What Is Editing?
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What Is Editing? The process by which the editor combines and coordinates individual shots into a cinematic whole through cutting A fundamental assumption behind all film editing is the tendency of viewers to interpret shots in relation to surrounding shots. Two General Aims of Editing 1) Generate emotions and ideas by constructing patterns of seeing and hearing 2) Move beyond the confines of individual perception and its temporal and spatial editing * Typically, the way we have become accustomed to this process is through continuity editing Continuity Editing: aka invisible editing Developed in Hollywood during the 1910s; pioneered by Edwin Porter, D.W. Griffith, and Cecil B. DeMille Designed to create the illusion of continuous narrative action within each scene to maintain the illusion of reality for the spectator Seeks to maintain continuity by appearing seamless and not calling attention to itself No one directly guided its development; it just worked Conventions of Continuity Editing Screen direction is consistent from shot to shot – e.g. 180 degree rule Graphic, spatial, and temporal relations are maintained from shot to shot 4 Continuity Editing On set and during post-production, several crew members work to ensure that editing is seemless and natural Director Script Supervisor Editor Sound Designer/Composer * Today, editing often begins in pre-production through the use of storyboard artists Contiguity – A ⇒ B ⇒ C Example: A character walks through a doorway Analytical – A ⇒ B ⇒ C Example: Cut to a close-up of an established object Intercutting – A + B = C Example: Rescue Sequence C C U U T T The Editor’s Responsibilities Spatial relationships between shots Temporal relationships between shots Acoustic relationships between shots (w/ sound editor) Overall rhythm of the film 9 Temporal Relationships Between Shots - Continuity Editing is used to manipulate the presentation of plot time onscreen Flashback Flash-forward Ellipsis Montage 10 Editing Techniques That Maintain Continuity Shot/reverse shot Match cuts Parallel editing Point-of-view editing 11 12 13 14 15 Match Cuts Match-on-action cut Graphic match cut Eye-line match cut 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Parallel Editing Parallel editing – two or more actions happening at the same time in different places Crosscutting – editing that cuts between two or more actions occurring at the same time, and usually in the same place Intercutting – editing of two or more actions taking place at the same time; but it creates the effect of a single scene rather than two distinct actions 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Other Transitions Between Cuts Jump cut Fade and dissolve Wipe Iris shot Freeze-frame split screen 31 Disjunctive/Discontinuity Editing: A + B = Z Confronts the viewer with juxtapositions and linkages that seem unexpected so as to: Call attention to the editing Disturb, disorient, or viscerally affect the viewer 1920s Soviet filmmakers learned that A cut can: 1) Serve a Narrative function 2) Elicit an Emotional response 3) Generate an Intellectual response This set of discoveries was named “montage” (French for the assemblage of parts into a machine) For Soviet directors, editors, and theorists, the word montage signified dynamic editing and the ways it could control a film’s structure, meaning, and effect . Of course the ultimate irony of the Soviet montage movement is that it was ultimately adopted by Hollywood filmmakers 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Please consider a simple analogy: D.W. Griffith is to Sergei Eisenstein as Adam Smith is to Karl Marx Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations (1776) Written during at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. The first modern work in economics (i.e. capitalism). The Wealth of Nations expounds that the free market, while appearing chaotic and unrestrained, is actually guided to produce the right amount and variety of goods by a so-called “invisible hand ”. Karl Marx – Das Kapital (1867) Best remembered for The Communist Manifesto (1848), Capital remains a foundational text for contemporary humanities and social sciences. A German living in England, Marx argued that the driving force of capitalism is the alienation of labor and exploitation of natural resources. Marx critiques Smith’s invisible hand, by explaining how money creates a gulf between producers and consumers. Money tends to make the exploitation of human labor and natural resources invisible because it leads us to care more about how much things cost than how they are made. So…. If Marx’s critique of capitalism centers on $, Then Eisenstein’s marxist critique of continuity editing centers on …. The Cut or the Frame (the space between individual shots where meaning is generated) Uses of Disjunctive Editing Dialectical Montage : Used for artistic or rhetorical purposes as in Battleship Potemkin, Man With a Movie Camera , Manhattan , or Requiem for a Dream Continuity Montage : Used to advance the timeline of a story through sustained ellipsis as in the “lonely scenes” in romantic comedy or training scenes in films like Team America or Rocky Associative Montage : advertising uses montage to connect products to pleasure, lifestyle, sex appeal, politics, etc..