Editing
Chapter 5
Early Days of Editing
• Early Cinema films had their scenes shot
continuously.
• Later, editing was done “in camera,” meaning that
the camera was simply turned off, the scene was
reset and then the camera was turned back on.
• Later, there were editing tables where the film was
laid out and then certain scenes were taped or glued
together.
Vocabulary
• Cut- Place where one shot ends and another begins.
A direct transition from one shot to the next.
• Actualities – Slice of life documentaries produced by
the Lumiere brothers at the end of the 19th century.
It’s time for a MONTAGE
• The Montage actually originated from the
filmmakers from the Soviet Union.
• Montage Shot – Series of Brief shots that summarize
a section of the story.
• They believed the meaning of one shot is always
subject to the previous and subsequent shot.
• Filmmaker and teacher – Lev Kuleshov theorized
that editing can only create a place that exists on
screen.
Tonal and Graphic
Relationships
• Soviet Montage Theorists – Editing could create
tonal and graphic patterns in a sequence. Tonal
relationships (light to dark and dark to light) were
recognizable in the era of black and white film.
• These were created for aesthetic effects.
• Abrupt shifts in tone could call attention to certain
scenes and cuts.
Graphic Relationships – Consisted of the arrangement
of shapes across shots.
Graphic Shots – 2001 Space
Odyssey
• Beginning scene is that of a
bone – an oblong object – to
that of a space craft that
looks similar in size.
Rhythm and Tempo - Pace
• Tempo – created by checking out the length of a
shot.
• Rhythm – the transition from one image to another.
Gives the overall feeling of the film as a whole.
• Long Take – used when director’s want to slow a
film down. This is a single continuous shot that lasts
unusually long.
• Gives meaning, and feeling.
Quicker Rhythm and Tempo American
• The quicker shots and speed of a film is credited to
American filmmakers who wanted to create
“thrills.”
• Shots are taken from multiple camera angles of the
same scene and spliced together at an accelerated pace.
The length of each shot is shorter than the next.
Functions of Editing
• Manage transitions from time to time, place to place,
action to action, or character to character.
• Elliptical Editing – Editing that allows an action to
consume less screen time by transitioning between
shots that suggest the passage of time.
Other transitions
• Fade – The shot slowly darkens and disappears or
lightens and appears.
• Dissolve – One shot appears and another disappears.
• Iris – the image contracts or expands within a small
circle.
• Wipe – Image appears to be pushed aside by the
next.
Continuity Editing - The 180
Degree Rule
• Continuity Editing – Style in which supported the
illusion that each scene unfolds seamlessly, when
really it’s been assembled from multiple takes and
different camera positions.
• 180 Degree Rule – Requires the camera to stay
within 180 degree area defined by the axis of action
– so that the spatial relationship within a scene is
consistent.
180-Degree Rule – Camera
Shots
• Master shot/ establishing shot – A shot that orients
the audience for the action that is about to follow.
• Reverse Shot – cuts between two characters in
conversation.
• Reaction shot – shows how one character is
responding to what another is saying or doing.
Eyeline Match
• This is kind of like a telephoto shot – however the
character is looking through something and we get a
glimpse of what the character sees by looking
through a keyhole, a window, a camera, etc.
• Also, the director establishes a shot where we we see
exactly what the actor is looking through.
Different Shots
• Cross Cutting – The process of cutting back and
forth between two or more parallel actions, where
multiple actions from one or more characters build
to a climax.
• Screen Direction – Crucial to our ability as a
filmgoer to keep track of fast-paced action. This is
the positioning of characters and objects, by the
direction of their movements and eye-line matches.
Gives us a sense of setting
Alternative Editing Styles
• Soviet Formalism – A movement that was
characterized by juxtaposition shots.
• Sergei Eisenstein called this – Collision.
• The continuity of a scene was disrupted on purpose
through overlapping editing:
• Overlapping editing: A single event is shown multiple
times from different angles.
• Nondiegetic insert – An image from the outside world
of a story interrupts and comments in some way on the
action.
Alternative forms of Editing
• The Jump cut – Created during the era of the French
New Wave.
• This cut suggests a jump or skip in the film. It can
appear ameaturish, be expressive, speaking to the everfaster movement of images.
• Disrupts the flow of images and implies that
something is missing. Something was deliberately cut.