Unit 16: Film and Video editing techniques
By Chris Highet
Developments
in editing
In camera
editing
In camera editing is a technique used for when a director of
photography wants to shoot sequences in an organised order as oppose to editing
the shots after filming. This allows parts of the final edit to be completed
upon completion of filming. The editing process is drawn out process as it
requires a lot of planning prior to filming. This is so the shots are filmed
correctly and in the order the director wants. The time lost for this stage of
the production does not really have an effect on the overall time schedule of
the production of what you are filming. This eradicates the time you would
normally lose at the end of a production for having to use editing software for
the final edit. A beneficial reason to use this editing technique is the
reduction in cost for the production. Before the days of digital cameras and
the creation of Avid film makers used this technique because of the price of
film was astronomical, so they used this process to maximize the amount of
film. Famous film maker Alfred Hitchcock used this editing process on a few
occasions.
Following
the action
When a big action scene takes place in a production such as a
car chase it is difficult to film it all via a tripod. In scenes like these it
is vital that the camera can move along with the action. Specialist equipment
is required for when this takes place; this enables a dolly shot or a tracking
shot to take place. For this to happen a camera is mounted upon a cart which
then films the sequence. An example of a recent film which used this process
was Rush. Rush which tells the story of the 1976 F1 season needed to use this
process to video all th racing which takes place. Dolly shots have the ability
to capture footage by moving vertically which capture footage from higher
positions. Cameras are also mounted to cranes to get successful shots from
higher positions. An example of a production which uses cranes for filming is
Sky cricket. If you go down to the St Lawrence cricket ground in Canterbury
during a televised match you’ll be able to see 2 or 3 cranes around the ground
with cameramen on it. For a sport like cricket you have to film from high
positions because the pitch is so spread out.
Multiple
points of view
Multiple points of view are vital to a story line of a film
for example. Multiple points of view
enable films to generate scenes of suspense and tension. A camera can create
multiple points of view by focusing on one character and showing their various
emotions before moving on to another character that is in the same scene to do
the same process, it can be drawn out or done quickly. It can be done for
television dramas and soaps as well films.
Shot
variation
If you include the same style shots in your footage for a
film, it’s going to struggle to get an Oscar, so it is vital that you have a
variety of shots, or a shot variation to make it of interest to those watching.
Having a mixture of shots in a film will enable the film to be whole lot more
interesting as it then can provoke various amounts of emotions. Different types
of shots that you would may see in a film are shots such as long shots, medium
close ups and close ups.
Manipulation
of diegetic time and space
Manipulating time and space can be
done for various reasons in a film and used for many genres. Its main purpose
is to save time and speed up certain scenes in context to overall length of the
film. It can be done to hurry up a long journey which someone may be embarking
upon in a film. A film that sums this up perfectly is the film Snatch, which uses
this technique on more than occasion. The
link below shows what I mean (excuse the language)
It shows the character being in
America one second and arriving in the London a few seconds later. They do this
by cutting out the aeroplane journey and
other forms of transportation to arrive at the next scene as soon as possible.
Film, Video,
Analogue, Digital
Technology is forever changing and growing and it is always
being incorporated into the films and TV that we watch. You can see this in the
evolution of the way in which we watch films at home, it started with video,
then DVD and now BlueRay. Though movies are still known as film its rare
nowadays that they are actually made from film, most movies derive from a
digital source. This happens because digital is a much faster way of filming;
you can film something and immediately upload the footage onto a computer via
software such as Avid. Using film is a
much longer process, the camera you use will have to be developed and then
dried, then edited. This takes up a lot of time during a production, especially
in the production of a film as you have deadlines to keep up with. You also
have to have a secure place to keep it so it doesn’t get lost. Problems that
occur with analogue filming are that it takes up a lot of space which also
needs to be a location which is dry and cool as film is very flammable, and if
it burns you’ll be in a world of trouble, as your film will be lost. Another
problem with using this process is that you have to cut out individual bits of
film for you to able to edit it. People use digital because it is widely
available and you don’t have to worry about all these problems. You can send
copies all over the world without having to worry about losing it if you have
backed the video up on a variety of devises in case it gets corrupted or
deleted down the line.
