Film & TV
editing techniques
In this blog I will give an overview of film and TV editing and the history of editing, as well as different techniques used for different media texts.Film & TV editing is part of post-production, this
involves taking the raw footage captured within a camera and rearranging the
shots to tell a story and to show motion. Editing now involves the use of
digital technology, while earlier the actual film reel had to be physically cut
up and taped in order, then thread through a viewer this was very time
consuming. Even earlier than this, films were not edited and instead had to be
shot in sequence and played in order. With the introduction of digital
technology the film editor can see what they are editing on a computer screen,
making it easier to get the desired look, this still involves using raw footage
from a camera, but instead of cutting up the actual film, footage is captured
on a computer, meaning if mistakes are made they can easily be fixed as the
footage is not a physical object it is instead just a piece of information on a
computer. The use of a computer to store footage also allows for recording
devices to be used again, for example if a tape is filmed on, the footage can
be transferred to a computer and then the tape can be filmed on again, whereas
in the past once a reel of film was filmed on it could not be used again.
Early Films
Early Films
Editing has been called “the invisible art” because if it is
done skillfully, the viewer doesn’t notice the editor’s work. The story, the
visual effects or the mood carry the audience and even when viewed by skilled
filmmakers, the story and mood can overwhelm the viewers’ ability to see the
editing. Early films by Edison (whose company invented a motion camera and
projector) and others were short films that were one long, static, locked-down
shot. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse an audience, so
the first films simply showed activities such as traffic moving on a city
street. There was no story and no editing. Each film ran as long as there was
film in the camera. The first narrative film was made in 1888, called Roundhay
Garden Scene and was directed by Louis Le Prince, it lasted 2.11 seconds and
contained people walking through a garden, it was shot at 12 frames per second
compared to the normal 24 frames per second video is shot at now, frames per
second means how many photos the camera takes in a second to give the illusion
of motion. Roundhay Garden Scene is the oldest surviving film in history.
The process of film editing does not always just include
editing video; it can also contain the input of visual effects, music editing
and sound effects, on lower budget projects all these jobs tend to be done by
one person, but on higher budget projects there would be an editor for each
role e.g. music editor, visual effects or sound effects.
Music Videos
The different forms of media e.g. music videos, film and TV all have different styles of editing, music videos for example are edited to the pace of the music, this means that cuts are made more often than film and TV which tend to be cut depending on the emotion of the film, music videos tend to cut every 1-3 seconds, sometimes multiple cuts are made in a single second. Music videos are used to tell the story of the song, for example “hero of war” by Rise Against is a song about the war and how the army makes it sound like a good deal and tries to glorify it when it can really destroy people, the video for this is cut much slower than most other music videos, with cuts appearing at the 3-5 second mark instead of every second, this could be due to the pace of the song, it is an acoustic slow song, and the video’s pacing matches the song, the editing in this music video is used to project the emotion of the song to the viewer of the video, the video contains lots of action and long shots of close ups of people’s faces, this is to show their emotion, many music videos rely heavily on visual effects, this music video is an example of the inclusion of visual effects as there are guns being fired.
Films editing style depends on the genre and pace of the film, in moments of panic the cuts will occur more often, and when showing a characters emotion the shots will occur less often, this can be seen in the chest burster scene in “Alien”, the cuts begin slowly but as the panic of the characters rises so does the occurrence of cuts, this makes the audience feel the panic the characters are feeling and allows the audience to feel more involved in the story.
Tv editing
The Walking Dead TV Series’ editing technique is very similar to that of film, it uses quick cuts to match the pace of the scene and slow cuts to transfer a characters emotion, I believe that this editing technique was used to make every episode feel like a big budget movie, the program also uses lots of helicopter and jib shots, a jib shot is where a camera was put on the end of a jib which is essentially a big pole with a fulcrum in the middle, allowing for long rising shots, these shots also make the episodes feel like a movie. The Walking Dead also relies heavily on sound, through research I found that the gun shots are actually fired at the same time as the actors imitate gun fire, this is done by someone off screen and allows for more realism as the noise will then match the environment and will allow for less sound editing to be required, but sound editing is still used very much to bring the zombies to life (ironically), the use of zombie groans and bones breaking is done in post through sound editing, showing that visual editing isn’t the only important for of editing.
Types of editing
There are many different versions of editing, seamless editing, continuity editing etc, seamless editing is when the cuts are made in a way that is not noticeable to the audience, this is also thought of as an invisible cut, it doesn't drag the viewer away from the action, very much the same as seamless editing is continuity editing, this is when you smooth out the cut between shots to create logical coherence between shots, this is done through consistency between shots, for example if someone is drinking at the end of a shot they should be drinking at the start of the next, giving realism. Montage editing is when a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. These types of cuts are used to show the passage of time, possibly showing someone getting ready to go to work. The most famous montage editing is that of the training sequence in the 1976 Rocky movie, showing the passage of several weeks in a few minutes, this has now became a cliche and has been mocked in South Park.
180 degree rule
The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline in film making that shows the spatial relationship of a character and another character or an object, the 180 degree rule is important especially in dialogue scenes as if the camera "crosses the line" disorientation will occur, "crossing the line" is if the camera crosses the axis which can be seen in the picture to the right. Examples of "crossing the line" to create disorientation can be found in "The Shining", in the bathroom scene, the director Stanley Kubrick was known for breaking the 180 degree rule in his movies. 