Film Editing Techniques- Learning aim A

Editing Techniques

CONTINUITY EDITING 

Continuity editing in the film is the combining of different and related shots into a logical uninterrupted sequence to direct the viewer's attention to the narrative and keep a sense of the time and space of the scene. It keeps the viewer's in tune with the motion of the editing as they will not notice the cuts between shots, as a result of this smooth continuous way of editing the viewer's focus will not steer away from the narrative.

NON-CONTINUITY EDITING 

This is when shots are placed in a less logical way and it disrupts the viewer's sense of time and space. One reason behind doing this may be to draw the attention towards the cuts and fragment the illusion of reality that a viewer has been drawn in by.

Non-continuity editing was made popular in the 1950s and the 1960s by filmmakers such as Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, who both wanted to push the limits of film editing and explore what is capable to do to an audience through editing. They produced a new 'style' of film editing called 'French New Wave' which was a carefree way of editing that deterred away from the traditional editing etiquette of Hollywood films. This way of editing often made the film have this very self-reflexive attitude towards itself and thus drawing attention to its cuts reminded the viewer's that they are watching a film.

Purposes of editing

MANIPULATION OF TIME- 

Expansion

This is the technique of making the sequence appear longer than real-time. Here are a few ways editors expand the length of time in films and television:

Slow motion

This is the editing technique of slowing down the video clip and making it appear longer, a clip that is only half a second long can be expanded to be 2 seconds long. This is often used in action scenes to enhance the information that is being shown, but other times it can be utilised to show dread, fear, love or even to drive attention to what the characters are focused on. 

Martin Scorsese likes to put the audience in the character's heads and by using slow motion we can connect with the characters as we can be drawn in by what they are focused on.  

Repetition

This is where the same shot can be shown from multiple angles or even repeated. The most common use of this is in action films when an explosion occurs and we see it happen from many different angles and repeated on each cut. 

Alternatively, plot points could happen simultaneously in different locations can be shown in sequence on the screen. For example in pulp fiction, multiple scenes are shown occurring one after the other but in reality of the storyline, they take place either at the same time or in a different order to what they are shown. 

Time remapping 

This is the technique that became popular in the 21st Century when editing software became more capable of more things and allowed the editors to assemble footage in a creative and much easier way then they would have done before. It is a method of editing where the time can be manipulated many times in one clip so the editors are not limited to setting one speed per clip but rather where the speed can be varied over the course of time, and the editor can change the speed up and down as they please.

An early example of time remapping is in 'The Matrix' as this method is used in many of the fight scenes to add impact to the scene and to distort the idea of time. 

PERCEPTION OF SPACE 

These techniques are used to create a logical and believable environment for the viewer to orientate the scene which helps them in the perception of the story. This is also important when establishing a space between different characters or objects.

There are a lot of ways an editor can help develop an accurate understanding of the environment for the audience, this can involve showing cuts of where an object has been placed or to show where two characters are in distance from each and making sure this is perceived in continuance throughout the scene.
Controlling Rhythm 
When editing it is vital to maintain the correct pace that fits the scene, in order to keep the audience in rhythm with the story or scene. For example, if there is an action scene in the film that needs the audience to feel the energy and excitement of the scene, there will be many cuts from different shots as this keeps up with the pace and makes the audience feel more enhanced with the action.
This is extremely important in film editing as it keeps the audience in tune with the scene and if the pacing is off and the cuts and editing become noticeable and irritating, it distracts the audience from the narrative.
The key to this is to not keep the same pace and timings for cuts throughout a particular scene but to know when to change shot and cut to the next to create a more engaging experience for the audience.

Functions of editing 

To Create A Narrative 
One of the main functions of film editing is driving the narrative, this is achieved by demonstrating the aesthetic theory, which, in a nutshell, is choosing to revealing elements that catch the audiences eye (objects, light, motion, focus. etc.). Which can also be reversed to hide certain pieces of information to make the story more mysterious. Having an understanding of this in editing helps the editor know what shots to show and how to arrange them which in turn, guides the viewer through the story and can make them more engaged with the narrative.
Classic example of withholding information from the audience could be that in Pulp Fiction we are never shown the contents of Marsellus Wallace's briefcase, which helps keep the audience interested as there is this absence of information that does not aggravate the audience but rather engages them through the narrative and created drama and tension between the audience and the characters as some people know the answer and some don't.
Purposely showing and withholding information is an extremely effective when driving a narrative, as it pumps the audience with an emotion that is linked with the genre of film, we can be shown a shot in horror film that reveals someone is standing behind a character which makes us feel fear for them as we know something they don't, but it can be used in the complete opposite way where we can see a character look and something a scream, then the audience is not shown what they were looking at, increasing the imagination but also driving fear and narrative.

