2. Editing

Film Editing

Editing is one of the most important aspects of filming. Click on the link to understand why. Fast and slow editing . This clip also shows how a single shot, without any editing, can be very boring.

The film editor works with the raw footage  selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. Before digital cameras, this used to be done with film that had to be cut and then joined together. This meant that editing was both expensive, and time consuming. Digital cameras have not only brought about a reduction in cost, but allowed amateurs to produce film with little experience in the production industry.

THE ORIGINS OF MOVIE MAGIC

The very first films in the late 1800s, made by the Lumiere Bros. and Thomas Edison among others, were single-shot actualities: a train pulling into a station, people leaving a factory, ladies walking down the street. The camera was locked in place. It recorded, in its entirety, the “event” taking place. It was the magic of capturing movement that captivated audiences. Editing was originally called “cutting,” as it actually was the cutting together of two pieces of film. “Cutters” held the strips of film up to the light and cut them with scissors, cementing the two pieces together at the desired point.

It was no coincidence that several early filmmakers performed as magicians. The jump cut, a deliberate mismatching of two scenes, evolved into the first “special effect” of movies and was probably discovered by accident. Within the same scene, an actor could be made to “disappear” by stopping the camera, removing the actor, and resuming the scene without moving the camera. George Méliès, a Parisian magician, produced dozens of elaborate “trick” films using this effect as one of his primary marvels. Click here for more on this topic

THE JUMP CUT IN ‘THE HUNGER GAMES’

(Gif images click on them)

     

At the beginning of ‘The Hunger Games’ there is a sudden jump cut. Seneca Crane is being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman in the build up to the 75th Hunger Games. Caesar asks Seneca the question: ‘What defines your personal signature?

The scene suddenly cuts to Prim screaming in District 12 and then being comforted by her sister Katniss. What does this sudden jump cut do to the audience? And what is the director saying by using a jump cut in this way?

THE TERMINOLOGY (what things are called!)

Film editing terminolgy from this website

Some of the terminology that a film editor uses includes:
Close-up (CU): A shot showing a detail only (ex., face only or hands only).
Cross-cutting: Cutting back and forth between two or more events or actions that are taking place at the same time but in different places. Cross-cutting is used to build suspense or to show how different pieces of the action are related.
Cut: An abrupt transition from one shot to another.
Cutaways: A cut away from the primary subject to something the filmmaker has decided is equally or more relevant at that time. Often cutaways consist of shots showing the reaction of one character to another. This is often used to compress time in what appears to be a seamless manner.
Dissolve: An overlapping transition between scenes where one image fades out as another fades in. Editors often use this to indicate a change in time and/or location.
Establishing Shot: A shot, usually taken from a distance, which establishes for the viewer where the action is to occur and the spatial relationship of the characters and their setting.
Extreme Close-Up (ECU): A detail of a close-up (eyes or mouth only, etc.). Fade In: A shot that starts in darkness and gradually lightens to full exposure.
Fade Out: A shot that starts at full exposure and gradually fades to black.
Freeze-Frame: At a chosen point in a scene, a particular frame is printed repeatedly, given the effect of halting or “freezing” the action.
Jump Cut: A cut where two spliced shots do not match in terms of time or place. A jump cut gives the effect that the camera is literally jumping around.
Long Shot (LS): A shot taken at a considerable distance from the subject. A long shot of a person is one in which the entire body is in frame.
Medium Shot (MS): A shot framing a subject at a medium range, usually a shot from the waist up.
Reverse cutting: A technique alternating over-the-shoulder shots showing different characters speaking. This is generally used in conversation scenes.
Sequence Shot: An entire scene or sequence that is one continuous camera shot. There is no editing.

HOW MEANING IS CREATED

In the editing process, the editor does not usually attempt to create an exact record of what happened as viewed through the eyes of one character. Rather, the editor—in collaboration with the director and in keeping with the vision of the writer—must “translate” the events of each scene into the most effective images, placing each one in the order and length most appropriate to telling the story. Timing is indeed everything for the editor.

One approach to editing is continuity. Continuity editing generally presents the action in a logical, chronological sequence. Even though the time and space of a sequence may be manipulated, it has the appearance of “real” time to the viewer. A long shot of a person sitting down is “matched” to a close-up of the person sitting down into the frame. In essence, the editor is focusing in on the scene in much the same manner as the human eye—jumping from place to place, farther or closer. In actuality, the action appears more natural if two or three frames of film are deleted by the editor at the splice. Click here for more on this topic