Principles of Editing
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This document discusses various editing techniques used to manipulate tempo, time, and meaning in films. It explores how shot length, transitions, timing, and sequencing can speed up or slow down pacing. Specific techniques like collage, shot reverse shot, and establishing shots are examined. Examples from films like The Shining, Fight Club, and Lord of the Rings are provided to illustrate editing principles in action.
Principles of Editing
- 3. JOINING IMAGES Some forms of editing creates collage, a variety of images combined to create meaning. Lord of The Rings The Return of the King - Smeagol and Deagol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxN2Me wamj0&feature=related
- 4. TEMPO #1 Editors created tempo through the length of each shot. Long takes slow down the tempo of the scene. Chantal Akerman films often consisted of long takes with the camera fixed in one place, at a medium distance from the subject. La Captive (2000): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddp5- E7HniY&feature=fvwrel Short takes quicken the pace and intensity Stanley Kubrick - The Shining http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDpipB4yehk
- 5. TEMPO #2 Studies suggest that shots are gaining pace in comparison to The Golden age of Hollywood. The average shot length was 5.15 seconds it is now 4.75 seconds. The change of length can be seen when you compare La Captive and The Shining. This is due to the fact that films are now electronically cut and not hand cut.
- 6. PROBLEMS WITH TEMPO It takes the average person 3 seconds to adjust to a shot change. Brandt has argued “…..if the audience takes 3 seconds to adjust to a new scene, what happens when the average shot length is so short that the audience is never given a chance to catch up” The tendency to rely on such rapid editing in recent films may explain why younger audience are not interested to older films.
- 7. SHOT TRANSITIONS Another way editors adjust the tempo is shot transitions Cut from A to B, Fade in/fade out and Dissolve (overlapping) are all common shot transitions. Cut for A to B is seen in most films to this day. It is simply a cut from one thing to another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=A3 ZbnfXEuyc Fade in/fade out are known fading in or out from black or white where as dissolve is a fade out into another shot. Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZLRoUn5Bc&feature=relat ed
- 8. FADES Fades alter the pace of the film as pause the action. Fades rarely occur in films. When they do it is to present memory or fantasy. Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is again a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZLRoUn5Bc&feature=re lated
- 9. TIMING OF A SHOT Another editing technique is timing of shots Cut away to emphasis a persons reaction or response for example Cut away to a newspaper on the table when presented in narrative Cutting from a two shot to a close up for reaction or a close up to a long shot for landscape effect
- 10. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=PMMAW5A7POU Attributes to editing: Techniques Used: • Collage • Medium two shot (friendship/companionship) vs. Close up (disappointment) • Tempo • The takes in the sequence vary therefore the tempo being unbalanced and constantly changing but they are long enough not to be action packed. • Timing • The timing and continuity of the shots is flowing and the shots are long but well timed to not get bored.
- 12. EDITING AND TIMING Narrative sequencing is either linear or medias res. In linear editing the story is told as it happens whereas ‘Medias res’ is the term used when narrative is jumbled up (Fight Club for example) Linear: Apocalypse now - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njfbVrYn4CU In this example we see the story being told as it is no flashbacks or jumbling up of the scenes. Medias res: Fight club - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze9- wg9k7AU In this example at the start your watching the end and at the end your watching the start but told in a different way because of what's gone on in the film.
- 13. CONDENSING / EXPANDING TIME Collages condense time Rocky uses ‘condensed editing’ when training for his fight speeding up hours, days or years in the characters lives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwvoTDoO9Hg Expanding – overlapping shots of a single action Example: Someone pressing a button shot from 3 angles and shown after each other to portray time but also nerves in the person pressing it
- 14. ARRANGING THE ORDER OF EVENTS Media Res Events taking place in the present are interrupted by images that have taken place in the past. Flashbacks Rare occasions there are flash-forward's By their nature ‘flash forwards’ can be confusing as they can only be understood once the event has occurred on scene. Easy Rider – Captain America is interrupted as he talks by a shot of burning debris on the side of the road. Only later will viewers realise that the debris is from CA motorcycle crash at the end of the film
- 15. TIME AND SPACE Editing draws the viewers attention to the detail Close up (example of the very first ‘close up’ used in film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2X_BZpnWFc Establishing Example: Return of the King http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVXIVtIBMnA&feature=fvwrel Gandalf is riding with Pippin to Minas Tirith This drawers the viewers attention to a number of things; be it the emotional tenor of a conversation, the object of a characters gaze, important detail in the mise en scene and the group dynamics of a scene
- 16. SHOT REVERSE SHOT Shot reverse shot can be a conversation between two people or one speaks to the other listening. The rule is: the actors will never speak directly to the viewer as this destroys the illusion of a naturally unfolding story Cameras are normally slightly angles to the side rather than using point of view shots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvof8mI6pXk
- 17. EYE LINE MATCH The match cut uses the characters line of sight. Powerful storytelling devise as it draws the viewers into a characters thought process and emotional state. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGyFPbNg03w Cutaways Unlike eye line match a cut away is not character centered, the on screen appearance of an object does not depend on the character having to ‘see it’ in the previous shot.
- 18. CREATING MEANING OUTSIDE THE STORY Continuity Continuity is a film term that suggests that a series of shots should be physically continuous, as if the camera simply changed angles in the course of a single event. For instance, if in one shot a beer glass is empty, it should not be full in the next shot. The 180° Rule Media College say the rule of line-crossing is sometimes called the 180° rule. This refers to keeping the camera position within a field of 180°. Soviet Montage Film110 says Soviet montage is a type of film theory focused on understanding and creating cinema using specific film editing techniques. The theory was conceived in the Soviet Union during the 1920's and was pioneered by such Soviet directors as Alexander Dovzhenko and Sergei Eisenstein. Though many of these directors disagreed about montage, Eisenstein's thinking was eventually viewed as "soviet montage." Eisenstein's essays on film form and film theory revolutionized the view of film from simple entertainment to intellectual artwork. However, they were a hybrid of the theories collectively established by several Soviet directors.