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RECALL the definitions of:
180 degree rule
Shot reverse shot
Match on action
Continuity editing
STARTER TASK

Unit 16
Film and Video Editing techniques
10 credits

PURPOSE OF UNIT
• Learners will develop an insight into the
‘language’ of editing and the technical
conventions used by editors to communicate to
the audience.
• You will also demonstrate your ability to prepare
and edit moving image material.

How will I be assessed?
• You will have a workbook which will be used to collate
notes about the topic area.
• Within this you will analyse films and identify example
to exemplify your points. I will provide many example
but you will be encouraged to include your own!
• Notes will be kept on your blog in various formats such
as Word documents, Powerpoints and Popplet etc.
• Your final assignment will be released to you on 16th
October (tbc). Once the assignment has been issued I
CANNOT give you guided support so it is important
that you ask as many questions as possible NOW!

Presentation of work: Blog
• Your blog must be presented in an orderly
fashion.
• Any sources which you use MUST be kept in your
annotated bibliography.
• See tutor blog for example

Aims of the lesson – Thursday 17th
September 2015
• To introduce the development of editing.
• To introduce and recall editing conventions and
techniques.

Time – Pair - Share
• Define what is meant by the
term ‘EDITING’ and why do
you think it is important in
film?
• You have 30 seconds to
think, 60 seconds to share
and come up with a joint

What is ‘editing’
• Film editing is part of the creative post-
production process of filmmaking. The term
film editing is derived from the traditional
process of working with film, but now
increasingly involves the use of digital
technology.

What is editing?
• The film editor works with the raw footage, selecting shot and
combining them into sequences to create a finished motion
picture.
• Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is
unique to cinema.
• Film editing is often referred to as the "invisible art“because
when it is well-practiced, the viewer can become so engaged
that he or she is not even aware of the editor's work.
• The film editor must creatively work with the layers of images,
story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors'
performances to effectively "re-imagine" the story.

Back to basic – use the right
terminology!
• Section 3: Conventions and Techniques
• You must have an excellent understanding of editing
techniques used in film.
• Your first task will be to create a glossary.

Paired Research – 5 minutes
• Each pair is to be given a key
term.
• Your job is to research the
definition of this technique
and consider the purpose of
this convention of editing.
• You could also come up with
some examples of this.

Whole Class Share
Present your findings

Individual Task
• In the ‘Unit 16’ work booklet add your definitions
to SECTION 3 Glossary.
• Complete the definitions of the other key terms
created by the rest of the class. Ask your new
‘experts’ if you are still unsure.
• Grade booster: You could think of examples of
films and other media which demonstrate this
technique.

Aims
• To further develop key definitions of editing
conventions.

Seamless – links with CONTINUITY
• Continuity is a film term that suggests that a series of
shots should be physically continuous, as if the camera
simply changed angles in the course of a single event.
• By adopting this technique the action appears
‘seamless’ and the audience may not even be aware of
the edits which have taken place.
• EXAMPLE:
– If in one shot a beer glass is empty, it should not be full in
the next shot.
– Live coverage of a sporting event would be an example of
footage that is very continuous.

Continuity Editing
• What became known as the popular 'classical
Hollywood' style of editing was developed by early
European and American directors, in particular D.W.
Griffith in his films such as The Birth of a
Nation and Intolerance.
• Birth of a Nation (1914) pioneered long shots,
panning, and carefully staged battle sequence.
• The classical style ensures temporal (time) and spatial
continuity as a way of advancing narrative, using such
techniques as the 180 degree rule, Establishing shot,
and Shot reverse shot.

Eye Trace
• Mad Max
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wCrdINi
dls
• Maintains spatial continuity and helps
orientate the viewer.

Spatial and Temporal Continuity
• To ensure the viewer understands the ‘time
and space’ of the film narrative, numerous
techniques are employed by the film editor
such as:
• Establishing shot
• 180 degree rule
• Eyeline Match

Temporal [TIME] relationships
• Techniques which help reinforce temporal
relationships are:
– Match on action
– Parallel editing (also known as cross cutting)
– Continuity editing

Editing and Graphic Relationships
[PICTURE]:
– This is when the editor matches the edits to the
particular shot/scene.
– This is very important as the edits, such as colour tone,
vastly effect how we portray what we see on screen.
– For example, a warm/happy toned scene of an old man
and a boy on a bench would be considered heart
warming and sweet, as we’d assume it’s the grandfather
out with the grandson. Where as if it had a cold and
darker tone we’d likely assume that what we were seeing
was of bad nature, such as the old man planning
something more sinister.

Motivated Edit
• A motivated edit or motivated cut as it is also known, is when the
scene cuts to another scene or object that was not in the previous
frame. This is done in a discreet manner so as not to come off as
jarring to the audience or break the illusion of continuity. Motivated
edits are usually justified by narrative means such as in Flashbacks, to
create a sense of tension and reverse shots.
• This kind of editing is used in horror films, you see a shot of a woman or
man walking through the forest in the night a, and then the next thing
you hear a crack of a wood, suggesting that there is something in the
woods and then it cuts to the place where the sound is.
• Here's a clip from “Scream”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3lSvJ5RXKA 0.52-1.02minutes
• Hitchcock ‘Birds’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplpQt424Ls we
are anticipating the birds attacking the school children.

Motivated Edit
• The shot outside of the house emphasise how
the subject is alone (conventions of horror)
and also is a pre cursor to the murder about to
happen outside.
• Also see ‘The Shining’
• ***INSERT SCREEN SHOTS***

Montage
• Technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are
edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information.
• The word montage came to identify . . . specifically the rapid,
shock cutting that Eisenstein employed in his films.
• Typically nowadays a Hollywood montage refers to piecing
together fragments of different yet related images,
sounds/music, often in the style of a music video.
• The following sequence, from Pretty Woman (1991), is an
example of the Hollywood style montage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Suo8Gshk4
• Examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXFSBlQOe4
• Dirty Dancing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sYKI4A3uhc
[shows the passage of time, set to music, further develops the
narrative]

Purpose of montage?
• Shots juxtaposed in an often fast paced fashion to
condense time and share a lot of information.
• Montages INFORM the audience. Can give a
cinematic feel when sharing information.

Montage examples
• Holiday Inn (1942) show the two basic montage styles. The focus of the movie is an inn that presents
elaborate nightclub shows only on the holidays. The film was in production when the United States
entered World War II.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPtwa1pmJVA
• The first montage occurs during the Independence Day show, as Bing Crosby sings "Song of Freedom".
The 50 second montage combines several single screen sequences of workers in an aircraft factory and
various military units in motion (troops marching, planes flying, tanks driving) with multiple split screens,
with up to six images in one shot. The penultimate shot shows a centre screen head shot of General
Douglas MacArthur in a large star with military images in the four corners.
• The second montage occurs near the end of the film, showing the passage of time. Unlike the clarity of
the "Song of Freedom" montage, this one layers multiple images in an indistinct and dream-like fashion.
In the film, the character played by Fred Astaire has taken Crosby's partner, Marjorie Reynolds, to star in
a motion picture based on the idea of the inn. The 60 second montage covers the time from
Independence Day to Thanksgiving. It opens with a split screen showing three shots of Hollywood
buildings and a zoom title, Hollywood. Then comes a zoom into a camera lens where Astaire and
Reynolds are seen dancing to a medley of tunes already introduced in the film. The rest of the sequence
continues to show them dancing, with multiple images of motion picture cameras, cameramen, a
director, musical instruments, single musical notes, sheet music and dancers' legs circle around them.
Several times six images of themselves also circle the dancers. Only the opening shot uses a clearly
defined split screen and only the second shot is a single shot.

Montage examples
• Both of these styles of montage have fallen out of
favour in the last 50 years. Today's montages avoid the
use of multiple images in one shot, either through
splits screens as in the first example or layering
multiple images as in the second.
• Most recent examples use a simpler sequence of
individual short, rapidly paced shots combined with a
specially created background song to enhance the
mood or reinforce the message being conveyed.

