CH6. EDITING

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CH6. EDITING
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What is Editing?

• Editing is the process by which the editor
  combines and coordinates individual shots into a
  cinematic whole.
• For my vision of the cinema, editing is not
  simply one aspect, it is the aspect....Orson
  Welles

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What does an editor do?

• The editor takes the footage shot by the DP and
  director and selects, arranges and assembles
  these into the movies final visual form.
• The mixing of all soundtracks (dialogue, music,
  and effects) into the master soundtrack and then
  matching that soundtrack with all the visual
  images

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Grammar of Editing

• Technique actual joining of 2 shots (cutting,
  splicing)
• Craft ability to join shots and produce meaning
  that does not exist in either one individually
• Art occurs when the combination of shots creates
  an epiphany of discovery

From Ken Dancygers The Technique of Film and
Video Editing (4th Edition), Focal Press.
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THE SHOT VS. THE CUT

• The basic building block of film editing is the
  shot and its most fundamental tool is the cut.
• Each shot has two values
• What is within the shot.
• How the shot relates to other shots.

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The Editors Responsibilities

• Spatial relationships between shots.
• Temporal relationships between shots.
• The overall rhythm of the film.
• Philosophy of the Editor The editor working
  with a great director can do no better than
  discover and disclose the directors design.
  editor, Helen Van Dongen

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Q. An editor is responsible for

• Manipulating the footage.
• Constructing the films overall form.
• Creating continuity.
• Helping realize the filmmaking teams collective
  artistic vision.
• All of the above.

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Q. An editor is responsible for

• All of the above.

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Spatial Relationships

• The juxtaposition of shots within a scene can
  cause us to have a fairly complex sense of that
  overall space. Thus, painting a mental picture
  of the space of a scene.
• e.g. opening sequence in Boys Dont Cry (1999)
• gtEditing manipulates our sense of the spatial
  relationships among characters, objects and their
  surroundings.

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Lev Kuleshov

• Russian film theorist who along with V.I.
  Pudovkin created an experiment with images and
  examined viewers reactions to what they saw
• Actor with no expression on his face
• Actor/soup/actor hungry
• Actor/coffin/actor sad
• Actor/young child/actor happy
• The Kuleshov Effect the viewers response
  depends less on the individual shot than on the
  juxtaposition of shots

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Q. Who experimented with editing in the 1920s,
placing an identical shot of an expressionless
actor after shots of three different images?

• Pudovkin
• Dancyger
• Mamoulian
• Kuleshov
• Van Dongen

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Q. Who experimented with editing in the 1920s,
placing an identical shot of an expressionless
actor after shots of three different images?

• Kuleshov

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Temporal Relationships

• We have learned that plot may be ordered in a
  manner that differs from the story.
• Editing is used to manipulate the presentation of
  plot time onscreen.
• Editing may be traditional and chronological or
  it may be manipulated in a creative and confusing
  way.
• e.g. Films such as Memento(2000), Adaptation
  (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  (2004) are interesting because their plots are
  fragmented and presented in an out-of-order
  fashion

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Editing Buzz Words

• Flashback the interruption of the chronological
  plot time with a shot or series of shots that
  show an event that has happened earlier in the
  story.
• Flashforward the interruption of present action
  by a shot or series of shots that shows images
  from the plots future.
• Ellipsis the most common manipulation of time
  through editing is an omission of the time that
  separates one shot from another.

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Ellipsis for Comic Effect

• An ellipsis shortens the time between two
  actions, but it can also have comic implications.
  In Steve Soderberghs Out of Sight (1998) Karen
  Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) a federal marshal, starts
  out to nab an escaped convict, Jack Foley (George
  Clooney) but instead is pulled into a bathtub and
  kisses him. A quick cut, and obvious ellipsis,
  shows her in a hospital bed with a nasty bruise
  on her forehead. From earlier in the movie, we
  know that she got to the hospital as a result of
  a car crash that occurred during her escape from
  Foley and his buddy.

