TARABA STATE POLYTECHNIC DIPLOMA IN FILM AND TV PRODUCTION NOTES ON FTP 105: EDITING I By Kyantirimam R. Ukwen I. An Overview of Editing Editing is the selection, timing and arrangement of given shots into a film continuity. In essence it requires ‘cutting’ out portions of recorded video, discarding the ones not needed and taking the relevant ones to the position where it can help to tell a film story in a sequence that will help the viewer understand it. I. An Overview of Editing So, what is a sequence? It is a serial arrangement in which things follow a logical order. It is therefore an order or arrangement of anything at all, e.g numbers: 1,2,3,4,5. If it is not sequential, it could be 2,4,3,5,1 or 3,5,1,4,3. If it is a sequence, it takes you easily through from beginning to the end. I. An Overview of Editing Let us look at another example. An order of Esther’s daily chores at home whenever she wakes up in the morning: She 1. prays, 2. uses the toilet 3. brushes her teeth 4. sweeps the kitchen 5. fetches water 6. blows the fire 7. cooks breakfast 8. takes her bath 9. eats her breakfast I. An Overview of Editing However, Esther could choose to begin with any of these chores thus distorting the sequence in which she usually does them, thus: She 5. fetches water 2. uses the toilet 3, brushes her teeth 4. sweeps the kitchen 1. prays 8. takes her bath 6. blows the fire 7. cooks breakfast 9. eats her breakfast I. An Overview of Editing Now, you will notice a distortion of sequence of her normal daily chores. If a film editor is given the task of telling the story of Esther’s typical morning chores, he/she needs to re-arrange the chores as in the first order (1-9). I. An Overview of Editing It is possible that on the day the camera recorded the chores, she did not do them in a sequence thus the need for editing. I. An Overview of Editing Types of Editing There are two types of editing. One is linear editing which is essentially analogue and in other words takes a stiff form that is cumbersome to manipulate. The other is non-linear editing which essentially computer-enabled and flexible to manipulate. I. An Overview of Editing Some Principles of Editing Editing is where the real magic happens in filmmaking, and the quality of it can make or break your project. These five basic film editing principles may sound very simple. Still, once you’ve learned them, you’ll be astounded at how much difference they make towards making an edit look smooth, believable, and just far more professional. I. An Overview of Editing Film Editing Fundamentals 1. Avoid Jump Cuts: A jump cut is when there’s a visible cut between two pieces of footage, but the scene remains relatively the same. Sometimes, it appears as a slight jump in the video that is hardly even noticeable as a cut, because the underlying picture hasn’t changed. Unless you have a good reason for jump cutting, it’s best to be avoided altogether as it comes across as quite jarring. I. An Overview of Editing Film Editing Fundamentals 2. Use Relevant B-roll: B-roll is supplemental or alternative footage that’s intercut with your main shots. For example, if your subject is discussing a sport, and you have a moment where you can’t avoid a jump cut, you can insert a clip of them playing the sport. I. An Overview of Editing Film Editing Fundamentals 3. Cut on Motion One of the goals of editing is to make the viewing experience so engaging that the audience forgets they’re watching a film. It feels like they’re immersed in the world you’ve created. Badly cut edits jar the viewer out of that experience a bit and can create confusion. You’re looking to create flow. One way to do that is to cut on motion. If something happens on screen that involves a bit of motion, choose that point to make your cut. If you’re making a narrative film, typically, you’ll end up getting another shot from a different angle that can follow through on that same action. I. An Overview of Editing Film Editing Fundamentals 4. The 180o Rule: The 180° rule usually applies to scenes where there is a dialogue between two or more people. It does, however, require you to have shot your material properly in advance! If you had to look at your two subjects from above, draw a mental line between the two of them and choose one side of that line to film from. This will mean that in the classic over-the-shoulder look, you’ll be filing over the left shoulder of one subject, and the right shoulder of the other. When cutting back and forth between these two shots, your audience has an understanding of where they are looking in relation to the world around them. It helps to bring things together in the scene and create that connection between your two subjects in the minds of the viewers. If you break this rule, the result can be disorienting and confuse your audience. I. An Overview of Editing Film Editing Fundamentals 5. What’s your motivation: The fifth tip is more of a miscellaneous one, but one that’s worth thinking about in each edit. Ask yourself with each editing decision, “What’s my motivation for doing this?” Context will most often be the most important reason behind what you’re doing. Remember, your audience’s scope of view is limited to what you show them, and it’s up to you to find ways to engage their attention and make them feel the way you want them to feel in any given scene. I. An Overview of Editing Film Editing Fundamentals 6. Bonus: Left To Right, Right To Left : As a general rule, we tend to see things going from left to right as moving forwards, and from right to left as moving backward. This is psychological more than anything. If your subject is moving from left to right in your frame, your audience subconsciously perceives them as moving forward — whether that be in their life, their mission, or whatever’s going on. Filming them from right to left can give a powerful indication that they are regressing or going backward in the situation they find themselves in. This is subtle, yet it can make a big difference in an edit. Give it a try and see how it changes the feeling of things! You can also flip footage horizontally if you have it shot one way and want to use it the other way (as long as there are no indicators, such as text, that your footage was flipped). I. An Overview of Editing So, why edit? Editing aims at: 1. Removing unwanted parts – Portions of the film that are not relevant, are bad etc, are cut out and discarded. The director has an idea of what he/she wants the viewer to see and the editor helps him to achieve that. 2. Placing related shots in a sequence to develop a story 3. Adding sound and visual effects I. An Overview of Editing So, why edit? It is necessary to understand that shots relating to a given story can be taken in random order depending factors such as availability of location, convenience of schedules, weather and so on. For example, a camera operator mandated to take shots of Esther’s chores may not get them in the normal sequence. It may be that he came at a time she had completed some of the chores that day, so he has to return the next day to film the ones he missed on the first day or for other reasons! I. An Overview of Editing So, why edit? It will become necessary to arrange the shots in a way that the story will be told perfectly. The process of taking some portions of the shots to the front or back so that it will be well arranged is editing. The film editor thus previews available footages (materials) related to the given work to see the options available to him/her. In the process of preview, the editor checks for the quality of pictures and sound. II. Non-Linear Editing Non-linear editing is a form offline editing for audio, video and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by specialized software. II. Non-Linear Editing So what is the difference between Linear and Non- linear editing? Non-linear editing Linear editing Non-linear video editing is achieved by loading the video Linear video material into a computer from editing describes analogue or digital tape. This a process which method allows you to access any scenes are copied frame in a digital video from one video regardless of the sequence in tape to another the clip. The freedom to access using two tape any frame, and use a cut-and- VCRs, in the order required. paste method, similar to the The new tape is ease of cutting and pasting text thus created in a in a word processor and allows linear fashion. you to easily include fades, transition and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing.