Editing Techniques

Editing Techniques

 

Combining shots into sequence
Combining sequence of shots is the process of putting together and making them flow by editing them individually. When this is completely successful the scene flows well and looks good. It will also make the transitions look invisible to the viewer.
Combining shot into sequence is very important to the media text, it has a huge effect making the scene look/flow better. Good editing can make the scene have greater effect on the emotion and help the viewer to understand  the situation of the scene, for example low lighting (Brightness and contrast) and a lot of shadow can make the actor look negative e.g. bad person, sad, anger, confusing.

For example, this is one of the shots from a very interesting movie that is based on a lot of  lighting and shadow.
 This is one of the scenes which has a lot sadness and confusion in it. the name of this film is Changeling (2008) - Changeling is a 2008 American drama film.







Editing on each individual shot is able to position the viewer/audience on the scene, for
example, point of view and match on action; when two of these shots has been put together it can easily create a perfect sense of the scene because the audiences /viewer will automatically connect that they are looking through the actor's eyes with out even realising that they have been put into that position from the effects of editing.

Digital film making vs film (&splicing)                                                                 Splicer, first ever film editing machine.
Media text has always improved their techniques and technology to develop further and better editing to  make improve scenes. The first ever film was a short film of the street, location( moving images), there was no story and editing involved. The development started to begin around 1898 where the first ever film that had more than 1 shot had been made and the film was called ''Come Along, Do!''. The further development of film editing of the multiple shot and continuity was continued in 1899-1900 at the Brighton school England. Around those days the editing technique was not as easy as now(in the modern days), Back in the 90's a piece of film had been cut and pasted together using the Splicer by threading the scene in the machine with the risk of damaging the original.
Nowadays films has been made by the digital system such as "Avid" and "Final cut pro" this means the risk of damaging the film is very small as it can easily be saved and redone. Comparing this with the Splicer back in 90's film editing is a lot harder to do as you must not make any mistakes which means in the modern days the digital editing is a lot easier.





Transition
Film translation technique is used in film editing techniques and video editing  to make the shots combine into one scene and makes it look invisible. The most common translation used is normal cut to the next scene. however there's a reason behind this; usually to do with conveying tone or mood, suggesting passing of time and separating parts of a scene. Other techniques of translation may include dissolve, fade and wipe.
Dissolve is an overlap of image/shot for the duration of the differing images/shot, the use of this technique is to dissolve the shot in the period of time and change it to the next shot.This technique will make the scene look smooth and classic because it moves slowly from one scene to another, in a relaxed rather than rough, jumpy way.
Fade is when one shot is fading into another shot and it sometimes looks very similar to dissolve, this will also make the film look classic but not as smooth as dissolve. An example of when an a character such as an old lady is telling a story and it fades from her face to the scene she is describing and you are taken there with her thoughts. It is more likely to be used for a happy scene;a violent scene would use a quick transition (cut).
Wipe is when one shot replaces another by travelling from one side and completely moves it out of the screen, one of the earliest examples of wipe technique that has been used is in the scene called "Mary Jane's Mishap" made in 1903. It suggests moving time or place and can be used in comedy.


Here ia a fun vedio about transition

 

Not Another Teen Movie, 2001 American comedy

Continuity
Continuity is one of the important editing techniques which is used to make the scene flow smoothly when each individual shot transitions to another. These techniques therefore are to help the audience to understand the relationship of one shot to the next shot in the scene. There are 5 main rules of technique that have been strictly used in continuity to make the transition of the film make sense and look smoother to the audience/viewer. These are: establishing shots, 180 degree rules, shot -reverse-shot, match on action, motivated editing e.g. eye line match cut.

 Establishing shots : establishing shots set up to connect the relationship between the important figure and the object.
In this particular scene (video above) there is a long shot or extreme long shot to show the bigger location, time (e.g. day, night, sunny snow) and to remind  the audience/viewer where the scene takes place(e.g. building, sea, city). The editor tends to skip this shot or make it shorter for the scene to move along. You would also be likely to see this shot in the beginning of the film to make the good start clear.
-In the scene there is one of these shots that is done very clearly, at 1:58 - 2:00, it's to show the location where this scene takes place then quickly moves on to the next shot.


180 degree rules : 180 degree rules is a basic guideline to keep the relationship of the continuity and to make it easy for the audience/viewer to understand the situation. This shot is usually used to connect a relationship between a character to another character or object, for example, conversation shot by keeping the camera on one side.

