What is the Basic Building Block of Film Editing

● ● ● ● ● ● ● Editing - the arrangement of shots and sounds. Film editors determine what you see, how long you see it, and the order in which you see it Most editing is designed to go unnoticed The basic building block of editing is the shot, and its most fundamental tool is the cut ○ Cut as: ■ The editors process ● When an editor selects a shot for use in a sequence or scene, she determines an in-point (the frame at which the shot will appear onscreen) and out-point (the final frame we will see before that shot is replaced with another shot) ● Each time the editor executes an in-point or out-point, she is making a cut ■ The way we can think of a cut pertains to watching a film ● A cut is an instantaneous transition from one shot to another ■ Refers to any edited version of a sequence, scene, or movie ● A director may tell her editor “let's take a look at your latest cut of this scene Relationship between film production and postproduction ○ Many scenes are recorded using coverage - multiple angles and shot types covering the same action- in order to provide the editor the freedom to select the best possible viewpoint for each dramatic moment. ○ Camera positions, framing, and blocking of different shots for a single scene are planned and executed in ways that ensure the editor will be able to preserve spatial and temporal continuity when constructing the scene. ○ Multiple takes of the same shot may be captured to provide editors a variety of different approaches to performance or camera movement. Shooting ratio - the proportion of footage shot to footage used in the complete movie. ○ Usually 20:1 - for every 1 minute you see on the screen, 20 minutes of footage has been discarded. ■ Stunt heavy movies are higher The film editor - works closely with the director ○ Animatic - a video produced by sequencing storyboard images and adding sound ○ Most of the editors contributions happen after shooting is completed. ○ During post-production, the director-editor relationship can take many forms ■ They can be edited at the end or while filming ○ Most director-editor relationships: ■ ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Before the edit begins, the director and editor discuss each scene’s story, tone, and narrative function. After reviewing footage provided, the editor communicates observations regarding performance, emphasis, important dramatic moments, event structure and order, and other potential expressive opportunities. The editor shares each draft version of every scene with the director so they can discuss what works and what doesn't. The editor takes notes and continues working on progressive versions, getting and applying feedback until the project is complete. ■ Although the director has the final say on all decisions, editors are known to feel very strongly about particular cuts. ○ Editors have the power to create moments and ideas not present in the original script ○ Editors must innovate ways to covey necessary information using added sound, offscreen dialogue, and sometimes even repurposed footage from other scenes Assisting directors function as media managers: importing, labeling, organizing, and archiving terabytes of digital video and sound files. Co-editors help draft scenes and sequences The postproduction supervisor shepherds the project through picture editing, and the concurrent and subsequent steps required before the final digital export: scoring, sound design, sound mixing, visual effects, and color grading and correction… the many stages the edit goes through is termed workflow First draft - rough cut Creative freedom - digital editing Over the course of post production, the edit moves through successive versions working towards the fine cut. Sound plays a role Final edit of the film footage - picture lock version Functions of editing - Film has 5 primary functions: (they are all interconnected and interdependent) 1)Organize fragmented action and events. ○ Fragmentation - the breaking up of stories, scenes, events, and ations into multiple shots that provide a diversity of compositions and combinations with which to convey meaning ○ Idea - our minds can intuitively organize a continuous stream of incomplete pieces into a coherent whole. ○ Many scenes are shot using coverage, or master scene technique, meaning that the action is photographed multiple times with a variety of different shot types and angles so that the editor will be able to construct the scene using the particular viewpoint that is best suited for each dramatic moment - classical cutting ○ Master shot - the scenes action is captured repeatedly using more specific framing ○ Conversations between characters are often captured and edited using the shot/reverse shot method. ■ The entire interactions is filmed with the camera first framed on one character then the camera is moved to a reverse position facing the second character from a corresponding position just behind the first character’s shoulder ■ Screens can be broken up and integrated with other scenes using parallel editing (crosscutting) - a technique that cuts back and forth between two or more actions happening simultaneously in separate locations ● One of the things that makes parallel editing so compelling is the participation required by the viewer. We start to try and figure out how the events are related and how those relationships affect the narrative ● Crosscutting should not be confused with intercutting - the insertion of shots into a scene in a way that interrupts the narrative ○ Examples of intercutting - flashbacks, flash-forwards, shot depicting a character's thoughts… there is a long list ● If the cut crosses back and forth between two or more simultaneous actions, you're watching crosscutting ● Intercutting applies to any other edits that insert shots into a scene from outside the action of that scene ■ Split screen - depicts one or more simultaneous actions, but since those actions are uninterrupted and adjacent (rather than crosscut), the comparisons they evoke and the relationships they imply are even more conspicuous. ● Don't have to occur in seperate locations ● 2)Create meaning through juxtaposition ○ Juxtaposition refers to placing two shots together in sequence. ○ The creation and communication of meaning through juxtaposition is known as montage editing - an essential aspect of editing that affects nearly every cut in film ■ Can be as simple as showing the exterior of a building, then cutting to a shot of people in a room - neither show people but we assume they work in the building ■ Russian ○ Associative editing - (intellectual editing) - uses juxtaposition to impart meaning in a way that we usually can't help but notice. ● 3)Create spatial relationships between shots ○ One of the most powerful effects of film editing is to create a sense of space in the mind of the viewer. