Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

Definition of Editing:

‘The process of preparing a film or a radio or television programme by selecting, rearranging, or rejecting previously filmed or taped material’

The History of Editing

Editing, alongside most things over time has evolved and changed mainly due to technological advances which has allowed a film to become easier to edit and not to mention considered more of an importance in the production process then in it did in the pre 1900s.

Before editing films with a narrative were a strictly linear structure, other ‘films’ focused on filming a certain location so audiences could allow themselves to become immersed in this displayed reality.

Features which are most popular today such as flashbacks, scene changes and narrated sequences; all things that had originally existed in novels, live theatre and visual culture from the medieval era to late nineteenth-century comic trips; were not introduced to films as filmmakers believed cutting different positioned shots together would become confusing for an audience member.

Filmmakers soon discovered that editing a sequence of film proposed greater benefits for telling a more complex story and allowing audiences to have a clearer sense of narrative structure. ‘The Great Train Robbery’ (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) was among the first primitive instances of editing in a film.

Cuttings in films were first introduced when filming a scene, a cameraman would stop the camera move position or actor and simply begin recording again, the early stages of editing we know now where beginning to form. Obviously this new technique allowed Georges Méliès to experiment by puffing smoke over an actor being filmed, stopping the film and being rolling again

once the actor is out of sight, making it seem that the actor has magically disappeared, the first wave of special effects in films.

Some filmmakers saw montage and heavy editing as a manipulation of reality and attempted to avoid using cuts. Well known comedic actors such as Charlie Chaplin used the lack of editing through longer takes, to demonstrate that the stunts they were performing were real and not a use of any special effects.

During the 1930s, films such as ‘Grand Illusion’ (La Grand Illusion, Jean Renoir France, 1937) focused on longer shot duration with less emphasis on editing, this being a style of Italian neorealism and part of the New Wave in cinema as sound way first introduced in American films.

Today (1990-2016) editing has since become easier and cheaper for filmmakers through the rise of nonlinear digital editing. The task of having to cut up and replace

Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

together parts of a film tape have been replaced with advance graphic programs which allow things such as cutting or special effects to be done much more efficiently.

Figures in Editing History

Edwin S. Porter (1870-1941) demonstrated in this film ‘Life of an American Fireman’ (1903) that the way in which you film a narrative could generate its own laws of time and space. The film presents a fireman rescuing a women from a burning building; seen first by a shot inside the building, before the camera films from outside the building, then back inside again.

‘The Great Train Robbery’ (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) showed the first use of parallel editing (two lines of a narrative action happening during the same time) in a film, whilst switching back and forth between following a band of western outlaws as they rob a train and the rescue of a telegraph operator which the train robbers had tied up before the heist. Many filmmakers today considered this style of editing as a gamble being the first of its kind.

Other directors such as D.W. Griffith (1875-1948) explored different devices in editing different to Edwin as they tried to keep cutting smooth within the same scene, for example cutting from a full figure shot up into a close up to engage audiences with the tension Griffith wanted to create. This particular director became famous from building tension from two opposing narrative stories, eventually coming to a linking point, an example in in his film ‘The Girl and Her Trust’ (1912) where Griffith cuts between a pair of robbers and he ‘hero’ who is trying to catch them. This cross-cutting became a popular necessity of post films, such as ‘Intolerance’ (1916) by Steven Spielberg (1946- ) which exaggerated this technique into showing four stories with different time periods.

The political Soviet filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein (1898-1948) approached the narrative of films with an individual method and wrote about the structure of cinema and editing. Through his frustration of the limitations of his creative work in theatre, Sergei focused on cinema and completed his first film ‘Stachka’ (Strike, 1925); Eisenstein’s approach focused less on allowing audiences to escape in the narrative plot but instead addressing more sensitive issues, in some what a form of a documentary, ‘Stachka’ specifically on a group of factory workers going on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia. He believed the American filmmakers narratives were a disparity of a capitalised society, whereas his films addressing on real events made him famous for this radical emphasis on Russian society.

Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

Hitchcock (1899-1980) is considered by many as one of the most inspirational filmmakers of all time, creating unique conventions and developing new devices to be recreated and individualised in cinema.

His films are unique in his style of editing such as in ‘Notorious’ (1946), editing techniques are used to highlight the suspense and tenuous relationship between the main two characters and their opposite gender roles; mainly represented through several continuity shots that contribute to the deception and atmosphere in which the characters are involved in.

Many scenes in the film employ devices in the continuity shots such as 180 degree rule and the use of rhythmic editing, furthermore the use of props and motif are framed in certain scenes through camerawork which advance and contribute towards the intended editing purpose of keeping a high temperature vibe.

