CHAPTER 4: EDITING

WHAT IS “EDITING”?

On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively construct - and sometimes even “rewrite” - the filmed material to craft a cohesive whole.

CHAPTER 4: EDITING

WHAT IS “CONTINUITY EDITING”?

Continuity Editing emphasizes narrative logic over other qualities such as expressiveness; showing how things happen in a linear fashion and telling a clear and simple story visually

CHAPTER 4: EDITING

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

Establishing shot = appears early in a scene and identifies the location where scene’s action will unfold; typically a long or an extreme wide shot

Often a change in location is accompanied by another establishing shot that signals the new scene location

CHAPTER 4: EDITING

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

Establishing shots are used throughout a film in different field of views; for instance, once inside a location, there will typically be another establishing shot outlining the interior area

Once the setting is established, the space is typically broken down by cutting to medium shots and then to close-ups; scenes may cut back to wider shots to reestablish where the action is taking place – these are called “reestablishing” shots and/or “master” shots because they take in the whole scene

CHAPTER 4: EDITING

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

In classical cinema, plot is driven by character psychology; continuity editing is used to focus the viewer’s gaze and attention with the goal of revealing the emotions and motivations of characters and moving the plot forward

Cutting to close-ups allows a filmmaker to capture a character’s emotional and psychological states as they are revealed in subtle facial expressions

CHAPTER 4: EDITING

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

In this example from To Be Or Not To Be (1942), we see how classical filmmaking uses continuity editing to set up a scene and convey character psychology

CHAPTER 4: EDITING

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

In this example from To Be Or Not To Be (1942), we see how classical filmmaking uses continuity editing to set up a scene and convey character psychology

EDITING VIDEO EXAMPLE ON BLACKBOARD: To Be Or Not To Be

Classical Cinema Editing1.) Exterior/Establishing shot of bookstore2.) Interior long shot establishing the space inside the bookstore3.) Two-shot of Maria and the bookseller4.) Shot/Reverse Shot of medium close-ups, reducing the space to smaller and smaller fields of view. This tightening of the frame around the characters has the effect of increasing the suspense and psychological intensity of the scene5.) As Maria leaves the store and the tension subsides, we cut back to a reestablishing shot of the bookstore and the German soldiers6.) After the soldiers leave, the bookseller looks inside the book for the secret message Maria has left and a medium close-up captures his facial expression7.) Then an extreme close-up of the message itself

CONTINUITY EDITING:

This type of “classical continuity editing” directs the viewer’s attention and gaze to those elements of the scene that are important to the narrative while eliminating extraneous elements

Classical Cinema Editing

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

The “180 degree rule” is used in continuity editing to maintain the coherence of a scene within a space; this consists of drawing an imaginary line through the scene with a bird’s-eye view and insuring that the camera always remains on one side of that line during filming

VIDEO EXAMPLE HERE

Classical Cinema Editing

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

“Shot/Reverse Shot” is typically and frequently used in conversations to cut back and forth between the characters as they speak

VIDEO EXAMPLE: THE COHEN BROTHERS

Classical Cinema Editing

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

“Eyeline Match” is another technique in which a character looks off to one side of the frame and there is a cut to another shot indicating what the character sees

VIDEO EXAMPLE HERE:

“Match On Action” is another technique in which two different shots of the same action are edited together in order to maintain continuity; the movement of a character or object is carried over from one shot to the next

VIDEO EXAMPLE HERE (includes GRAPHICAL and SOUND BRIDGE matching)

Classical Cinema Editing

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

“Transitions” are ways that a filmmaker can suggest a duration of time much longer than that actually shows on screen

CUT = sudden change; typically no time lapse

Classical Cinema Editing

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

“Transitions” are ways that a filmmaker can suggest a duration of time much longer than that actually shows on screen

DISSOVE = one image slowly fades into another with the two images briefly superimposed; signals a passage of time

Can signal a lapse either forwards OR backwards in time

Classical Cinema Editing

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

“Cross-Cutting/Intercutting/Parallel Editing” This EDITING STYLE switches back and forth between shots of events taking place in multiple locations and often at different times rather than stay on one scene with no such changes

EDITING VIDEO EXAMPLE ON BLACKBOARD: The Runaway Horse (earliest example)

EDITING VIDEO EXAMPLE ON BLACKBOARD: The Graduate (modern example)

Classical Cinema Editing

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

The “Tempo/Rhythm” of a scene can be set by the speed at which the edits occur, thereby conveying the urgency or non-urgency of a particular scene

EDITING VIDEO EXAMPLE ON BLACKBOARD: The French Connection

Classical Cinema Editing

The car chase was filmed without obtaining the proper permits from the city. Members of the NYPD's tactical force helped control traffic and cleared traffic for approximately five blocks in each direction. Permission was given to literally control the traffic signals on those streets where they ran the chase car.

Even so, in many instances, they illegally continued the chase into sections with no traffic control, where they actually had to evade real traffic and pedestrians. Many of the (near) collisions in the movie were therefore real and not planned (with the exception of the near-miss of the lady with the baby carriage, which was carefully rehearsed).

A flashing police light was placed on top of the car to warn bystanders. A camera was mounted on the car's bumper for the shots from the car's point-of-view. Leading man Gene Hackman did some of the driving but the extremely dangerous stunts were performed by Bill Hickman, with Friedkin (the director) filming from the backseat. Friedkin operated the camera himself because the other camera operators were married with children and he was not.“

VIDEO ABOUT CAR CHASE

The French Connection Chase Scene

CONTINUITY EDITING ELEMENTS:

CUTS & TRANSITIONS 101 (more video examples)

Classical Cinema Editing

“MONTAGE” is the French word for “editing” and is also a term used to describe a particular style of filmmaking that emphasizes the expressive power of editing over other considerations such as narrative continuity or realistic action

This is the principal contribution of Soviet film theorists to global cinema, and brought formalism to bear on filmmaking so is often referred to as “SOVIET MONTAGE” technique

MONTAGE

SOVIET MONTAGE VIDEO EXAMPLE

MONTAGE

LOOKING AHEAD

In-Class Quiz on Chapter 4Chapter #5 – FILM SOUND