impression of reality in films. It purposely draws the audiences attention to the editing process and disturbs the reality of the film. Famous examples of non-continuity editing are flashback sequences.
Star Wars Flashback
Editing techniques in film and TV are altered in numerous ways in order to bring forth a whole new purpose in the narrative. There are many ways this is done.
One example that the purpose of editing is swayed is in order to manipulate time. There are numerous techniques used in order to change the flow of time for the audience:
- Speed up- When actions on screen appear to be moving faster then normal. This allows the audience to see an action or event that would otherwise take too long to happen. This also keeps the audience from being bored because if the event was played at normal speed it may bore them. It is commonly used for a comedic effect when its accompanied by music
- Slow down- An effect in film making where time appears slower. Is achieved when each frame is captured at a rate much faster than when it is played back. Used mainly in action films for dramatic effect. Also associated with explosion and underwater shots to help further add atmosphere.
- Compress time- When compressing time in a video, you make the duration shorter than real time
- Stretching time- Another type of slow motion achieved by inserting new frames between frames that have been photographed. The same as ordinary slow-mo, this makes the actual motion appear slower.
- Flashbacks- A device that takes the audience back in time from the current narrative. It is a crucial part of narrative as it shows the audience memories of the characters on screen. This techniques is used widely in films as it adds more meaning and context to the narrative by recounting back before the films primary sequence. May be added with a visual effect to make it obvious for the audience. Most commonly used is a black and white filter over the footage to show a clear change in time as black and white were used in very old films so for an audience they naturally associate it with the past. Another common thing added are blurred edges around the edges of the frame. This is possibly to show a certain "fogginess" to the characters memory. A narrative may also be accompanied to help provide an explanation to it.
- Flash forward- A scene that takes the audience into the future of the narrative. They are used to heavily foreshadow events that will occur later in the film. May be used to make characters actions more clear and be a gateway into more character development. In this scene from Sherlock Holmes, the audience are able to see all of his moves in slow motion before witnessing the same actions in normal speed. This helps the audience to be able to see it before it becomes too quick for them to understand.
Another purpose of editing for film is to control the perception of space between two things that are not both present in shot. To achieve this the people might have the same background to show them in the same location despite them not being seen together. The audio may be overlapped to show them talking to each other without cutting constantly between them to establish a dynamic. It may make the audience confined to only 2 shots for the scene as an establishing/wide shot may ruin the continuity in the scene. The editing must be fluent to make these types of scenes believable for the audience. The most notable examples of this editing technique are transitions between to locations. This makes the audience believe that they are travelling between multiple locations without them even moving.
The next presuppose of film editing is to control the rhythm and pace of the production. This is done primarily through the audio editing. This is done via music or sound effects accompanied with the visuals to create suspense and tension which heavily slows down the pace of the scene in order to scare the audience. Usually the pace would speed up nearer the end of the scene as the music may get louder or faster in pace. This is also applied heavily to the action genre as pace changes from fast for action to slow to add in dialogue. This is also due to mainly sound as fight scenes would usually be accompanied by SFX and music while the dialogue in between would mostly be left clear to give the audience a better understanding of the narrative. For example in this scene from Shaun Of The Dead, It begins slowly with only the sounds of zombies to be heard and when the zombie appears in the bar to supposedly startle the audience, "Don't stop me now" by Queen begins to play to increase the pacing of the scene and act as a sound-bridge to the next sequence. The song gets louder when the characters begin fighting it to further increase the pace and rhythm and is a big difference from the beginning of the scene.
Functions of editing for film and TV
There are many functions that correlate with the way a film is edited.
Create Narrative
Creating Motivation to further narrative- In the post production process, shots may be edited together to give a certain significance to characters or key items which will help progress the narrative. It may also create a dynamic between two things that will also serve purpose. In this clip from John Wick 2, The scene constantly cuts between John Wick and Santino to establish a rivalry between the characters. In particular when Santino grabs a grenade launcher, John grabs a photo of his wife. This helps show who the protagonist and antagonist are in this rivalry. The cuts back to the grenade launcher give it significance as it the weapon that destroys Johns house. This is already known to the audience by the numerous close ups of the weapon which hint at danger. The scene ends with a close up of John's face with the glow from the fire shrouding his face in darkness. This shows to the audience that something has awakened in him and thus shows a clear motivation for revenge due to the red glow on his face with the colour red representing danger.
