Zack's Info on Video Editing

1. The Principles of Editing

 

Continuity editing –

A system of cutting used in film to maintain continuous and clear narrative action by following a set of rules.

180o Rule –

This shot is mostly used in a situation where people are having a conversation, because it cuts between shots of whoevers talking; whether the conversation is being held between 2 or more people. For this rule the camera can move to either side of the conversation (left or right) and incorporate shot-reverse-shot, but the camera cannot go any further than 180 degrees. If this was to happen, the rule would be broken and the audience may be confused as to who is talking to who in the video/footage. Here is an internet definition of this term: “The 180o rule is the angle between any two consecutive shots.”, this enforces the point I made about this term being mainly used for conversations, but this one sounds as if its focused on a conversation between 2 people.

The Jump-Cut:
Mainly used to cut/trim long pauses in interviews or narrative in general to make someone talking seem as if they had not paused at all, as if the flow of their speech continued, but there is a drawback to this cut. If the an actor/person talking is moving whilst they are talking in the footage, the jump cut will not only jump the narrative but also the position of the person/actor; but this could be avoided if the person/actor talking was to stay still in the same position throughout the whole footage. Here is an internet definition of this term: “A jump-cut is a moment of discontinuity in an edit”, so basically it discontinues and re-continues footage after a cut creating a jump in the middle of the footage; henceforth his its name – The Jump Cut. Great uses of this effect are normally to give footage an etch-like feel to it or to make it look as if it passes time quicker.

Uses of the Jump-Cut -

 

Shot-reverse-shot:

Like the 180o rule, conversations between two or more people are fond of this shot. For example two characters in a film are talking to each other, and one of them tells the other one a really exciting secret, the camera is positioned at first on a close-up of the character speaking and when they stop, the camera is then set on the other characters face for the next shot to show the emotion that is in their face. This is not far off of the technique that cutaways use, where the shot will switch from one thing to something else and then back to the first shot; the only difference with this is while the shot cuts, the audio or dialogue continues to proceed normally alongside the film.

2. The Purpose of Editing

Storytelling:
A story is the most important part of a movie as it is what gives any film its foundation, also aside from the genre of a film, storytelling allows the audience to be more entertained and focused when watching a film; because they try to guess what is going to happen next as the story is slowly revealed unto them. D.W. Griffith was a man who made the world’s first blockbuster, a three hour length film called “Birth of a Nation”. In order to make his film a success, he used different techniques such as; colour tinting for dramatic purposes, building up the plot to an exciting climax, dramatizing history alongside fiction, and he also used mixed media by incorporating an orchestra in it. From the purposes of some of these techniques I gather that “Birth of a Nation” was a serious film, followed up by the fact that it was blatantly racist.

Here is a short clip of this historical blockbuster:

Creating Pace & Relationship to Genre:

Pace refers to the speed which a scene or story unfolds at. If a scene is quite quickly paced, it means that the scene has a lot going on within it and from that, a lot could be revealed to the audience. An example of a quick paced scene is a chase sequence where the music keeps in time with the action, and is upbeat or atmospheric depending on the genre of the film (action would be upbeat as if it was keeping in time with the movie, and horror would be atmospheric because it needs to be quiet in order to scare to the audience as they wait for something to jump out at them; but either way both genres build up suspense, but just in different ways. Even some slow paced music can build suspense, but they usually gradually speed up over a period of time. In other words fast pace = suspense), also those scenes are the ones which include the most drama. A slow paced scene usually consists of not much action, sometimes narrative in-between scenes to bulk out the movie and slow movements (in terms of walking and such).

Alfred Hitchcock used suspense for one of his movies, “Psycho”, which to a different approach to building it. He did not use music for build up, instead he kept the shower sound rolling whilst a shadow approached the shower curtain, (I reckon he did not add any music to give it more of a real feel to it, as if he wanted us to think about what would happen if we were in that situation ourselves, he wanted us to think that if someone came to kill us in a shower then we would not hear over the sound of the water) and then opening up a chance for himself; Hitchcock makes the girl scream. I think he did that on purpose to throw in/merge some music within the scene, whilst all sound within it is masked by the woman’s high-pitched scream.
 

3. Development of Editing Over Time

Historical Developments -


In-camera editing:

In-camera editing is a technique where you film shots and scenes in a strict order, instead of filming random scenes and editing it after. When the final scene is filmed by the director, the production is over/finished.

Pro & Con:

Pro: It saves so much time due to not having to go over your footage again and edit it shot by shot.
Con: You might accidentally leave the camera on past the footage you wanted to capture or vice-versa, you start to film a scene prematurely when you or your actors are not ready. So capturing unnecessary footage that could interrupt the flow of your film.


Alfred Hitchcock used the technique, notably in "Rope". Jean-Luc Godard also made use of it in his film "Breathless". Both of these men helped to create in camera editing in films and led to the technological advancement of in camera editing.






Manipulation of Diegetic Time and Space:

Manipulation of Diegetic Time and Space is when a person, an object or even an environment changes by getting older or younger. A vast amount of films use this technique but a famous film that uses this effect is “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” in the Time Turner scene.