PRINCIPLES OF EDITING

Creating meaning through collage, tempo and timing

JOINING IMAGES

• When editing, it forms a collage. This is a variety of different pictures put together to create meaning or even to create a message. Hitchcock is a very well known person for collage, here is an example:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0WTK8geVkc

TEMPO

Shot Length – the most obvious way editors create Tempo is by controlling the length of

shot• Long shots slow down the pace of a scene

while short takes quicken the pace and intensity

• Long shots for romantic scenes, quick shots for action

• EXAMPE OF A LONG SHOT FOR A ROMANTIC SCENE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vThuwa5RZU • EXAMPLE OF QUICK SHOTS FOR ACTION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yBnl_krN_U

CONTINUED• Studies have suggested that shots are gaining pace

compared to The Golden age of Hollywood• The average shot length was 5.15 seconds it is now

4.75 seconds• The change of length can be seen when you compare

Casablanca to the remake of Sherlock Holmes• This is due to the fact that films are now

electronically cut . • This is an example of non electronically cutting: in this clip you can see it cuts every 8 seconds

however the other clip of terminator cuts averagely every 4 seconds. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhl0S0_KsQM • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnkcW-relzo

PROBLEMS• It takes the average person 3 seconds to adjust to a shot

change. Brandt has argued “…..if the audience takes 3 seconds to adjust to a new scene, what happens

when the average shot length is so short that the audience is never given a chance to catch up”

• We rely, even just expect rapid editing in recent films. This kind of explains why younger audience are not receptive to older films; they seem slow paced, compared to modern day films, underneath is a clip from love actually a modern day film and a Casablanca scene, you can see how slow this clip is compared to love actually.

• Casablanca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Kw2YzqocE&feature=fvwrel• Love Actually: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBmr86X3zMs

CONTINUED

• These shot transitions convey a passage of time, but they also affect the pacing of a scene

• Cuts speed up the pace of the action and show instant change.

• Even a scene with long takes, a cut often suggests sudden change in mood or character dynamic.

FADES

• Fades effect the pace of the film as they literally pause the action.

• They rarely occur in films but when they do it is to introduce memory or fantasy

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rANln-PpwxA

TIMING OF A SHOT

• The third editing technique is timing of shots• Cut away to emphasis a persons reaction or

response for example• Cut away to a newspaper on the table when

presented in narrative• Cutting from a two shot to a close up for reaction

or a close up to a long shot for landscape effect• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPd5uSRDrZk: (7.30-8.01) in this clip you can see it’s a

romantic scene, but with just changing the shot to her facial expressions it emphasizes the

reaction.

Story- centered Editing and the construction of meaning

Editing and Timing

• Narrative sequencing• Telling the story as it happens in Linear editing• This is the most common• ‘Medias res’ is the term used when narrative is

jumbled up • Linear editing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iz62Hf0bnA example from desperate housewives the

story goes forward not back. • Medias res: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqeqaweXBV0 this is the film trailer for Benjamin Button,

its where he starts old and gets younger.

Condensing / expanding time

• Collages condense time• Spiderman uses ‘condensed editing 'when

thinking of a costume – speeds up hours, days or years in the characters lives

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeN8bCivssU

• Expanding – overlapping shots of a single action example: Someone pressing a door bell shot from

3 angles and shown after each other to portray time but also nerves in the person pressing it

Arranging the order of events• Media Res• This is where events take place in the present and are interrupted by

images that have taken place in the past. These are called flashbacks.• One of the earliest examples is a single shot of a mother rocking a cradle,

repeated many times representing the passing of generations, in his film Intolerance (1916) .

• Rare occasions there are flash-forward's• By their nature ‘flash forwards’ can be confusing as they can only be

understood once the event has occurred on scene.• The series finale of Star Trek: Voyager, "Endgame", used a flash forward

at the start to depict one possible future if the U.S.S. Voyager had returned to Earth the long way, but then an elderly Admiral Janeway decides to go back in time with new technology to get her crew home sooner

TIME AND SPACEEditing draws the viewers attention to the detail

• Close up makes the viewers feel chlostraphobic or close to the character where as establishing shots creating awareness of space and location and set up the scene.

• EstablishingThelma and Louise opening sequence: http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D9mDHPY0RA

• Close up example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KtVKu9CfDA

SHOT REVERSE SHOT

• Shot reverse shot is a film technique 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

• Rule of thumb is: the actors will never speak directly to the viewer as this destroys the illusion of a naturally unfolding story

• Cameras are normally slightly angles to the side rather than using point of view shots

• Example of shot reverse shot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLkUHZ1qips

EYE LINE MATCH• An eye line match is a film editing techniques. It is based on the

premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eye line match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking. For example, a man is looking off-screen to his left, and then the film cuts to a television that he is watching.

• Example: Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, for example, makes frequent use of eye line matches. The main character, who is played by James Stewart, is confined to his apartment and often looks out its rear window at events in the buildings across from him. Hitchcock frequently cuts from Stewart looking off-screen to the focus of his gaze.

CREATING MEANING OUTSIDE THE STORY• Continuity: If you are filming over a set amount of time

you have to make sure the characters are wearing the same time, the weather is the same and so on so this shows continuity.

• 180 degree rule: it means that two characters should always have the same left and right relationship to each other. When the camera crosses the “axis” connecting to the two subjects it is called crossing the line.

• Soviet Montage: is political propaganda