Development of Drama- This is all created by how the footage is edited and the intensity of the shots taken in a drama piece. Creating drama heavily focuses on the camera shots taken. For example a lot of close ups may be used in order to give off a reaction to the audience. Long and wide shots may also help by creating tension. For example in this Breaking Bad scene, we begin with numerous establishing shots to help create the setting as the music fades into atmospheric sounds which already creates a feeling of suspense for the audience. As the dialogue begins the angle switches to numerous close ups and medium close ups which show both Gus' determination and Hectors fear towards him. These shots are especially important for when Hectors expression dramatically changes from sad to angry. The bell begins to play as the audience is show from a slowly descending camera, the bomb on his wheelchair. The built up tension and drama between the two characters helps create suspense in this scene. This also shows at the very end where Gus walks out supposedly alive. However, as the camera slowly pans across Gus the audience is settled in revealing the main protagonist to be dead which heightens the drama of the overall show.
Providing and withholding information- This is a technique that decides whether or not the audience should be revealed something crucial to the narrative which had previously been a mystery to the audience. This information does not have to be explicit to the protagonist. A great example is from the Sixth Sense where it is revealed at the end that Malcolm Crowe was a ghost the whole time. While there were subtle hints, the twist wasn't revealed until the finale.
Create continuity between shots
Following the action- This technique uses various points of view on an action to demonstrate the films own laws of time and space on narratives. This is a great example of continuity editing as motions flow smoothly despite the possible errors in consistency. This can be shown in any film as this supports the "Classic Hollywood Style". Anything can be used as an example such as the Guardians Of The Galaxy opening scene where despite the various camera angles and movements, the audience are following the protagonist on his journey through his journey. The seemless editing allows the audience to engage with the narrative on screen due to the lack of stand out errors.
Changing the location- This is used when the focus of the narrative shifts from one location to another. Whether it be a different building or a different planet, these scenes usually start with an establishing shot or transition to ease the audience into a new environment. The most notable uses of transitions to shift locations would be in George Lucas' Star Wars films where he dubbed the "Iconic Wipe" as he would use a wipe transition between the majority of his scenes to show a new location.
Changing time frame- This refers to transitioning between to different points in time time to help provide context or foreshadow the future. They also allow the filmmakers to skip ahead in time to avoid any unnecessary plot points to get straight to the next narrative arc. Typically in films, the events portrayed on screen are compressed to fit the time space of the film so it would be necessary to skip through time at some points to add further explanation on events. A good example film of the time frame being changed is in the Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody where time forwards in between scenes from 1970 to 1985. This was so the film could document the key moments of their careers and would often do these time skips through montages in order to progress 15 years of real time into a 2 hour 13 minute film. This helps them to cover their career in the allowed time frame. However the most common use of this still remains to be flashbacks.
Create audience reaction and engage the viewer
Creating suspense- Films build suspense by primarily adding music that build an eerie atmosphere to the audience. To further create suspense the lighting is usually lowkey with various close ups and camera angle on the subject to convey emotion to the audience. The lighting effects the audiences perception as them not being able to fully see may put them on edge. A notable example of suspense is Jaws opening scene. This scene shares two perspectives that cut in-between each other of the shark and a girl accompanied by slow, enticing music to build up tension between the two creatures. The suspense builds up when the two perspectives are both on the girl. The audience are left to realise that the sharks is close to the girl which puts her in immediate danger thus creating further suspense. The music that accompanies this scene is slow and begins to increase in pace as the shark gets closer and closer which heightens the drama.
Creating pace- This is an editing technique that controls the speed of the film, The pace of a film can alter the audiences perspective on it. A notable example would be action films as they are edited with a lot of quick cuts and movements in order to make it fast paced. Drama films usually use slow shots to allow the audience to take in whats happening so they choose to have a lot more longer shots.
