Shot reverse shot (or shot/ counter 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.

Shot / reverse shot

Eye line match

The eye line match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which she is looking at. For example, this girl is looking off-screen, and then the film cuts to a portrait she is looking at,

Graphic match

A graphic match is making a cut where your viewers center of focus is on the previous shot. You want the focus of the next shot to be in a similar place. This will make a smooth transition from one shot to the next. The photographs have to be a similar size/shape.

Action match

Matching the action (movement or motion) of characters or objects in one shot to the action in the next shot where the action continues or completes.

Jump cut

A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two similar shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly.

Crosscutting/Parallel Editing

Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action.

Cutaway; Insert

A cutaway shot is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else. It is usually, followed by a cut back to the first shot, when the cutaway avoids a jump cut. The cutaway shot does not necessarily contribute any dramatic content of its own, but is used to help the editor assemble a longer sequence.

Dissolve

a dissolve is a gradual transition from one image to another. A first image gradually dissolves or fades out and is replaced by another image which fades in over it. They are usually used in film to connote the passage of time and change of mood.

Other transitions&pacing

Fade in and fade out

A Fade In shot is where a new shot starts as black and gradually appears. A Fade Out is where a shot gradually gets darker until it disappearsThey are usually used at the beginning or end of a scene/TV drama or used to show the begin or end of day in a film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z46S-Ov0_5Q

• An optical effect in which an image appears to "wipe-off" or push aside the preceeding image. Very commonly seen in the 1930’s and are used in films/Tv drama's to show change of location or time.

Wipe

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

Post-production visual effects

Post production is a term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work. Therefore visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shot using computer generated imagery .

Ellipsis and expansion of time

An ellipsis is the main editing feature to cut out things the audiences doesn’t need to see and to shorten a plot's duration in a film.

Expansion of time is when you expand time in a video, you are making the duration of the video sequence longer than real-time. This is used to add impact, additional information, or to help the viewer process information that would be too fast in real-time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrlPmK4B94

Long/short takeLong Takes: takes of an unusually long length, i.e. more than a few seconds. This is commonly used for dramatic and narrative effect in films.

•Short Takes: takes that only last for a few seconds. These are used usually at a faster pace for a action or dramatic takes to build tension and excite the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmmXGbFASC0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmmXGbFASC0

Slow/fast motionSlow motion is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down as the video being played back is more slowly than it was made or recorded.

Fast motion Films action that appears to have occurred at a faster speed than that at which it was filmed. Commonly used in action movies to get the audience excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71nURVXXeaM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ3BLcBz9Ls

The exposure of more than one image on the same film strip. Two distinct images appearing simultaneously with one superimposed upon the other.

Superimposition