This also covers the side of the camera when the character is walking up in the long street/road/inside/ of the building, for example, one of the characters is walking from the left of the screen to the right of the screen, then the camera must strictly keep the character walking in the same direction on the screen. The relationship between the actors stays the same.
If the director broke the 180 degree rules then this particular scene would be very hard to follow for the audience/viewer. In the worst situation it wouldn't make any sense at all because it would make you question how the character had suddenly swapped sides.
-One of the examples, from the media text that I have chosen is the conversation scene at 00:01-1:57 in the very beginning of this video. This conversation scene between father and daughter is perfect to show the editing techniques of the 180 degree rules and the sequence of the continuity.

Shot-reverse-shot : shot reverse shot is when the shot is showing a character looking at other character/s and then the character that the first character was looking at, looks back. As it shows that the characters are facing in the opposite direction it will make the audience assume that they are facing each other. When this techniques is being used it's often mixed with eye line match e.g. the shot is showing that the character is about to look at the other character then the shot changed to a point-of-view shot; in between these two shots often have the eye line match technique. This technique is also a feature of the classical Hollywood style continuity editing techniques.



- One of these examples of this technique in this scene is in the conversation shot between brother and sister at 3:03 - 3:05, when the brother turns around and looks at his sister, it automatically changed to the point of view shot which included the eye line match in between these shots. This would help the audience/viewer to follow what the actor is looking at or which character is looking at the object.

Match cuts on action : match cut on action also known as a graphic match. This technique is a cut between two actions using 2 or more angles and/or directions, distances in the same place and situation, between an object or character. These two shots must perfectly match each other e.g. if the character is walking when the screen shows that the right foot is in the air when changing camera shot, angle or distance, the right foot must still be in the air but slightly lower to show the continuity in the next shot. This technique also helps to establish strong continuity in the action shot between the transition and it's able to show the comparison of the 2 shots.
-one of the examples in this scene is when the girl character, who plays the role of the sister, turns around and is about to sit on the bed while having a conversation with her brother at 2:15 - 2:17. When she turns around to sit on the bed then the shot changes to the different angle from when she is sitting on her bed and she slightly moves further into the bed from the edges. On the cut between this shot the continuity is perfectly moving along without struggle or over load. This technique helps this scene to flow better and more smootly while changing the shot to show more information and the location in the scene but still being able show the logic of the action between shots at the same time.


Motivated editing : motivated editing is the reason behind the reaction in each shot. Often the scene will give the viewer/audience a clue to the reaction of the character before showing why the character is having that particular reaction in the scene. You would often see this technique being used in horror films, for example, the girl screaming/crying/looking shocked and this will make  the audience want to know and question the film. What is happening to her? Why is she screaming? What did she see? Then the next shot in the scene might show the reason why the character screamed. This technique is being used to make the audience/viewer wonder what is going on and to catch the audiences' attention and make them want to continue watching find out what will happen. This technique shows the relationship of the motivation between two situations in the scene, cause and effect.
- One of the examples, where this technique is used in this scene is when the sound of singing appears and the girl who is playing the main character wonders where it came from; then the scene shows it's coming from the guy who's trying to get her attention. This technique is clearly shown at 4:15 - 4:18 to make the audience follow the emotion and feel like they are in the scene. This works well because it makes it very realistic as the public would react in the same way as the character if it happened in real life.

Identification with main protagonist or other characters
This is the way we describe who is the main character, who is the secondary character and who is extra. Usually the scene will include a secondary character who is needed to be part of the story but the story will focus around the main character or the protagonist.
There are 4 main rules to show which character plays which role, Screen time, close up, point of view shot, and the reaction shot. These shots and techniques will show and are usually used on the main character and the secondary characters to show their reactions, emotions, and other feelings. As they are important reactions, they are needed be on the screen to show the viewer/audience, otherwise the viewer/audience won't be able to follow the scene.


Screen time : screen time is the time that each character is shown in the scene; you will notice that the protagonist will be in the scene a lot which means he/she will be on the screen most of the time. There's also the secondary character that's important as they will be shown quite often in the scene to make people recognise them but the time they are given in the scene is not as much or even half of the scene that the main character has been given; unless they are doing something which is leading to the main character's scene. Secondary characters sometimes are in the scene at the same time as the main character e.g. their family and friends. However, there is one other character who is not important at all; the extra. They can be on the scene at anytime but usually they will be used as background unless they are becoming a secondary character/main character and the extra is just the way to introduce them into the scene.
An example of this is when Janey's dad is the secondary character; he's on the screen sometimes but not that often, Janey and Jake are the main characters; they are on the screen most of the time; the extra is the guy who talks to the pig at 07:42 - 07:45; those extras are very easy to tell as they won't have anything that shows their identity in the film , they just suddenly appear to be in the back ground of the scene to make it more realistic; without those extras, the film will look very unrealistic.