Key
conventions of editing
Continuity
This form of editing is used for most big cinematic movies
that are available now. Continuity editing is essentially a cover up, it is
done to try and hide the fact that some editing has been done. Continuity
editing is also done so the audience cannot see the edit which has been done or
the mistake that has occurred. There are two types of continuity editing, temporal
and spatial.
Montage
A montage is when different
clips are linked together and cut together to make a short montage of
something. This process it heavily used in the TV and film industry. They can
be of a past episode of film or even from the same film. An example of a
television show which uses this process is American comedy Friends. Friends
used this technique a lot when there thinking or talking about something they
did which appeared on the show.
Jump-cutting
Jump cutting is another form of editing that has the ability
to manipulate time. It makes items look like they going at a faster pace than
they actually are. A jump cut edit is when there are two shots of a subject but
the shots which are used derive from different angles.
Parallel
editing
This technique is used as an alternate between different
subjects that are in one place and are doing the same thing. They cut to
different places and to different subjects which are still in the same time
zones. Film makers use this technique so the audience can keep track on what is
going on and even to provoke various emotions such as tension.
180 rule
The 180 rule is a rudimentary
instruction in the world of film making. It is normally used during a scene
where two characters are engaged in conversation between one another. An
imaginary line is used as a foundation for the 180 degree rule; this is known
as the axis. This line connects the characters; it does this by keeping the
camera on one side of the axis for every shot which is in the scene. The first
character in the scene is always framed right from the second character, then
the second character is ironically filmed from the left. When the camera passes
over the axis line it is known as jumping or crossing the line.
Transitions
The transition technique appears in films normally to change
or move on to a new scene. There a various types of transitions which can be
used. A technique I have been using for Avid is a dissolve. You can use a
simple cut as well as using a dissolve. Other types of transitions are fade, wipe; cutaways; point of view shot and shot
reverse-shot.
Editing
rhythm
The editing rhythm technique is a precious commodity if you
want to keep your audience interested and drawn to the type of your story line
you’re trying to generate. There are two types of rhythms in editing, fast
editing and slow editing. Slow edits have a calming and bordering feel ti them
whereas fast edits are much more aggressive and lively. An example of slow
editing is in Full Metal Jacket which was directed by Stanley Kubrick, who used
this technique in many of his films.
Crosscutting
The cross cutting technique is a technique which is commonly
used in action films to highlight the various action occurring in different
places at the same moment in time. The cuts are normally quick cuts to
highlight the energy and speed of the particular speed. An example of this is
in the film Inception.
Cutting to
soundtrack
The cutting to soundtrack technique is used when you want to
make a cut centred on a particular bit of sound. This could be sound deriving
from the actual clip, such as a conversation or when a phone rings. The cut
will be made so it has precise timing to when the sound takes place. This is a
form of editing you would more associate with music videos because they are
aiming to keep up with the pace of the music.
Editing for
a purpose
Editing is a key ingredient in making any film successful,
irrelevant to what content it includes, good or bad it needs to be edited to
make its point and of course make sense. If a film isn’t edited it will most
certainly show all the mistakes that have been made in the filming process.
Editing has the ability to make films more interesting through different
techniques which has the ability to alter any moods that the film may be
generating, this could be through the music which accompanies certain sections
of footage or fades which links the footage together. From my point of view the
music which is played has an enormous effect on the mood which I have during
the duration of a film; it has the ability to dictate what the mood is. If it
is slow and mellow then that can be because it has a sad mood to it or if it is
fast and lively that could be reflecting accepts of positivity. Editing can
also affect the overall storyline of a film. One of the key accepts of being an
editor is making sure that all the footage is in the correct order, which is
something any director will be closely monitoring. An edit should reflect the genre of a film, a
Steven Spielberg epic such as Saving Private Ryan wouldn’t incorporate the same
editing techniques as a film such as Love Actually, you wouldn’t have scenes of
romance of the beaches of Normandy on June 6th 1944, neither would you have
explosions and MG42 fire during the wedding scene of Love Actually. In
conclusion editors are the un sung heroes of the movie world, with all the
hours that they spend editing for a film, but they are the people who can
enable a film to have a story line and mood which can enables movies to go on
and receive awards. The best way to show what I mean in terms of emotions which
films generate, are these two YouTube clips which are of two differing movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdzH6a-XEGM - Love Actually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl5WHj0bZ2Q - Casino Royale.