Jump Cutting
• A Jump-Cut is an example of the elliptical style of
editing where one shot seems to be abruptly
interrupted.
• Typically the background will change while the
individuals stay the same, or vice versa.
• Used to show disorientation or state of mind of a
character.
• See example!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2GPBBxFpE
w

Parallel Editing – also known as cross
cutting
• Parallel editing is a technique used to portray multiple lines
of action, occurring in different places, simultaneously.
• In most but not all cases of this technique, these lines of
action are occurring at the same time.
• These different sequences of events are shown
simultaneously because there is usually some type of
connection between them.
• This connection is either understood by the audience
throughout the sequence, or will be revealed later on in the
movie.
• Example, Inception
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmptU7vEkNU

Splicing
• The cutting and then joining of two bits of film.
• This relates to the old fashioned way of editing by cutting
and joining the film.

Transitions
• Cut
• Dissolve
• Fade
• Wipe
• A transition can be used to suit the mood of
the film narrative.

Cutaways
• Cutaway shot is the interruption of a continuously
filmed action by inserting a view of something else.
• The most common use of cutaway shots in dramatic
films is to adjust the pace of the main action, to
conceal the deletion of some unwanted part of the
main shot, or to allow the joining of parts of two
versions of that shot.
• Example ‘Psycho’ [Hitchock 1960]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4

Point of view
• A camera shot which shows the view point
from a particular subject.

Shot-Reverse-Shot
• Where one character is shown looking at another
character (often off-screen), and then the other
character is shown looking back at the first
character. Since the characters are shown facing
in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that
they are looking at each other

Providing and withholding information
• This technique makes the narrative more dramatic by giving
the audience more information or taking away information.
• Providing and withholding information is a big part of cinema
because as a viewer we don't want to be told the plot from
the beginning (ENIGMA) and this is why dramatic questions
are very important in film making.
• The editor decides what information the audience needs to
make sense of the plot but they will also withhold
information to hook the audience and engage them.
• You need to teases the audience and make them want more.

Editing Rhythm
• Pace of the edit
• Long Takes (examples):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLFHdagIw6o
– Long takes are simply shots that extend for a long period
of time before cutting to the next shot. Generally, any take
greater than a minute in length is considered a long take.
Usually done with a moving camera, long takes are often
used to build suspense or capture the attention of
audience of without breaking their concentration by
cutting the film.
• Quick cuts
– Used to heighten drama and speed

Long Takes – Hitchcock
• Rope (1948) Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hukbuy36QRU
• Famously known as the ‘master of suspense’.
• Hitchcock shot for periods lasting up to 10 minutes (the length of a film
camera magazine), continuously panning from actor to actor.
• Every other segment ends by panning against or tracking into an
object—a man's jacket blocking the entire screen, or the back of a piece
of furniture, for example. In this way, Hitchcock effectively masked half
the cuts in the film.
• However, at the end of 20 minutes (two magazines of film make one
reel of film on the projector in the movie theatre), the projectionist—
when the film was shown in theatres—had to change reels.
• On these changeovers, Hitchcock cuts to a new camera setup,
deliberately not disguising the cut.

Cutting to sound track
• Seen primarily in music videos.
• Can also be seen in film if cutting to a music al score or
soundtrack.
• ‘Thought Beats’

In Camera Editing
• Is a technique where the cinematographer shoots
the sequences in a strict order.
• This requires lots of planning but even though
this is time consuming, there is no editing after
the shoot and no need to reorder the scenes.
• However the need to do this is eliminated with
the rise of digital film production.
• Hitchcock [Rope]
• Jean-Luc Godard [Breathless]

Why must you know these?
• When discussing film you need the correct
language.
• This will help you when analysing film
examples.

Individual Activity – To be completed
by Tuesday 22nd September 2015
• Create your own detailed visual glossary.
• Give the definition of the editing technique then offer an example
of where you have seen this technique used. Embed the video and
also use screen grabs if necessary.
• You must also think about the purpose of this edit and why it was
used.
• PRESENT: Complete table in Section 3 of your Unit 16 workbook.
• Once complete upload the TABLE ONLY to Slideshare and embed
onto blog. The post should be titled ‘Conventions of Editing’
• You must also embed the film clips you have discussed as reference.
Take screen grabs of specific techniques.

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