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Q. What term do we use to describe editing that
creates the visual sensation that time has
elapsed between shots?

• Ellipsis
• Time-lapse editing
• Separation editing
• Hard cuts
• None of the above

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Q. What term do we use to describe editing that
creates the visual sensation that time has
elapsed between shots?

• Ellipsis

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Montage

• Montage is from the French verb monter which
  means assemble or put together.
• Montageediting in French.
• Montage refers to the various forms of editing in
  which ideas are expressed in a series of quick
  shots.
• Montage was first used in the 1920s by Soviet
  masters like Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin and in
  1930s Hollywood to condense a series of events.

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Q. Montage literally means

• To paste.
• The Kuleshov effect.
• A sequence of shots.
• Editing.
• All of the above.

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Q. Montage literally means

• Editing.

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Walter Murch on Editing

• When you stop and think about it, it is amazing
  that film editing works at all. One moment were
  on top of Mauna Kea and---cut!---the next were
  at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The
  instaneous transition of the cut is nothing like
  we experience as normal life, which seems to be
  one continuous shot from the moment we wake up
  until we close our eyes at night.
• From The Conversations Walter Murch and The Art
  of Editing by Ondaatje (2004) 49.

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Rhythm

• Editing determines the duration of a shot.
• An editor can control the rhythm (or beat) of a
  film by varying the duration of the shots in
  relation to one another.
• Editing requires the editor to make decisions
  about (1)shot length (2)rhythm (3)emphasis and
  (4)content curve
• Content Curvean arc that measures information in
  a shot determining when viewer is ready to move
  on.

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Q. The content curve is

• The amount of time the viewer needs to absorb the
  information in a shot before being ready to move
  on to the next composition.
• The voyeuristic tendencies of the cinema.
• The rage of traditional themes or types of
  stories told in the mainstream cinema.
• The amount of mise-en-scène present in a shot.
• The ration of flashbacks to flashforwards in a
  narrative.

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Q. The content curve is

• The amount of time the viewer needs to absorb the
  information in a shot before being ready to move
  on to the next composition.

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Landmark Films Using Rhythm

• Odessa Steps Sequence in Battleship
  Potemkin(1925)
• The diving sequence in Olympiad (1938)
• Breathless(1960)
• Run Lola Run (1998)
• The Matrix(1999)

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Major Approaches to Editing Continuity and
Discontinuity I

• Continuity Editing a style of editing (now
  dominant around the world) that seeks to tell a
  story as clearly as possible and achieve
• logic
• smoothness and sequential flow
• temporal and spatial orientation of viewers to
  what they see onscreen.
• flow from shot to shot.
• filmic unity

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Major Approaches to Editing Continuity and
Discontinuity II

• Discontinuity Editing a style of editing---less
  widely used than continuity editing, often but
  not exclusively used in experimental films-that
  joins shots A and B to produce an effect or
  meaning not even hinted at by either shot alone.
• e.g. Battleship Potemkin(1925) uses both types of
  editing styles in a revolutionary manner.
• Other examples using both types include
• gtEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind(2004)
• gtCity of God(2002)
• View the DVD The Evolution of Editing The
  Lumieres to Eisenstein

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Q. What term do we give to the style of editing
that deliberately chooses to manipulate shots so
that the transitions between them are not smooth?

• Circular editing
• Deconstructive editing
• Expressionistic editing
• Linear editing
• Discontinuity editing

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Q. What term do we give to the style of editing
that deliberately chooses to manipulate shots so
that the transitions between them are not smooth?

• Discontinuity editing

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Five Conventions of Classical Hollywood- Style
Continuity Editing

• Do not call attention to the editing- make it
  invisible. The visual transitions and
  manipulations of audio is hidden from our
  perception. Screen direction is consistent from
  shot to shot.
• Edits are there to move the story forward.
• Cuts are psychologically motivated from the
  audiences point of view.
• Editing gives the illusion of continuous space
  and time.
• What happens on the screen makes as much
  narrative sense as possible.