Techniques of Editing and Transitions

Cut – One shot being instantaneously replaced with another. Typically this is the most common form of changing shot.

Continuity Editing – A continuous shot allowing audiences to establish a sense of understanding the narrative.

Cross-cutting – Cutting back and forth between two lines of narrative plots. Allowing the audience to understand the relationship between the two scenes. Common to parallel editing.

Dissolve – An overlapping of two scenes from scene 1 into scene 2 through a gentle smooth transition. Usually representing a change of time.

Editing – The task of selecting certain shots and combining them to create a more engaging narrative structure.

Errors of continuity – An occurrence in a scene or failure to match action/placement of a prop across shots which could cause confusion amongst audiences.

Establishing shot – Usually a long shot or sometimes a bird’s eye view shot to establish the location/situation of where the action will next take place, or in some cases after the action has taken place.

Eye-line match – A match between two characters through the use of their eye line, usually through two corresponding shots of one person’s eyes to another’s to show the relationship or proximity of the characters.

Fade – Used similarly as a dissolve a fade is implicated to present a change in time and or place. A slow transition between two scenes, with a brief interval with no picture.

Final cut – The completed edit of a film, agreed with the director and the producer, this usually takes some time to come to a definite finished film. The final cut is the cut distributed and what audiences see.

Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

Jump cut – A cut which essentially removes the less interesting parts between two scenes an example of which is a long drive or a character going to sleep, jump cutting to the next morning. This would be less effective in an action scene as to allow audiences to feel engaged you’d have to keep the time structure original with little to none jump cuts.

Match cut – This is used to show the relationship between a character and an object for example, usually to show the consequence of a characters action. (i.e. someone throwing an object, then filming the object hit something or fall)

Montage – ‘The assembly of pieces of film which move in rapid succession…’ (Hitchcock in ‘Hitchcock explains about CUTTING’). A sequence of shots changing to show either; a progression of time and great change for a character(s), object or scene; an action orientated scene such as a car chase or fight scene or to show a lapse of a certain shot. Examples of these are in ‘Rocky IV’ (Sylvester Stallone, 1985) there is a training montage scene of him training up, showing the progression overtime before the fight, parallel action is used also between the antagonists personal montage. Another example is in ‘The Hurt Locker’ (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008) an explosion is repeated in slow motion to increase the intensity and importance of the situation.

Rough cut – The first pass on the initial assembly of the shots into a film, before more cutting and editing further to create a stronger sequence of narrative so the audience can understand and engage fully into the plot.

Sequence shot – A shot with a long duration to show an entire scene or sequence with no use of editing/cutting.

Short reverse shot cutting – Used mainly in conversation scenes between characters, showing different perspectives of a talk, such as an over the shoulder shot. Engages audiences within the subject at the heart of the conversation.

Wipe – Normally a car swiping over a shot to reveal another, or pushing one shot off to pull another on. Contemporary films usually avoid this, but this technique was common in films between 1930s-1940s. An example is the editing style of the ‘Star Wars’ saga, these wipe transitions edited into the films has now become part of the persona of the series.

The 180 degree rule – A rule stating that once a camera has been placed at a certain side of a 180 degree angle from two characters talking the camera is locked to film anywhere that side of the characters, this rule was implicated so audience members didn’t get confused and distracted from the conversation.

Sound is also a powerful tool editing managed to bring alive.

Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

Non-Diegetic – Music or sounds which the characters in the shot can’t hear, produced mainly to create atmosphere. Usually soundtracks in the background of a chase or fight scene.

Diegetic – Sounds, music or effects in which the audience can hear what the characters in the shot can, an example of which is ‘The Hunger Games’ (Gary Ross, Written by: Suzanne Collins, Film: 2012), Katniss Everdeen finds her hearing muffled by an explosion, we are placed inside her head and can listen through this muffled hearing exactly what she would be hearing in the moment.

Dialogue – Conversational or self-spoken text a character would verbally say to another.

ADR – Voice recordings placed over incorrect dialogue as if the dialogue was said in the scene anyway.

Sound Effects – These could differ from explosions to dripping taps, most sound effects are added in to represent an action which is current but the recording equipment at the time didn’t record effectively enough so had to be re-recorded and placed over, such as an ADR. Other instances include off diegetic screen sounds such as a scream.

Music – A soundtrack selection played over certain points in a film, usually helping audiences to immerse themselves and engage fully in the situation/narrative plot.

CGI – Editing images, models or green screen videos on a shot allowing for a more visually creative scene. In some senses allowing the story to become more alive.

The Purpose/Function of Editing

Editing has become so commonly used it would seem odd not having it in films nowadays; it determines the relationship between characters, characters with the audience, pace, mood and above everything the meaning of film.

