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Film Editing |
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Most
films produced before 1902 were only a few minutes in length. In those
films, editing was nothing more than splicing the loose ends of the film
together to put the shots in order.With the introduction of George
Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902) and Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train
Robbery (1903), films began to be longer and more complex. Filmmaking
continued to mature over the next several decades as represented by such
films as D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915), F.W. Murnau’s The
Last Laugh (1924) and Sergei M. Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin
(1925). Films such as these helped establish the concept of film as an
art form rather than as a novelty or recorded reality. Porter and
Griffith, both American filmmakers, used editing to enhance the
emotional impact of a film on its audience.
Griffith developed the use of the close-up and experimented with cutting
together scenes that were widely separated in physical space to show
what was taking place in different locations at the same time. |
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The
film editor is responsible for transforming massive
amounts of film into the story seen on the screen. It’s not unusual for
the editor to begin with hundreds of hours of film.To make things even
more complicated, the director may film each scene several times from
four or five different camera positions.The scenes are also not shot in
the same sequence as the film’s story.
All the scenes in one location or using a particular actor will be shot
together to minimize the cost of the production.
The editor sorts through this rough footage and gradually assembles the
film, scene by scene.Working closely with the
director, the editor must choose the best acting performances and the
most effective camera angles and lighting for each scene to achieve the
desired impact.The editor must then decide just how to join together all
those segments of film to create the final, finished story |
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Some of the terminology that a film editor uses includes: |
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Close-up (CU): A shot showing a detail only (ex., face only or
hands only).
Cross-cutting: Cutting back and forth between two or more events
or actions that are taking place at the same time
but in different places.
Cut: An abrupt transition from one shot to another.
Cutaways: A cut away from the primary subject to something the
filmmaker has decided is equally or more relevant at that time.
Dissolve: An overlapping transition between scenes where one
image fades out as another fades in. Editors often use this to indicate
a change in time and/or location.
Establishing Shot: A shot, taken from a distance,establishing for
the viewer where the action is to occur and
the spatial relationship of the characters and their setting.
Extreme Close-Up (ECU): A detail of a close-up (eyes
or mouth only, etc.). |
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Fade In: A shot that starts in darkness and
gradually lightens to full exposure.
Fade Out: A shot that starts at full exposure and gradually fades
to black.
Jump Cut: A cut where two spliced shots do not match in terms of
time or place.A jump cut gives the effect that the camera is literally
jumping around.
Long Shot (LS): A shot taken at a considerable distance from the
subject.A long shot of a person is one in which the
entire body is in frame.
Medium Shot (MS): A shot framing a subject at a medium range,
usually a shot from the waist up.
Reverse cutting: A technique alternating over-theshoulder shots
showing different characters speaking.This is generally used in
conversation scenes.
Sequence Shot: An entire scene or sequence that is onecontinuous
camera shot.There is no editing. |
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View the Death Star battle sequence in
Star Wars (1977), the rolling boulder sequence from Raiders of the Lost
Ark
(1981), the training sequence from The Matrix (2000) or another sequence
your teacher has chosen. As you watch the
scene, try to identify the rhythm the editor established in making
cuts.Tap a pencil each time there is a cut. (This will be easier to do
if you watch the scene a second time with the sound off.) For example,
if all the shots are about the same length, a steady, metrical beat
results. Shortening each shot in a
sequence results in an accelerating rhythm. |
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Now, view
the scene again.Try to identify the specific shots or effects the editor
used.Why do you think the editor chose to transition from one shot to
the next at each point? What information do the shots communicate? For
example: Is the cut to a close-up merely to show us who is speaking or
is it animportant reaction? |
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Title of film:
Description of the scene you watched:
What was your emotional response?
What was your intellectual response?
How many cuts could you count? |
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Information the shot communicates
1.________________________________________
2.___ _____________________________________
3.________________________________________
Type of shot
1.________________________________________
2.________________________________________
3.________________________________________
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