Unit 16 Editing

Editing

Techniques/purpose/development

Invisible editing- If you cut on an action, the viewer is paying attention to the action. The action draws attention away from the edit, so you don't notice it. You see it but you don't notice it because your attention is drawn to the action or movement in the frame. It's like a magicians slight of hand, where he does an action to distract you while he does his slight of hand. It's right there to see but you don't notice it because the action distracts you from it. Same principle.

J&L cuts-In a J-cut, the sound of the next scene precedes the picture, and in an L-cut, the picture
changes but the audio continues.

Cutting on action-Cutting from one shot to another view that matches up to the action in the first shot.

 Jump cuts-A technique which makes the audience think they've missed something and confuses them.



Unconventional shots- A shot that's not handheld, has a meticulously crafted composition that keeps your eye moving around it in a specific way.

Matched cut- A match cut, also called a graphic match, is a cut in film editing between either two different objects, two different spaces, or two different compositions in which objects in the two shots graphically match, often helping to establish a strong continuity of action and linking the two shots metaphorically.

Continuity cut/edit- Continuity editing is the predominant style of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of filmmaking of narrative films and television programs. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.In most films, logical coherence is achieved by cutting to continuity, which emphasises smooth transition of time and space. However, some films incorporate cutting to continuity into a more complex classical cutting technique, one which also tries to show psychological continuity of shots. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity.

The Development of Editing

1900-1903
James Williamson was making films taking action from a single shot at one location, to another shot in a different place. He expressed this technique in films like 'Stop Thief!' and 'Fire!' which where made in 1901, along side many others. Williamson was also experimenting with close-ups in his productions, the most notable one in his film 'The Big Swallow', when the character approaches the camera and gives us the impression that they're swallowing it. James Williamson, along side another successful film maker of his time called George Albert Smith, pioneered with the editing of film. They began using colour within their work and experimented with trick photography to enhance the narrative. By the 1900's their films where extended scenes of up to 5 minutes long.



By 1901, many other film makers where testing these editing techniques and ideas including the American Edwin S. Porter, who started making films for the Edison Company. Porter worked on many small time productions up until 1903 when he made 'Life of an American Fireman'. The film had a total of nine shots and had a continuous narrative over seven scenes, also he added a dissolve between every shot with the action repeated across each one. In the same year he made 'The Great Train Robbery', which had a running time of twelve minutes, twenty separate shots and was filmed in ten different locations both indoor and outdoor. He used cross-cutting editing method to show simultaneous action in different places. The Great Train Robbery contains scenes shot on sets of a telegraph station, a railroad car interior, and a dance hall, with outdoor scenes at a railroad water tower, on the train itself, at a point along the track, and in the woods. But when the robbers leave the telegraph station interior (set) and emerge at the water tower, the audience believes they went immediately from one to the other. Or that when they climb on the train in one shot and enter the baggage car (a set) in the next, the audience believes they are on the same train.

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