Film Editing Techniques PDF

EDITING Sergei Eisenstein editing film https://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/tag/montage/ What is editing? Editing is much more than simply assembling the shots. It is an art that requires an intuitive sense of how a scene, sequence and finished film should move, how it should feel. In fact, most ed...

EDITING Sergei Eisenstein editing film https://adferoafferro.wordpress.com/tag/montage/ What is editing? Editing is much more than simply assembling the shots. It is an art that requires an intuitive sense of how a scene, sequence and finished film should move, how it should feel. In fact, most editors describe their process as both technical and intuitive, requiring thinking and feeling. (Sharman, Ch. 6) Editing Narrative is crafted through editing Narrative continuity (invisible) standard Helps create the feeling of the film; the mood of the film, what an audience feels, hence, provokes emotions, psychological reactions Shapes the viewer’s experience of the film Mood is communicated through visuals, which includes how they are put together (also created through lighting, sound, camera movement) What happens between shots (a gap) opens up subjective interpretation  What Is Editing? Editing is the general term designating the techniques and logic of joining shots together into larger strings or sequences [e.g. what shots and scenes to shoot? What will be included and in what order?] The process by which the editor selects, arranges, and assembles the visual, sound, and special effects to tell a story The duration of the shot [e.g. a long take] and the way it joins to the next shot [e.g. in montage] can affect the viewer’s reaction and experience We interpret shots in relation to surrounding shots (Barsam & Monahan) 4  In editing Pan’s Labyrinth, through a match cut on action, del Toro juxtaposes a MCU shot of the leg amputation with a MCU shot of Ofelia pulling out the Book of the Crossroads. The contrast of the two shots startles the https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20180326-7-things-about-pans-labyrinth/ viewer and  editing 1. Continuity editing (invisible editing); the standard The potential disruptive effect of cutting is concealed The audience isn’t supposed to notice the editing as the editing doesn’t draw attention to itself Creates narrative continuity Requires lighting, blocking, and sound to be consistent and camera movement to be restrained Adheres to the 180-degree rule Editing 2. Discontinuity editing The editing draws attention to itself; transitions are not smooth or coherent; there may be mismatches in camera angles, direction or speed of movement, lighting, etc.; filmmakers may violate the 180- degree rule, disrupt screen direction; include a nondiegetic insert that doesn’t belong to the space and time of the narrative; inconsistent match on action e.g. to dramatize the fractured mind of a character or to comment on the act of watching a film itself; to disorient Use of jump cuts, smash cuts, montage, nondiegetic inserts (a shot inserted into a scene) Experimental, non-narrative films may emphasize editing rhythm over images  Editing in early film As story-driven feature films became dominant from the 1910s, an editing system emerged from the cinemas of Europe and the US that was driven by the desire to structure narrative in as clear a way as possible. Certain edits became standard, including the cut (an abrupt transition between shots), fade (images from one shot fade out as the images of the next shot fade in, sometimes transitioning through black), dissolve (images that are fading in and out overlap and are briefly superimposed onto each other), and wipe (the movement of one shot replacing the next makes it appear as if the image has been wiped off the screen; the wipe can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal); [less common, iris-in/iris-out, opening or closing the scene with a circle eventually these edits became used systematically in what became known as the continuity editing system. Continuity editing became the standard during the classical Hollywood era of 1930s-40s (Kuhn and Westwell) Editing in early film Soviet Montage Movement (contrasts the continuity editing of early American filmmaking): Informed by very different filmmaking principles, the experiments of Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s offered a dramatically different approach to editing, which has remained an important reference point of avant- garde and experimental filmmakers the influential statements of Soviet filmmakers, especially Sergei Eisenstein, remain central to debates about editing Soviet filmmakers argued that editing is foundational to film grammar, is the essence of cinema stills from Man With a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, 1929 A montage of separate moments that “collide” Soviet Montage Movement Soviet filmmakers explored how editing affected emotional and psychological responses in viewers; they tested the limits of the Kuleshov Effect (see the next slide) Most important proponent: Sergei Eisenstein Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925) contains a sequence, The Odessa Steps Sequence, that has become one of the most famous examples of montage editing in cinema (find it embedded in Sharman’s chapter or watch on YouTube) Eisenstein was…interested in creating an emotional effect. And he does it by juxtaposing images of violence with images of innocence, repeating images and shots, lingering on some images, and flashing on others. He wants you to feel the terror of those peasants being massacred by the troops, even if you don’t completely understand the geography or linear sequence of events. That’s the power of the montage as Eisenstein used it: A collage of moving images designed to create an emotional effect rather than a logical narrative sequence. (Sharman)  Kuleshov effect The Kuleshov effect: we derive more meaning from the juxtaposition of two shots than from any single shot in isolation Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov made his first film when he was 18 and helped found the first film school in Moscow (known in English as the State Film School) He discovered that through careful editing a variety of responses to the same material could be elicited from the viewer His best-known experiment consists of a short film in which a shot of the expressionless face of actor Ivan Mozzhukhin is alternated with shots of a plate of soup, a young woman, and a little girl in a coffin. (find the film embedded in Sherman’s chapter or on YouTube) They are a series of shots without an establishing shot but prompt the viewer to assume a spatial whole that isn’t shown onscreen. Kuleshov’s experiments demonstrated how audiences understand the meaning of images differently depending on their sequential arrangement, suggesting that editing is the decisive factor Kuleshov effect Image: https://ibfilmisb.weebly.com/kuleshov.html linear film editing and non-linear digital editing In early cinema, editing involved a literal cutting of the negative with scissors or a splicer and assembly of