Editing theory

The development of video editing

The purposes of editing

The conventions of editing

In this blog I will be explaining the different types of editing techniques that are used in films.  The types of editing that I will be explaining are 'Continuity editing'; 180 degree rule, 'dissolve editing', 'jump cuts', shot reverse shot and 'cutting to the soundtrack' editing.  The second part of the blog looks at the history of famous inventors and directors of film-editing techniques, eg Sergai Eisenstein.

Continunity
'Continunity' is the predominant style/form of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of filmmaking of  narrative films and television programmes. The purpose of continunity editing  is to 'smooth over' the  discontinunty/disjointedness of the editing process and to establish a logical 'follow-through' between shots.

In most films, this 'follow-through' is achieved by cutting to continuity, which emphasises smooth transition of time and space. However, some films use cutting to continuity in a more complex 'classical cutting technique', one which also tries to show a continuity of shots. The 'montage technique' relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of a simple physical action for its continuity. 

Continuity editing can be divided into two categories: temporal continuity and spatial continuity.  Temporal continuity gives the viewer a smooth transition into an action/scene; spatial continuity relies on a group or montage of shots to follow-on, eg a shot of someone throwing a ball can be edited to show two different views.

A famous director who uses this film technique in his films is a Russian director called Sergai Eisenstein in the early days of film-making in the twentieth century.

Jump cuts
 Another form of editing is 'jump cut'.  A jump cut is where there is an abrupt transition from one scene to the next scene. For example if you wanted to make a 'jump cut' you could go from head to the shoulders of the persons body. 'A jump cut' is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly.This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time.Continuity editing uses a guideline called the "30 degree rule" to avoid jump cuts. The 30 degree rule advises that for consecutive shots to appear "seamless," the camera position must vary by at least 30 degrees from its previous position.  If the camera position changes less than 30 degrees, the difference between the two shots will not be noticeable enough, and the viewer will experience the edit as a jump in the position of the subject that is jarring, and draws attention to itself. 

A jump cut can be created through the editing together of two shots filmed non-continuously, they can also be created by removing a middle section of one continuously filmed shot which is also known as a temporal jump cut.











The 180 degree rule
When filming, the 180-degree rule is a basic guideline about the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round.The object that is being filmed must always remain in the centre, while the camera must always face towards the object.

There are 6 different types of filming techniques that are used in films when using the 180 degree rule. They are:

Usage

• The 180-degree rule enables the audience to 'visually connect' with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject. This is important in the narration of battle scenes.

Pitfalls

• The 'imaginary line' helps viewers to visually move themselves with the position and direction of action in a scene. If a shot following an earlier shot in a sequence is made on the opposite side of the 180-degree line, then it is called a "reverse cut." Reverse cuts can confuse the viewer by presenting an opposing viewpoint of the action in a scene and consequently altering the perspective of the action and the viewpoint of the original shot.

Solutions and Prevention

• Directors can use  a variety of ways to avoid confusion linked to 'crossing the line' caused by actions or situations in a scene that would mean breaking the 180-degree line.  The can either alter the movement in a scene, or set up the cameras on one side of the scene so that all the shots reflect the view from that side of the 180-degree line.

Camera Arch move

• One way to allow for 'crossing the line' is to have several shots with the camera arching from one side of the line to the other during the scene. That shot can be used to support the audience so that we are looking at the scene from another angle. In the case of movement, if a character is seen walking into frame from behind on the left side walking towards a building corner on the right, as they walk around the corner of the building, the camera can catch them coming towards the camera on the other side of the building entering the frame from the left side and then walk straight at the camera and then exit the left side of the frame.

Buffer shot

• To minimize the "jolt" between shots in a sequence on either sides of the 180-degree line, one can shoot a buffer shot along the 180-degree line separating each side. This lets the viewer visually 'understand' the change in viewpoint shown in the sequence.