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Q. In general, continuity editing ensures that

• What happens on the screen makes as much sense as
  possible.
• Graphic, spatial, and temporal relations are
  maintained from shot to shot.
• Screen direction remains constant.
• All of the above
• a and c only

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Q. In general, continuity editing ensures that

• All of the above

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Cinema Slang

• 180 degree rule an imaginary line that indicates
  the direction people and things face when viewed
  through the camera. When you cross the line with
  the camera, you reverse the screen direction of
  your subjects.
• Master Shot it defines the spatial relationships
  in a scene.

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FIGURE 6.1 THE 180-DEGREE SYSTEM

• Also called the axis of action

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Q. What is the primary technique for ensuring
consistent screen direction between shots?

• The 180-degree system
• The Kuleshov effect
• The directional axis effect
• Static framing
• All of the above

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Q. What is the primary technique for ensuring
consistent screen direction between shots?

• The 180-degree system

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Editing Techniques That Maintain Continuity I

• Master Shot (sometimes called an establishing
  shot) is more shot type than an editing
  technique. Is very important to continuity
  editing because
• It provides an editor with a necessary tool.
• It orients the viewer for the shots that follow.

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Editing Techniques That Maintain Continuity II

• Shot/Reverse ShotOTS (Over-The-Shoulder Shot)
• Match Cuts- those in which shot A and shot B are
  matched in action, subject graphic content, or
  two characters eye contact
• Parallel Editing- two or more actions happening
  at the same time in different places e.g.
  Baptism and Murder in Godfather I(1972)
• Point-of-View Editing- editing of subjective
  shots that show a scene exactly the way the
  character sees it.

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Editing Techniques That Maintain Continuity

• In addition to the fundamental building
  blocksthe master shot and the 180 degree
  systemvarious editing techniques are used to
  ensure that graphic, spatial, and temporal
  relations are maintained from shot to shot.
• Shot/Reverse Shot
• Match Cuts.
• Parallel Editing.
• POV Editing.

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Shot/Reverse Shot

• One of the most prevalent and familiar of editing
  patterns, is a technique in which the editor
  switches between shots of different characters
  usually framed over each characters shoulder to
  preserve screen direction.
• e.g. A discussion in Michael Manns The Insider
  (1999) between Dr. Wigand and Mr. Bergman.

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Match Cuts

• 1. Match on Action Cut-shows us the
  continuation of a characters motion through
  space without actually showing us the entire
  action.
• 2. Graphic Match Cut-the shape, color or
  texture of objects matches across the edit.
• e.g. In 2001 A Space Odyssey(1968)-a bone
  weapon from the Stone Age becomes a spacecraft.
• 3. Eyeline Match Cut- joins shot A, a POV shot
  of a person looking off- screen in one direction
  and shot B, the person that is the object of that
  gaze.

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Types of Parallel Editing

• Parallel editing-is the cutting together of two
  or more actions happening at the same time in
  different places.
• Cross-cutting-refers to editing that cuts between
  two or more actions occurring at he same time and
  place.
• Intercutting-refers to editing of two or more
  actions taking place at the same time but with
  the difference that it creates the effect of a
  single scene rather than distinct actions.
• e.g. Dont Look Now(1973)-explicit sex scene

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Point-of-View Editing

• This type of editing is used to cut from shot A(
  a POV shot with the character looking toward
  something off-screen) directly to shot B (using a
  match on action shot or eyeline match shot of
  what the character is actually looking at).
• POV editing uses subjective shots to show a scene
  exactly the way the character sees it.
• (Note dont confuse with objective eyeline match
  cuts made by an omniscient camera).

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Q. A match cut

• Intercuts two or more lines of action occurring
  simultaneously but in different spaces.
• Conveys the passage of time.
• Presents an instantaneous and disorienting
  advance in the action.
• Helps create a sense of continuity between two
  shots.
• All of the above.

