The Exploration of Editing...

"Film art begin from the moment when the director begins to combine and join together the various pieces of film" (Lev Kuleshov 1921)

Why do we edit a film? What is a film made of? How has editing changed throughout history? What are the different areas involved in editing? What is continuity editing? - Many questions which I hope to give an answer to in this blog post (well that's the theory!).

Well firstly the editing of film, enables a film maker to take liberties with space-time continuum. If we conducted a real life theatre production we can only conduct it in real time and real space. However editing allowes us to both protract and contract real time and make spatial leaps. Even though it is an illusion it gives a sense of empowerment to the viewer.
Films are made up of hundred of fragments/shots, which involve images that are constantly cut and instantaneously changing. Two reasons why this is not disorientating and confusing is because of the rule of continuity editing and the cine-literacy of viewers.
The earliest films did not actually involve editing. An early film would consist of one shot, they would set up the camera in one position and the action would take place in one continuous take. Therefore earlier films were similar to filming a stand up comedian or a theatre performance. However once it became possible to create a long film by editing shots together, the artistic and narrative possibilities for film expanded enormously.

Within editing there are a number of different areas which are focused on:
Editing Style:
+ This looks at how each shot has been joined to a next
+ Some examples which it could be is a straight cut, fade, dissolve, wipe and iris
Editing and Space:
+ This allowes a film-maker to between one location and another
+ This can include cross-cutting, which is the technique of cutting between two sequences that occur at the same time but in different locations
Editing and Time:
+ This allowes a film-maker have the option of choosing the order in which the viewer sees the events
+ Most film narratives are linear, this means they move through time chronologically with the only exception being the use of flashbacks
+ Films don't happen according to real time usually and in a two hour film the story has to convey days, weeks, months and years
+ This means that large chunks of time can be skipped so the narrative can move on, however signals are given to the audience to show that this is happening, for example through captions, voice-overs, wipes, fade to black, cross-fade and dissolving
Matching:
+ This is where a relationship between shots can be established
+ They can be matched according to action, subject or subject matter
+ By match cutting the film-maker ensures that there is a spatial-visual logic between differently positioned shots within a scene
Graphic Matching:
+ This is the smooth visual transfer from one shot to the next (Example = 'Schindlers List' (1993) which is a film based on the Holocaust. The film opens with a shot of a modern day Jewish celebration, and as the ceremonial candles burn out the smoke dissolves into the smoke taking Jews to a concentration camp, highlighting the audience the start of the Holocaust)
Compilation Shot:
+ This describes a series of shots spliced together in order to give a quick impression of the place (example = 'The Breakfast Club' (1985) which uses a compilation sequence of shots in order to establish the school to the audience)
Montage:
+ This is a rapid succession of shots juxtaposing images so that the overall effect is greater than the individual parts (example = the training montage from 'Rocky')
Editing and Sound:
+ One way in which a film-maker can minimise the fragmentary nature of a film is to use sound in order to provide continuity from one shot to the next
+ The images may frequently change however can be connected by a musical score which has the effect of knitting the shots together into a scene or sequence
+ There is two types of sound -
Digentic Sound = sound which the characters can hear or make (example = a radio or dialogue) and therefore react to the sound
Non-Digentic Sound = sound which only the audience can hear (example = soundtrack or voice overs)

To find out more about these areas of Editing I have created a Media Glossary which goes into more detail on elements such as movement, sound and angles so keep flicking through my blog and you shall learn even more in order to become a pro at editing!

Continuity Editing

Continuity editing is designed to help make the film fragments of a film knit together invisible and coherently so that the viewer understands the action and is not disrupted by the changes from one shot to the next. Within continuity editing there are a number of elements:
180 Degree Rule:
+ 'The axis of action' is a term to describe the imaginary straight line drawn between protagonists in a scene, therefore the positioning of the camera is planned around this line
+ The purpose of this rule is to ensure spatial continuity is order to make sure the viewer understands the overall space in which the action takes place and to maintain consistency of screen direction
+ The basic rule for film-makers is to place the mise-en-scene around this line and make sure the position of the camera never crosses the line, if the camera does cross the line the effect will be disorientation and not only will the background change but also the screen direction will be reversed
The Establishing Shot:
+ In a continuity system the scene will start with an establishing shot
+ This is a long shot which shows the overall space in which the scene is to take place (example = 'Friends' for a scene set in Monica and Rachel's flat the scene would start with an establishing shot of the whole block of flats)
Shot/Reverse Shot:
+ Conversations between characters is usually presented by using a shot/reverse shot or sometimes known as an over-the-shoulder shot, it means that the shoulder of one characters is often within the frame when filming the other character
Eye-Line Matching:
+ This is where the first shot shows a character looking off screen at something/someone and the second shot shows the object/character being looked at from the first characters point of view
+ This shot ensures that even if characters are not in the frame together we are sure of their whereabouts
Matching On Action:
+ The first shot might see a character start to walk across a room, the second shot would then seen the character arrive at the other side of the room. The middle part has been cut out but continuity is maintained as the action is consistent
Re-Establishing Shot:
+ Once a scene has progressed for a while with shot/reverse shot showing the characters in close-up, a re-establishing shot (the return to the long establishing shot) is shown of the overall space. This is to re-orientate the audience into the scene.