Dissolves
A dissolve is a gradual transition from one image to another. The technique is where the scene fades-out which is also called fade to black and it also fades in and is used to describe a transition to and from a blank image.This is in contrast to a 'cut' where there is no such transition. A dissolve overlaps two shots for the duration of the effect, usually at the end of one scene and the beginning of the next, but may be used in montage sequences also. Generally, but not always, the use of a dissolve is held to indicate that a period of time has passed between the two scenes

Shot-reverse-shot
A shot reverse shot, or in other words a shot or countershot, is a film technique where one character is shown to look at another character who is often off-screen, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Here is the link to the video clip of 
'Spiderman', the film where William Dafoe is talking to himself in the mirror:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0xiCIMIwLY. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

Shot reverse shot is a feature of the "classical" Hollywood style of continuity editing, which deemphasizes transitions between shots so that the viewer perceives one continuous action that develops linearly, chronologically, and logically. It is an example of an eyeline match.

Cutting to a sound-track
Cutting to the soundtrack is where your editing links to the soundtrack, when the pace of the cuts are dictated by the speed/tempo of the song/music.

Cutting to soundtrack is the technique where each cut is influenced by the style of music heard in the background. So if the scene is a sad one, perhaps at a funeral, a slow song will be heard. If there is a car chase scene, the music will be fast and upbeat.

The second part of this blog looks at directors who developed these particular techniques in their filming/editing.

Kuleshov (1910s-20s - Russia)
Kuleshov developed a technique known as Kuleshov Technique(Soviet montage' in film editing where he used a montage of shots to help the audience gain more meaning from two sequencing shots than 1 single shot.  Kuleshov edited together a short film in which he shot the expressionless face of an actor alternating with various other shots e.g. a plate of soup,a girl in a coffin and a woman on a divan. This made the audience believe  that the expression on the actor's face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was looking at the plate of soup, the girl in a coffin, or the woman on the divan.  In fact the facial shot was always the same but linking to images was able to  show the face expressions of hunger, grief or desire, respectively. Kuleshov used the experiment to indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of film editing.

Eisenstein
Eisenstein was pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. Eisenstein developed what he called methods of montage:

• Metric
• Rhythmic
• Tonal
• Overtonal
• intellectual

When Eisenstein directed a film, he mostly concentrated on the structural issues such as camera angles, crowd movements and  'montage'. Eisenstein used filming of  public articles of self-criticism and commitments to reform his cinematic visions but came under increasing pressure to conform to the increasingly specific doctrines of 'socialist realism'/Communism in Russia in the 1920s/30s.

Lumiere Brothers
The Lumiere brothers were called Louise and Auguste. Auguste came up with an invention in 1894 called the cinematographe. This device was smaller and lighter than the kinetograph. This cinmeatographe photographed and projected a film of a speed of 16 frames per second. This device was much slower than Thomas Edison's device. His device did 48 frames per second, this meant that the film was less noisy to operate and used less film to use.

















George Melies
George Melies was a french illusionist and a famous filmmaker for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of a cinema.  Accidently George Melies discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896. He was one of the first filmmakers to use  multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, 'dissolves' and hand painted colour.The films that he did were 'a trip to the moon' in 1902 and the 'Impossible voyage' in 1904.















Edwin Porter
Edwin porter starting doing motion picture work in 1896. Edwin porter was a film pioneer, he is famous for being a producer, director, studio manager and was a cinematographer. Edwin Porter created over 250 films.  His most famous film is 'Jack and the Beanstalk' in 1902.He developed an interest in electricity at a young age and shared a patent at the age of 21 for a lamp regulator.

D.W. Griffiths
D.W. Griffiths was a famous director at the start of the 20th Century.  He was mostly remembered by directing the film of 'The birth of our Nation'. Griffiths began making short films in 1908 and he released his first ever feature film 'Judith of Bethulia' in 1913. The film 'Birth of our Nation' made the  pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques and it's immense popularity set the stage for the dominance of the feature-length film in the United States. Ever since the film was released, the film has been highly controversial for it's negative depiction of African Americans and the Ku Klux Klan.

Filmed at a cost of $110,000, it returned millions of dollars in profits, making it, perhaps, the most profitable film of all time, although a full account of costs has never been made.

Conclusion
What I have tried to explain in this blog is that I have understood the different types of editing techniques that have been used in films and I have discovered how famous film directors  have pioneered and developed these editing techniques in the early 20th century.