Close up: close up shot or in other word CU, a close up shot is a very close shot of a person or object to show the small detail. There are two types of close up; extreme and medium extreme close ups which is also known as tight shot; as it's name implies this shot is very tight and focuses to show a very small detail, for example ring or eye (there is none in this scene). Medium close up is slightly larger than an extreme or tight shot and they normally emphasize the principal subject but also include any objects around. CU is normally used to show the emotion by focussing on the character's face as the size of this shot is the size of the character's face.  -One of the examples of this shot that has been used in the scene is at 06:49 when the first character's having the conversation with the secondary character, while the secondary character has an impressive/surprised look on his face and so the camera slightly zoomed in to show the expression/emotion on his face for the viewer/audience to be able to follow the scene.



Point of view shot : point of view shot, also known as pov or subjective camera. This shot is able to position the viewer/audience by forcing or introducing them to look through the actor's eyes. This shot is usually positioned between the shot of a character looking at and showing the character's reaction which mean it's often mixed with shot-revers-shot to keep the sequence of the continuity and keep the relationship between these shots so it flows well. The pov or point of view shot technique is one of the foundation film's editing techniques. The pov shot usually comes from one character's eyes but it can be shared by a few character's eyes if they are in close enough range, for example when something happens in a public place, then a crowd of people are looking at it and the camera will show them looking at something and next it will show what they are looking at.
-One of the example in this scene is at 03:07 - 03:09 when the brother is having a conversation with his sister then the brother turned his face and looked down at his sister at knee level; when the shot changes to show his sister and this makes the viewer/audience feel like they are looking through the character's eyes. This technique keeps us focussing on the scene, it makes it easy to follow, this part of the scene can be done by a long shot but it wouldn't work as well as this technique.


Reaction shot : a reaction shot is usually use to show emotion of the character using a close up shot and zooming in their face. The effect of close up shot can show the emotion better then any other shot. Reaction shot is usually a cut away from the main part of the story to show the reaction of the character. This will also  advance the story as this technique could make the story even more emotional. Reaction shot is often used in drama scenes and comedy films as the action of the character is dramatic, it also can provide the physical clues to the viewer/audience.
-One of the examples of this technique that has been used in this scene is at 07:17
this shows the character's feelings and emotions using close up into the character's face.This will provide the viewers/audiences with the feeling that the characters getting, E.g. the character is challenging, confident or looking unhappy (in the scene because someone says something offensive about his son).

Shot variation: shot variation means using different variety shots between filming. This includes long shots(LS), showing all the information on the shot e.g. if there is a person in this shot you would be able to see the full body; one of the examples in this scene is at 04:12, when the character is painting in the fields.

 Medium shot(MS), medium shot is a shot that has a medium range e.g. if there is a person in this shot you would be able to see half of the body. This shot normally is used to focus on something, one of the examples in this scene is at 00:07 when the character's talking to her daughter.

Close-up(CU) is a shot that zooms in to the object, normally used to show the smaller detail of the expression e.g. reaction and Emotion of a person. This is a powerful shot as the object fills up the screen and it can bring small details and focusses on the actor's emotion, one of the examples in this scene is at 06:50 when the character is talking to his friend and shows the expression of surprise.


Extreme long shot(EXL) is normally used to show the furthest location, normally used as establishing shots, one of the examples of this shot is at 01:59 when the camera is showing the house(location).

This also includes the camera angle e.g. eyes level(looking at the same level as your eye , straight), low angle (looking up high, this can make the people look bigger) and oblique/canted angles, (the camera frame is not angled with the floor/ground; the camera is normally turning to the left or right about 25-30 degrees. The bird's eye view is the extreme version of close up or in other words an extreme close up e.g. lips or eye. High angle is looking down from the higher point to the lower point. This also includes the camera angle e.g. movement pan, tilts, dolly shot, hand held shot, crane shot, zoom lens and the aerial shot.