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Q. A match cut

• Helps create a sense of continuity between two
  shots.

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Q. A shot of someone looking offscreen in one
direction followed by a shot of a clock is most
likely a(n)

• Eyeline-match cut.
• Parallel cut.
• Montage.
• Establishing shot.
• Jump cut.

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Q. A shot of someone looking offscreen in one
direction followed by a shot of a clock is most
likely a(n)

• Eyeline-match cut.

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Q. A dissolve is conventionally employed to convey

• A sudden, jarring shift in time and/or space.
• Ellipsis, or the passing of time.
• A subjective point of view.
• The omniscient camera.
• A sad or melancholy mood.

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Q. A dissolve is conventionally employed to convey

• Ellipsis, or the passing of time.

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Q. What term do we use to describe a very common
and familiar editing pattern that switches
between shots of different characters in
conversation, often framed over each characters
shoulder?

• Eyeline-match cut
• Shot/reverse shot
• Montage
• Separation editing
• Dialogue editing

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Q. What term do we use to describe a very common
and familiar editing pattern that switches
between shots of different characters in
conversation, often framed over each characters
shoulder?

• Shot/reverse shot

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Q. A transitional device in which shot B slowly
appears over shot A, eventually replacing it, is
called a

• Fade.
• Dissolve.
• Wipe.
• Cut.
• All of the above.

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Q. A transitional device in which shot B slowly
appears over shot A, eventually replacing it, is
called a

• Dissolve.

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EDITING AND FILM STYLE

• Where, how and when cuts are made depend on the
  style of the film as a whole.
• Editing style boils down to a question of how the
  filmmaker relates to the world he/she is
  portraying.
• Key Questions Should the filmmaker use pieces of
  raw material (time, space action) to construct
  meaning or leave them unmanipulated and genuine?

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OTHER TRANSITIONS BETWEEN SHOTS

• THE JUMP CUT- a disorienting ellipsis between
  shots. e.g. Breathless (1960) Jean-Luc Godard.
• THE FADE- transition from black or to black.
• DISSOLVE-(LAP DISSOLVE)-shot B gradually
  appears over shot A and replaces it- often
  implying passing of time.
• WIPE- transitional device, often indicates change
  of time, place or location.
• IRIS SHOT- special small circle wipe line.
• FREEZE FRAME- step printing of an image creating
  a still much like an exclamation point.
• SPILT SCREEN- in use since Suspense (1913).

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DIGITAL EDITING

• Mia Goldman What irrevocable changes do you
  think the digital revolution has made in our
  lives as editors?
• Dede Allen Its changed from working in a coal
  mine where you handle the film and its more
  physical attributes-to feeling a bit atrophied
  because you sit all the time and your mind and
  eyes carry all the weight. When youre caught in
  the old dilemma of how am I going to make this
  scene work and you have to get up to pace and
  think. But mostly you dont get up because its
  so fast and easy.
• Film editor Dede Allen, in an interview with Mia
  Goldman for The Motion Picture Editors Guild
  Magazine, 2000

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Digital Editing II

• With products like Avid Film Composer (a
  software/hardware system currently selling for
  100,000), Avid Technology has dominated
  professional digital editing in Hollywood since
  it first emerged in 1989.
• But as faster personal computers with larger
  storage capacity have emerged, innovative
  companies like Apple have developed software like
  Final Cut Pro that allow anyone able to afford a
  Macintosh computer and a 1,299 software package
  to edit multiple video and audio tracks at home.
  As a result, countless independent and student
  films have been edited on Final Cut Pro. With
  Cold Mountain (2003), Academy Award-winning
  editor Walter Murch became the first editor to
  cut a major-release feature on Final Cut Pro.
  Since then, many Hollywood filmmakers have made
  the switch, most recently David Fincher ( Seven,
  Fight Club) with his 2007 release Zodiac.