Film & Visual Editing

“What is film editing and how can I write about it

effectively?”

Early Film Editing• The first films (Lumiere Brothers)

were simply static shots of ‘motion’ or action. Such as workers leaving a factory.

• Melies and other early pioneers

around 1900s discovered that:

• They do not need to show a person from head to toe. You can show him/her from the waist up, or just his/her face.

• They could show, for example, a character in front of a building. Then cut to a shot inside a building, and the audience will believe this is the same building.

They could show, for example, a character getting dressed. Then cut to a shot of him/her at work, and the audience will believe both scenes take place in the same day.

Edwin Porter• How did porter make the audience

engaged with the story in Life Of An American Fireman? (1903)

Kuleshov Experiment & Kuleshov Effect

1: Kuleshov Effect 1929

2: Kuleshov Effect (1964)

3: Kuleshov Effect (2012)“A short film in which a shot of the expressionless face of Tsarist matinee idol Ivan Mosjoukine was alternated with various other shots (a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, a woman on a divan). The film was shown to an audience who believed that the expression on Mosjoukine's face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was "looking at" the plate of soup, the girl in the coffin, or the woman on the divan, showing an expression of hunger, grief or desire, respectively. The footage of Mosjoukine was actually the same shot each time”

Hitchcock & The Kuleshov Effect

“In the first version of the example, Hitchcock is squinting, and the audience sees footage of a woman with a baby. The screen then returns to Hitchcock's face, now smiling. In effect, he is a kind old man. In the second example, the woman and baby are replaced with a woman in a bikini, to which Hitchcock exclaims, "Now look, he has become the dirty old man."

What does the Kuleshov effect tell us about editing?

DW Griffith & Classical Film Editing

• How did Griffith establish the ‘Basic grammar of film?’

This idea, that we can make film a specific way, altering a story, or leaving ‘gaps’ in a film’s

narrative, and that the audience will ‘fill’ in the blanks, and the film will make sense is known as

Continuity Editing.

(Sometimes known as Classical or Hollywood Editing )

It’s essential when you need to construct a 90-120 minute film out of hundreds or thousands of hours of footage taken in different places, over different times, often of events supposedly happening after

one another.

Other schools of editing.• Soviet Montage: (Example)

• Surrealist: (Example)

• French New Wave: (Example)

Film Editing• Part of the post-production process.

• A film editor has many different roles, but they primarily have control over:

• Transitions• Matches/Continuity• Duration & Rhythm

Continuity & Match• 180 Degree Rule: (Example)

• Match on Action: (Example:)

• Eyeline Match: (Example)

Transitions• Which shot follows which shot. • What order shots are placed in. • How each shot follows each shot.

The term for a shot ‘transitioning’ to another shot, is a cut.

(From when shots had to literally be cut together from different roles of film, using razorblades and sticky tape)

Some Common Cuts & Transitions

Shot Transition or Cut DefinitionStraight Cut Single cut from one shot to

another shotJump Cut When the camera remains in the

same position, and cuts to a shot of the same subject at a different time

Smash Cut An abrupt or sudden cut, coming at an unexpected time designed to shock the auidence.

Match Cut Cut to two different shots that are visually or compositionally similar

Dissolve One shot slowly turning into another shot

Fade When a shot slowly changes to a specific colour (usually Black or White)

Wipe Transitioning to another shot along a line or a circle

Duration & RhythmEditing Element DefinitionLong TakeSlow CuttingFast CuttingSlow MotionRhythm (Music)