Montage : Montage is a technique that is used to edit into sequences to condense space, time and other information, for example when there is the scene where the character can' t go to sleep he's laying in bed from night till daylight, while there is an establishing shot showing from night time till the sun's coming up and it usually takes no longer than 5 seconds.






Providing and withholding information :Providing and withholding information is when you try to make the narrative dramatic, This can be done by taking some information away or giving the audiences more information. One of the examples of giving more information is if the group of people going to rob the bank then the scene shows that they are planning to rob the bank first. One of the examples of taking the information away is the money in the bank just disappeared and you have to follow the story to find out who took the money. This technique makes the audiences keen to know more.  One of the examples of putting more information into the film is that the audeinces will question, ''will the bank robbery go well and what will they do?''

Parallel editing/cross-cutting: parallel editing/cross-cutting is a technique that's used for showing two things that are happening simultaneously in different locations and still makes it easy for the audience to follow. One of the examples of this technique is 1 part of the film I have seen called Friend with Benefit, (break up scene).


Parallel editing/cross-cutting technique, Friend with benefits - 2011 (break up scene)
One of the very interesting cross-cutting editing technique that has been used.


Editing rhythm: Editing rhythm is the technique that the editor used to keep the pace of the film to match the action that is going on in the next shot. This is to support the action in the film, forexample slow cut/pace edit has a calm feeling and fast cut/pace edit has a negative feeling in it.


Construction of the'time' and 'space' of the story, both diegetically and implied: This scene is one of the sarcastic comedy scenes, however it also includs some realism in it. This scene is about one popular boy that made a deal with his friend that he can get this girl to be the prom queen. As the girl has a stereotype as a "nerd" (glasses and uncool), he tries on his bet and at the end of the day the two characters fall in  love and end with a happy ending. The part I chose to analyse is one of the parts that uses a lot of different techniques including time and space. This part of the scene starts off with the conversation between a father and daughter about something important in her life at this time and by the sound of it, it's after dinner. This is the right time to make the film's narrative as it looks very realistic because in real life a family would have the day's discussion at dinner time. The next scene is the scene about the boy that she was talking about to her dad; at the similar time (night time) while the teenage boy character's asking his sister for a favour, (to ask her to help him to get in to this girl). Next there is a very clever shot, while the boy's sister explains to him what he should do, there is a scene of him doing what she told him too while there is a voice over of her talking. Then, to remind the audience about the deal there is a scene about the deal with his friend(jake's friends) at the sunny BBQ party which helps construction of time in the scene.
Space are therefore level out time given to to character to be on the screen, to make sure that each charecter are not given to much time out because people will forget them. This includ to the lay out of the story which it mush focus or every charater that are in the maint path of thestory.


cutting to soundtrack: cutting to sound track is when the shot cuts to another shot and the music comes up as the soundtrack, ( the editing is determined by the sound track that is used);  mostly this technique is used in music videos or musical films e.g. when the music starts playing, the action must match the music e.g. drum hit, keyboard key hit. The sound has to be played at the same time as the action. This technique is not just for music videos, this also includes for example, the steps on a rack floor in horror films/ the hitting in the action movies.
-One of the examples in this scene is at 07:21 , when the character catches the rugby ball that has been thrown over to him; there is a sound track and this makes the scene look more exciting and makes the audience able to follow the scene easily.

One of the examples is in the music video,  Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch




Multiple points of view: multiple points of view are shots which show that the character's looking at the object; there are mainly 2 types, which is the point of view shot (POV) that I have explained above and the over shoulder shot(OS)/ (OTS) or third person shot. An over shoulder shot is when the camera is pointing slightly behind the shoulder facing the object that the character is looking at. This shot is often used in the discussion scene inorder to make the audience pay more attention to the conversation than the action.
- One of the examples of this technique in this scene is at 01:27, when the character that plays the role of a father having a discussion with his daughter; this is to make the audience pay more attention to the discussion and pay less attention to the action, this would help the audience/viewer to know what is going on within the discussion.




Cutaway : cutaway shot is the interruption by a completely different action that could be related to the scene; when this technique is used it usually cuts back to the main path of the story but not always. This technique is often used in the dramatic scene to show a different path of action that has been separate from the main story line and this shot that has been cut away could matter further in the scene. This technique can also replace the main action for any parts that are unwanted in the main story line.

Jump-cut : jump-cut is a cut technique used in film editing in slightly different angles; this technique also gives the effect that makes the scene look like it jumps forward in time, meaning it shortens the parts that are not interesting in the scene using  a single shot to move the audience ahead.