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ When we are watching any single shot from a film, our sense of the overall space of the scene is necessarily limited by the height, width, and depth of the film frame during that shot. Our sense of the overall space in which the characters are moving shifts and expands The juxtaposition of shots within a scene can cause us to have a fairly complex sense of that overall pace (something like a mental map) even if no single shot discloses more than a fraction of that space to us at a time The power of editing to establish spatial relationships between shots is so strong, in fact, that filmmakers have almost no need to ensure that a real space exists whose dimensions correspond to the one implied by editing. Films rely heavily on the power of editing to fool us into perceiving their worlds as vast and complete even as we are shown only tiny fractions of the implied space Editing manipulates our sense of spatial relationships among characters, objects,and their surroundings. - we think people are in the same area To communicate all of these spatial relationships, editors rely on the juxtaposition of shots to convey meaning not contained in any single shot by itself - further evidence that the tendency of viewers to interpret shots in relation to surrounding shots is the most fundamental assumption behind all film editing ● 4)Create temporal relationships between shots ○ Nearly every cut an editor makes provides an opportunity to expand or condense time ○ The temporal manipulation is more practical than expressive. ○ The pace of an exchange between characters in seperation can be sped up or slowed down by either trimming or maximizing the actor’s pause between lines ○ Oftentimes, editing is used to jump from one moment to another in ways that are more evident and expressive ■ Temporal leap between shots is called an ellipsis these cuts often interrupt the action of a scene unexpectedly and involve a significant amount of time. ● Lets viewers fill the gaps themselves ○ Overlapping action - the repetition of parts or all of an action using multiple shots - assigns emphasis ○ Freeze-frame - suddenly stops a shot to hold on a single frozen image of the arrested action ● 5) Establish and control shot duration, pace, and rhythm ○ There is no such thing as fast or slow cutting - every cut in every film happens instantaneously: there is no variation in the time is takes a cut to move from one shot to another ○ The characteristic that determines the speed with which we experience edited sequences is not the cut between shots, but the duration of each of the assembled shots, as measured in frames (usually 24 per second) ○ ○ ○ ● Keeping a shot longer than necessary makes the viewer uneasy Content curve - interplay between duration and information - can be visualized as a bell curve, with the peak representing that point of optimum duration where a cut will typically occur ■ If too soon it can distort the audience and how they perceive it When the editor employs patterns of duration over time, she is using pace and rhythm ■ Pace - the speed at which a shot sequence flows ● The pace of a scene or sequence is accomplished by using shots of the same general duration (fast paced) ■ Rhythm - applies to the practice of changing pace, either gradually or suddenly, during a scene or sequence Major approaches to editing: continuity and discontinuity ○ Continuity editing - seeks to keep viewers oriented in space and time, to ensure a smooth and subtle flow between shots ■ Seeks to achieve logic, smoothness, sequential flow, and the temporal and spatial orientation of viewers to what they see on the screen ■ What happens on screen makes sense ■ Maintaining a coherent sense of space in a medium that comprises constantly shifting viewpoints is one of continuity editing’s primary functions ■ Editing techniques that maintain continuity ● Match cut - editors use a match cut to carry an element from one shot into the next shot using action, graphic content, or eye contact. They help create a sense of continuity between contiguous shots in the same scene or between shots that connect different scenes ● Match cut on action - cutting during a physical action helps hide the instantaneous and potentially jarring from one camera viewpoint to another. When connecting one shot to the next, a film editor often ends the first shor in the middle of a continuing action and starts the connecting shot at the same point in the same action - so it flows ○ Medium shots ● Eyeline match cut - we are naturally drawn to eyes - filmmakers use this tendency to create spatial continuity between sequenced shots depicting interacting characters ● Graphic match cut - repeating a similar shape, color, or other compositional element from one shot to the next, the graphic match cut implies a direct link between the events and content presented in the two different shots ● Point of view editing - uses a characters eyeline to create connections between subjects in seperate shots, but instead of ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ simply imparting a spatial relationship between interacting characters, the point of view edit seeks to convey the viewpoint and perspective of a characters offscreen gaze Discontinuity editing - emphasizes dynamic, often discontinuous relationships between shots, including contrasts in movement, camera angle, and shot type ■ Deliberately incorporates abrupt spatial and temporal shifts between shots, especially if doing so vonverysmeaning or provokes reaction ■ Soviet filmmakers Shot types and master scene technique 30-degree rule - the camera should shift at least 30 degrees between different shot types of the same subject Three shot salvo - intentionally break the 30 degree rule to intentionally ‘jump’ in at or away a character or object multiple times in quick succession 180-degree rule - uses an imaginary line (axis of action) drawn between the interacting characters being photographed. Once the line is determined, the camera remains on the same side of the line as it moves from position to position to capture different shots. This keeps spatial disjunction Jump cut - created when two shots of the same subject taken from the same camera position are edited together so that the action on screen seems to jump forward in time - usually a matter of moments Fade - transitions between shots over multiple frames - fades put/in ■ Adds to temporal shifts ■ Fading with color adds new potential meanings Dissolve - the first shot is gradually replaced with the second shot, with no intervening period of a color Wipe - shot b wipes across shot a to replace it - like a windshield wiper Iris out - begins with the image shown as a large circle when shrinks and closes in around the subject Iris in - image begins as a small circle then expands