strips of film with cement or clear plastic tape. (cutting and taping then re-cutting and re-taping) The unedited, individual shots, or rushes, were used to produce an ungraded work print or cutting copy Because the rushes could only be viewed and edited in a linear way, the process came to be known as linear editing In digital editing, the language of cut/cutting remains; video editing introduced non-linear editing, which digital editing (1990s) has made the standard; it is very fast; the editor can access any frame in a digitized film clip without having to play the clip in its entirety; visual effects added in post-production requiring careful integration at the editing stage as well as color correction and other manipulations; while digital editing is very fast method, post-production Learn to pay attention to editing Pay attention to editing by noting each shot. Pay attention to what kind of shot it is, its duration, framing, camera movement, etc. and how it is linked to the next shot. Observe how the editing of the shots establishes certain relationships between the objects and actions Take a scene and list the shots and cuts. Look for patterns of combination and any changes to them. Accustom yourself to noticing more abstract relationships between images. Longer shots can allow for contemplation; shortening shots can build tension; How might they work together in a pattern to create an effect? (see Corrigan, page 72 of A Short Guide to Writing About Film) Manipulating time and space through editing Cinema uses editing to not only manipulate emotions but also time and space Screen time (feature film is usually 2 hrs) condenses story time (the world of the film); what we see and hear (the plot) cuts out large swaths of a film’s story temporal ellipses are created through editing ellipsis, an edit that slices out time or events we don’t need to see to follow the story; condenses time; the most common manipulation of time is through editing Time is manipulated through cuts, montage, dissolves, fades, wipes (last three common in films before the 1960s) Editing manipulates time through flashbacks and flashforwards Editing manipulates time through the overall rhythm of the cinematic experience, [through] the pace of the finished film, how the edits speed up or slow down to serve the story, producing a kind of rhythm to the edit. Continuity editing Cutting on action Crosscutting (parallel editing) Match cuts (match on action; eyeline match cuts; graphic match cuts; subject match cuts) Invisible cuts L-cut and J-cut (linked to sound) transitions (dissolves, wipes, fade-in/fade-out; iris-in/iris-out) Combinations of the above Discontinuity editing: jump cuts; smash cuts; montage See examples of all of the above on the clip Cuts & Transitions 101 by RocketJump Film School embedded in Sharman’s chapter 6 or watch it on YouTube Iris-in, iris-out is used regularly in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari between shots to open or close a shot. Maintaining continuity: Parallel Editing (a form of spatial editing) Parallel editing aka crosscutting – cutting back and forth between two or more narratives An editing technique for developing story actions taking place in separate locations within the same time frame (edited together they appear to be happening at the same time), or for related actions occurring at different times; 1 9 Cross-cutting in Psycho The editing of the shots suggests two spatial events happening at the same time Sam talks with Norman in the motel office to distract him while Lila goes into the house to look for Mrs. Bates Maintaining continuity: SRS and POV shot Shot/reverse-shot (SRS) An editing technique widely used in dialogue sequences and sequences in which characters exchange looks: one character is shown looking (often offscreen) at another character, and in the next shot the second character is then shown apparently looking back at the first. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other and that we are seeing each character’s point of view in turn. Over-the-shoulder framings are common in SRS editing. Point-of-view shot (POV) makes us aware of the perspective of a character or group of characters; A subjective shot that shows a scene as a character in the film would see it, i.e. from that character’s optical viewpoint... created through certain techniques of framing and editing, including camera angle and eyeline match… A typical point-of-view structure in a film involves a shot of a character glancing offscreen in a particular direction (shot A) followed by a cut to a new shot that indicates what that character is looking at (shot B). Maintaining continuity: screen direction Consistent screen direction is an important part of how continuity editing ensures the audience is always aware of where everyone is located in relation to the setting and each other. Movements of the camera and blocking of the actors keep viewers focused on what’s happening on the screen, orients the viewer, establishes the geography of the scene Maintaining continuity: Master shot and Coverage On set during production, the filmmaker films a scene from one, wide master shot that includes all of the actors and action in one frame from start to finish. Then, they film coverage, that is, they “cover” that same scene from multiple angles, isolating characters, moving in closer, and almost always filming the entire scene again from start to finish with each new set-up. When they’re done, they have filmed the entire scene many, many times from many different perspectives. It’s the editor’s job to build the scene from that raw material, usually starting with the master shot to establish the geography of the scene, then cutting to the coverage as the scene plays out, using the best takes and angles to express the thematic intent. Example: Shower scene in Psycho: 78 edits; 70 camera positions; final result: 45 sec. montage; Hitchcock’s cuts (editor George Tomasini) do more than simply isolate parts of the action: they emphasize them  Convention of continuity editing: 180-degree rule defines an axis of action, an imaginary line that runs through the characters in a scene, that the camera cannot cross ensures visual continuity from one shot to another the filmmaker plans shots so the camera doesn’t cross the line compliance with this rule ensures shots can be edited together easily for continuity Once the master shot establishes which side of the action the camera will capture, the coverage must stay on that side throughout the scene. The camera can rotate 180 degrees around its subject, but if it crosses that imaginary line and inches past 180 degrees, the subjects in the frame will reverse positions and will no longer be looking at each other from shot to shot  Editing influences the mood, pace, and rhythm of a film A long take, e.g., can stretch out time as a viewer lingers on a scene; time can appear to slow Baz Luhrmann, dir. The Great Gatsby, is known for frenetic, erratic editing that helps create a sense of chaos and intensity in the story being told. Photo: https://www.digitalmediaworld.tv/in-depth/423-the-great-gatsby-in-living-colour