Action film (fast pace)
Drama film (slow pace)
When you compare these two scenes there are notable differences in the way they were shot and edited. The first clip was shot primarily in one take but has quick camera movements and action on screen. The second clip is slow with a number of different shots cut between the two characters. Music is added in the first clip to match the quick actions on screen where as the second scene is only accompanied by dialogue and ambient sound to allow the audience to pay attention to what is said on screen.
Create Meaning
Juxtaposing elements within editing- The technique of combining two or more shots to evoke an idea. Famous examples of this would be in an montage which take juxtaposed shots and combine them in a fast paced fashion that compresses time and is used to convey a lot of information in a relatively short amount of time. A good montage that shows this is from Hot Fuzz. This montage is combined with a lot of cuts and transitions. The visuals are rightfully accompanied with narration to explain to the audience what is happening along with some upbeat music to create a fast pace. This clip succeeds in summing up a whole police career in 2 minutes to fill the audience in quickly of the characters history before the main narrative begins.
Creating empathy- This is and editing technique that combines multiple perspectives in order to connect characters. It is said that it allows the editors to guide the viewers understanding of whats happening on screen. To create empathy, scenes are usually filmed with closer perspectives in order to help build a connection between the audience and the characters on screen. It also creates a unique space to which the audience can inhabit to engage within the scenes. Music may also be used to match the mood of the characters on screen so that the audience gains a better understanding of how a character feels. A TV show that shows this is Breaking Bad. In particular Walter Whites death scene which rounds off his character. Despite him being a villain for the majority of the show, the audience feel sad when he dies. This is due to the fact that they've been on his journey with him and have seen what has turned him into the character he is. As well as this the scene is accompanied by a song "Baby Blues" which sets the atmosphere for the scene as sad as the colour blue mentioned in the song represents sadness and also conveys the blue meth which is the main focus of the show.
Creating Bias- Creating bias in film means to push one opinion/ agenda to an audience. This is most prominent in documentaries as they focus on certain "issues". They overlay footage with narration in order to create conversation with the audience. This is done by creating their own narrative after recording their footage which will resonate with the audience.
Applications of editing techniques
Establishing shots- Helps establish the context of a scene by showing the relationship between its important characters and their surroundings. Is usually the first shot of the scene to show the audience where exactly the action is taking place. Is usually a wide shot. In Harry Potter, there are loads of establishing shots of Hogwarts which remind the audience of its presence and importance to the narrative.
Cutaways and cut-ins- Cutaway shots are scenes that cutaway from the action. They should smooth out the continuity of a film so that an audience may not notice some action taken out of the film. Can also be used to condense an extended flow of action. Cut in shots represent the primary action. This scene from 300 shows how cutaways work. When we get the close up of Leonidas' face it cutaways to various shots of women and children. These cutaways give the audience an insight into what Leonidas is thinking about as the close up also builds a connection.
30 degree rule- A guideline that states the camera should only move 30 degrees relative to the subject between successive shots.
Jump cutting- A cut which is taken from the same shot to show a change in time. In this clip, it shows a man cutting his own hair in the mirror. Rather than watch the whole thing, the scene jump cuts to skip parts and show only the vital moments of him cutting his hair. This is to avoid boring the audience with a long take and to keep their attention with all the sudden movement on screen.
Shot/reverse shot- is a technique where it shows one character looking at another character and then the other character is shown to be looking back. It is an important technique as it lets the audience establish the two characters. Commonly used in conversations and stare downs between characters. Spider-man takes an interesting take on this techniques as it takes into affect when Norman Osborne is talking to himself in a mirror. This is used to clearly highlight the characters clear mental instability for the audience and to give a dangerous impression.
180-degree rule- Its another guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right position to one another. Crossing this invisible 180 line is called reverse angle which may be disorienting to the audience and could distract them from the action on screen. Experienced film makers may want to break this rule in order to unveil a hidden meaning within a scene. For example The Shining breaks this rule to show Jack's mental stability degrading as he is talking to the dead and disorientates the audience to engage them in the premise.
