Editing TechniquesPVC001

1. Editor’s Cut - (Assembly edit or rough cut)

1. Director’s Cut – a collaboration between director and editor, when the 1st cut moulded to fit the director’s vision. The fewer shots filmed the less options an editor has. A technique adopted by Hitchcock to retain control of his vision.

1. Final Cut – Production company/movie studio often want to have an input.Stages of

EditingThe Alan Smithee

The Kuleshov EffectThe Kuleshov EffectAn experiment carried out in 1929 to indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of film editing.

Kuleshov believed this, along with montage, had to be the basis of cinema as an independent art form.[

This is the ‘classic Hollywood’ style of editing

that ensures temporal and spatial continuity.

Emotional V Physical continuity – Emotional

continuity is always given priority over

technicalities, keeping the emotional rhythm of a

film.

Continuity Editing

1. Emotion – is it true to the emotion of the

moment? eg. Blink Theory.

2. Story – does the cut advance the story?

3. Rhythm – does the cut occur at a moment

that is rhythmically interesting and ‘right’?

Deciding where to cut

In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch

4. Eye-trace – does the cut respect the audiences

focus of interest within the frame?

5. Planarity (Two-dimensional plane of the screen)

--- does the cut respect the 180 degree rule?

6. Three dimensional plane of the screen – is the cut

true to the physical / spatial relationships within the

world of the story?

180 degree rule180 degree rule

Wipe

Film TransitionsFilm Transitions

Dissolve

L cut (split edit)

Fade in/out

A jump cut A jump cut Two sequential shots of the same subject taken from camera positions that vary only slightly, or by removing the middle of one continuous shot which create the effect of the subject jumping. Considered a violation of classic ‘invisible’ continuity editing.

Avoid this by using the 30 degree rule.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KUVwKp6MDI

A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) Jean-Luc Godard, 1960

An axial cut An axial cut A type of jump cut where the camera moves closer to, or further away from the subject (along an invisible line).

Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) Tom Tykwer, 1998

A match cut A match cut An object in the first shot is matched with an object of similar size and shape in the second shot. eg. The opening scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick,1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR49jU4Ika4

Fast cutting Fast cutting Can be used to imply energy or chaos.

Eg. Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky, 2000)

Cross-cuttingCross-cutting Used to establish action occurring at the same time in Used to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. A device often used to build two different locations. A device often used to build tension or mislead an audience.tension or mislead an audience.

Slow cutting Slow cutting Using shots of long duration.Using shots of long duration.

Fast paced editing in Fast paced editing in conversationconversation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWvdITcYhs

Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)

Match on action Match on action A cut which splices two different views of the same

action together making it seem to continue uninterrupted.

eg. Traffic (Soderbergh, 2000)

Overlapping editing Overlapping editing Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, expanding its viewing time. Eg. Mission Impossible 2 (John Woo, 2000).

Screen DirectionScreen Direction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bjA-4no1ZY

Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock, 1951)

MontageMontage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLEE2UL_N7Q

Odessa Steps: Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJcQgQHR78Q

The Cutting Edge – The Magic of Movie Editing