editing in silent witness worksheet

G322 Key Media Concepts (TV Drama)

Editing

Silent Witness - Terror, part 1, BBC1, 16.10.08

Introduction

After years of experience, we are all skilled in making sense of media texts. We can understand TV programmes, follow the story of a film, use a website etc. We can do this so naturally that, without thinking, we can enjoy them, laugh with them, be moved by them. All of this has become normal.

In Media Studies, however, learning to analyse these texts involves a process of making strange what is normal: in other words, learning to read the text in a new way.

What you are learning to do is to deconstruct media texts. In this unit, the texts will be TV drama texts, which are highly constructed things. Deconstructing them means learning to see and hear the technical choices that have been made in the process of constructing the text, and to understand the contribution these choices make to the effects of the text.

So, what we need to see in the pre-title sequence of this episode of Silent Witness, is not the build up to an armed police raid on a house where a young woman is preparing to pray.

We need to see it as a series of separate shots, filmed in different locations at quite different times, using a variety of carefully selected shot types and distances, of actors delivering dialogue and carrying out actions set out in a screenplay, dressed in costumes, using props, all accompanied by a mix of sounds, and edited together to encourage viewers to believe they are seeing the build up to an armed police raid…

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Continuity Editing

This pre-title sequence, and the vast majority of TV drama, is edited using what is known as continuity editing. This system of editing has been developed since the beginnings of moving image media, particularly by classical Hollywood cinema. Its aim is to create a seamless or continuous flow, so that the audience does not notice that the text is constructed from a series of separate shots.

As media students, however, not only must we notice that the text is a series of separate shots edited together, but also the efforts made to disguise the editing process and to achieve continuity.

Consider the following pairs of consecutive shots:

1. Young woman switches on light 2. Light in a window seen from another buildingContinuity editing suggests…

5. Water poured on a hand 6. Young woman in a bedroom

Continuity editing suggests…

Cause and effect

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One convention of continuity editing is that, as viewers, we assume there is a link between what we see in one shot and what we see in the next. The final two shots of the sequence illustrate this “cause and effect” reading of editing:

72 detonator 73 explosion of doorContinuity editing suggests…

Match on actionAnother conventional technique of continuity editing is to match on action. An action shown as beginning in one shot is completed in the following shot, so that the action seems continuous. The editor’s skill lies in matching precisely where everything is at the end of the first shot and at the start of the second shot. This keeps the ordinary viewers’ attention on the action and not on the editing.

15 officer enters locker room giving orders 16 officer continues ordersEffect(s) of this match on action:

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Shot – reverse shotA convention of continuity editing, especially when characters are communicating face-to-face, is the shot – reverse shot sequence. A shot of character A talking is followed by a shot of character B listening, reacting or answering, and so on.

180-degree rule (crossing the line)Also known as the 180-degree line or the line of action, this rule means that characters or objects should always be shot so that their left-right relationship is preserved along an imaginary line between them. This is an important part of continuity editing.If character A is facing and talking to character B, if shot 1 shows A on the left of the frame looking towards the right, shot 2 should show B framed to the right looking to the left.Placing B also on the left of the frame looking right would confuse the audience and be an example of crossing the line.

Camera 1 - OK Camera 2 - OK Camera 3 - OK Camera 4 - wrong

Camera positions 1 and 3 would provide a shot – reverse shot sequence.

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A B

1

2

3

4


30-degree ruleConventionally in continuity editing, consecutive shots of the same thing will be from camera positions at least 30-degrees apart. This feels different enough for viewers to accept that this is a different view of the thing. A camera position less than 30-degrees away from the first position creates a jump cut, which attracts attention to itself and away from the action. However, some film and programme makers use jump cuts for specific disorientating effects.

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A continuity error is anything overlooked in the editing process that the audience register as a mistake, thereby distracting them from the narrative. For example, a change in hairstyle, make-up or costume on a character between shots in the same scene, when the narrative does not refer to or explain this change.

Breaks in continuity may be deliberate. There may be a jump in time between consecutive shots. How would you explain the following sudden change in position of the young woman within the frame in these two consecutive shots?

18 standing, right 19 laying out mat, leftPossible reason(s):

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Editing speed / paceEditing speed is created by the frequency with which a sequence moves from shot to shot. In other words, it is a measure of how many different shots occur in a given amount of time.

N.B. It is not about how long it takes a particular transition to happen onscreen: a slow editing speed can be achieved using straight cuts, just as much as it can by using fades.

A sense of pace can be created by editing, as well as by use of the camera (e.g. movement), sound (e.g. musical score), mise-en-scene (e.g. performance, body language) and the narrative. Action sequences tend to have a higher speed of editing than more sombre, emotional sequences, while the speed of editing for more general sequences will be somewhere in between.

An editor will try to match the editing tempo of a sequence to its emotional intensity. Rhythmic editing can build up or slow down the tempo of a sequence in a progressive way, by gradually cutting more or less frequently.

Where did the editing pace of the pre-title sequence speed up or slow down?Why do you think this happened?

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Cross-cuttingIn cross-cutting, a sequence will cut repeatedly between two or more different locations.Cross-cutting conventionally suggests that the action in the different scenes is happening simultaneously. It also suggests a link between the action in the different scenes, often suggesting that the characters from the separate locations are going to meet up.Therefore cross-cutting can create a strong sense of suspense as the viewers anticipate that meeting. An example would be a "race against time" sequence, with a character in one scene racing towards a dangerous situation shown in the other scene.

The pre-title sequence makes use of cross-cutting.Where is this particularly effective in building tension or suspense?What does it make you feel about the characters?

Types of edit / transitionThe pre-title sequence uses only cuts (sometimes called “straight cuts”) between shots. The straight cut instantly replaces one shot with another and is by far the commonest way to move from one shot to the next. It is also the least apparent or noticeable to normal viewers. It suggests the action in one shot is followed immediately by the action in the second shot.

N.B. Be careful to express statements about editing carefully. Avoid writing "the camera cuts to..."Write instead "the sequence cuts to..."

Editing can make use of other transitions or types of edit, such as Fade (to black) Dissolve Wipe Graphic match

These have conventional meanings.

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Follow-up recommendations

Consolidation task options – learning terminology1. On Moodle, in the AS Media Studies area, look for the TV Drama Wiki on

a Stick.htm and download it. It works best saved to a USB stick. It is a glossary of terms relating to TV drama and can be navigated using the blue hyperlinks. For editing it covers the following terms:

transitioncut / straight cut dissolvefadewipe

editing speed, pace & tempoediting rhythmshot durationlong & short takes

continuity editingspatial & temporal contiguityshot-reverse-shotestablishing shot180-degree ruleeyeline matchgraphic match

action match / match on actionjump cutdiscontinuity

cross-cutting / intercuttingparallel editingmontage editingellipsis

cutawaycut in / insert shot

superimposesplit screen

slow motionfreeze frame

2. Look up the terms above in your Media Studies Dictionary and / or the glossary in the Media Studies textbook.

Extension task – practise spotting techniquesWhile watching TV drama extracts, look out for uses of editing techniques too. Consider the effects of the choices you identify.

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editing in silent witness worksheet

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