Eye line matching- Where the audience is seeing what the character is seeing. It is used heavily to engage with the audience as they share the same perspective on whats happening in the film and it helps to build a connection between the character and the audience. In this scene from Star Wars The Phantom Menace we see Obi Wan facing mortal danger. The audience are given a glimpse into his perspective as he faces Darth Maul and looks for the light sabre. This helps the audience to take in the surroundings from the characters perspective.
Match cuts- A cut which matches the two shots by an action or subject on screen. In this example from Pirates of the Caribbean, a match cut is used to show a passage through time as when the girl shuts her eyes, The scene changes with a woman opening them. This shows time manipulation as it is made clear that they are one of the same and the girl has gotten older. In this case the action involved her opening and closing here eyes.
Montage- A montage is when numerous juxtaposing clips are edited together. Often done in a fast motion and pace with the purpose of compressing time. A good montage that shows this is from Hot Fuzz. This montage is combined with a lot of cuts and transitions. The visuals are rightfully accompanied with narration to explain to the audience what is happening along with some upbeat music to create a fast pace. This clip succeeds in summing up a whole police career in 2 minutes to fill the audience in quickly of the characters history before the main narrative begins.
Cross cutting- An editing technique used to establish action taking place at the same time and place. This is typically done by having the camera cut away from one action to another action which will give a simultaneous impression to the audience. As you can see in this example from Inception, there are 2 consecutive scenes taking place that cut in between each other. The 2 scenes act at a very different pace om one another to give the audience a break between tension from each one. This allows the audience to rightfully adjust when this happens.
Parallel editing- Technique of alternating two or scenes that can often take place simultaneously but in different locations. Establishes relationships between 2 subjects by cutting from one another. Parallel editing is often used for the purpose of increasing dramatic tension in order to serve the narrative. What differs parallel editing and cross cutting is that parallel editing is used to show two separate events happening simultaneously. In this example from American Sniper, we have two different scenes being edited parallel to each other . The scene cut between to different scenarios. Those being the sniper and the military convoy. These two scenes seem to share nothing in common but the environment they're set in. The scene cuts between the two to build tension and creates dramatic meaning. There are no signs of the clips being set in the same time frame either. A particular part of the scene that stands out is when the sound of the exploding car matches that of the sniper going off despite them being different.
Freeze frame- A freeze frame is an editing technique where one frame is repeatedly shown on screen to "freeze the action". This can be done by copying the frame over and over to create one static shot. The Matrix is the most infamous use of freeze frame with Neo dodging the bullets. This scene has inserted extra still frames in order to slow down time in the film and create suspense in the action.
Slow motion- An effect in film making where time appears slower. Is achieved when each frame is captured at a rate much faster than when it is played back. Used mainly in action films for dramatic effect. Also associated with explosion and underwater shots to help further add atmosphere. The Flash TV show is renowned for utilising slow motion well. In their case, slow motion is used to make a character seem faster than everyone else. By slowing down time it allows the audience to focus on the Flash's movements and put him in a position of power as everyone around him is slower.
Split screen- The visible division of the screen in a film. It is used to show simultaneous images and is non continuity editing as it ruptures the audiences perspective of reality. This example in Kill Bill uses split screening to show two scenes happening consecutively until they fade together. This saves screen time and also helps build dramatic tension as the audience are given two perspectives on possibly the same scene.
Wipes- A film transition that shifts one scene out of the frame while simultaneously bringing in another. This is used to change over location of the film and help settle the audience into this new environment. Star Wars is most famous for using these wipes as they had a lot of scene changes to different planets.
Dissolves- A gradual transition of one scene to another to show a change of scenery or time. In this example we see on frame fade out as another fades in. The transparency of these scenes are changed to utilise this.
Fades- There are numerous types of fades used in films. Dissolves are a kind of fades as they fade in and out from one scene to another. Other fades include fades from colours. Unlike dissolve and cross fading which fade from one image to another, these fades fade in from either a white or black screen. These fades help signify the beginning and endings of scenes. They are the most common transitions used amongst film editing.
Bibliography
https://indiefilmhustle.com/
www.tpub.com
www.premiumbeat.com
www.videomaker.com
nofilmschool.com
filmdaily.co
www.elementsofcinema.com
www.hollywoodlexicon.com
www.mediacollege.com