Editing in Hollywood films is determined by 4 dimensions in film narrative:

What order you receive information about the narrative The extent of information you are supposed to receive about the plot What you are supposed to feel about events and characters at any given time In what way you are supposed to experience the pace of the narrative

Editing can vary dependant on the type of format you’re editing for, Documentary style editing for example is filmed using a handheld camera and has vocals placed over shots and contain no clear narrative as the purpose is to inform the viewer.

It can also be used to withhold certain information, such as disallowing a viewer to focus on certain aspects of a shot which could foreshadow future events in the plot, on the other hand it can be used to further the storyline of a character, for example zooming in on a piece of detail which is a critical point for the story line to progress.

The main purpose of editing is to allow filmmakers to explore their creativity around producing and telling a story; doing this specifically through the use of editing

Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

techniques. Although a lack of editing techniques can be used as a tool to show a different intention such as long duration continuous shots, little use of jump cuts and not using CGI.

Scenes analysis

Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

The opening beach landing sequence contains a wide range of editing techniques from slow motion, muffled diegetic sounds, powerful non-diegetic music, documentary style filming and many more.

The scene opens with close up shots of soldiers on a landing beach boat, the close sonic perspectives of the waves hitting the boat, others coughing and someone crying leaves us to feel totally engaged with the narrative.

The instruments involved in the music were powerful and strong sounding, such as drums and trumpets, instantly immersing audiences into the action. Other sounds besides dialogue were featured so audiences felt they were in the scene, storming the beaches. After an explosion muffles the protagonists hearing we are placed inside his head hearing the muffled noises around him. Off shot but diegetic dialogue is used as explanatory dialogue to keep the audience up to date with the situation.

Something unique about the filming of Saving Private Ryan was an older filter was placed over the majority of the film to make it look older and how it would have look if remembering back to it.

The narrative structure is kept linear, keeping within the depths of Captain Miller (Tom Hanks), using point of view shots to help audiences understand and go through everything Miller is.

Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

A clear use of special effects if the use of slow motion used at times to highlight the importance of a moment.

The little transitions they do have are clean cuts normally to switch perspective or to show a point of view shot.

A creative camera angle used was when filming under water a body being shot and slowly sinking onto the beach surface, this long duration of a mainly still shot in a unnerving place, leaves audiences feeling quite disturbed and some trying to hold their breath with the camera. Every so often the camera would show a establishing shot of the beach showing the total effect it has not only on the character we’re following.

Cutting between two shots showed us an action reaction shot between the happenings of the beach and captain Millers reaction

Rocky IV (Sylvester Stallone, 1985)

The training montage is a very suspenseful scene which unlike Saving Private Ryan has a clear non-linear structure, just from different locations, time periods and characters.

Being strictly montage editing the use of music was very important, ‘Hearts on fire’ was chosen, and typically this is now a popular work out song.

The non-diegetic music alongside some close sonic perspective noises from the characters involved keep the audience immersed through this ever changing montage.

Due to the short duration of shots the time periods can be clearly seen as changes in time, location and sequence of events, as

Editing Contextual Study Joshua Martello

the sequences come to an end the audience is shown he is stronger than he was before by showing a previous scene, first failing at now being able to complete.

The parallel action, cross cuts between the protagonist and the antagonist show the relationship between the characters and how they’re both equally training to become stronger to eventually fight each other.

The main differences between the two would be the narrative structure, Saving Private Ryan having a chronological plot whereas Rocky IV having a montage non-linear approach, also the length of shots, Saving Private Ryan has longer shots too address importance and to raise tension whereas Rock IV has short shots maintaining the suspense; both keeping audiences engaged in different ways.

The music was use very differently, Rocky IV focused on a fast song to keep with the shots whereas Saving Private Ryan used a build-up in music to create an eventual climax. Although close sonic perspective was used in both films to keep audiences immersed and up-to-date with the narrative.

References:

Website Articles

Thefreedictionary. (2003 - 2016). editing. Available: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/editing. Last accessed 03/03/2016.

Infoplease. (2001). Movies and Film. Available: http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/fade-brief-history-editing.html. Last accessed 03/03/2016.

Film Reference. (2016). The development of Editing. Available: http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Editing-THE-DEVELOPMENT-OF-EDITING.html. Last accessed 03/03/2016.

Youtube. (2009). Hitchcock explains about CUTTING. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG0V7EVFZt4. Last accessed 03/03/2016

Youtube. (2015). The cutting egde, the magic of movie editing. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKKS5ohFo2I. Last accessed 03/03/2016.

Other sources

http://www.imdb.co m/

Images

http://www.imdb.com/