Create Meaning 
In editing, a basic edit can assemble multiple different shots together in a chronological way, but if the editor was to do the opposite or change a shot that doesn't match the rhythm of the scene it can take the direction of emotions on a new path and create a new meaning for the scene.
Another editing technique is juxtaposing shots and/or cross-cutting, which is where two shots with a relationship are shown one after the other which can give a new meaning of the scene. One popular example of this is the Kuleshov effect which is seen all the time in the film but was fully demonstrated by Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s. It demonstrates the power that the audience has on deriving meaning from the two interacting shots.
Kuleshov effect video
I find this to be especially effective in not only sending a certain meaning for the audience to observe but to also open the film up for different perspectives as some people can derive different meaning from the same scene. If you watched the video on the Kuleshov Effect, you can notice that one person may watch it and see the man as, well.... creepy but others can interpret the scene and pull the information from the shots and may see the man as hungry, in love, mourning a death and even proud of something.
Film making is an incredible art form and just like any other forms of art it can be interpreted in many different ways and can make the audience feel an emotion and it's through the techniques and dedication the filmmakers have in giving each scene and shot a purpose on screen and everything we are shown in a film is there for a specific reason.

I will now analyse the following clips on editing techniques and choices and evaluating how effective they are in engaging the audience in a certain way.

The Battleship Potemkin 1925
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, this film brought the attention towards Soviet cinema by the rest of the world and was considered to be so politically charged it was banned in the U.K till 1954. But it did not just receive attention for its content but also its new experimental editing techniques that made an explosive impact on the world of cinema.
American and European film making revolved around continuity editing and making the sequence of the film chronological and match reality, creating an immersive experience to hide the aspects of film making from the audience. Eisenstein developed his own theory of creating a montage which is still used today and he divided it up into different methods of how to make a montage and the effects it has on the viewer. The Soviet theory of Montage.

Sergei Eisenstein

• METRIC- Where the cuts are the same distance in time from one another which creates a tempo for the montage. 
• RHYTHMIC- This is where the cuts are made in relation to both the length of the shot and also in time with the action and events that take place on the screen.
• TONAL- This is where the cuts are dependant on the change of lighting, shadows and colour.
• OVER-TONAL- This method is when the montage is pieced together with a mic of the first three methods in a holistic approach.
• INTELLECTUAL- This method was Eisenstein's favourite, it creates a new meaning between shots through editing as there can be a conceptual connection made between them. 

I will be analysing the scene of the Odessa steps, it has been marked down in history as one of the most influential scenes of film history because of it's stylistic choices and editing techniques.
He starts off the sequence with a long shot which establishes the geography and scale of the

environment, the first one shows the people fleeing down the stairs and it juxtapositions with the shot from the top of the stairs, full of soldiers pushing their dominance towards the people. Not only does this show the difference in power between the people and the soldiers but also has the purpose of creating an understandable environment for the audience. We can clearly see who has more authority over one another. By showing this we understand the dominance that the soldiers have and we this is further demonstrated by the tracking shot of people running down the stairs cut to a close up of the guns being fired, we see that the people are unarmed and have nothing to protect themselves from the soldiers and are extremely vulnerable.

In the sequence, we can see that the stairs could represent society as the government soldiers appear from the top and the citizens are made to go to the bottom, we can analyse this to be the case and furthermore show the dominance of the soldiers. One part of the sequence we see a little boy falling after wounded and his mother turned back to see him being trampled on, there are many ways this part of the sequence triggers horrific emotions for the viewer. We have already been linked emotionally to the citizens through camera angles that place the audience as if we're fleeing from the soldiers alongside the citizens and the psychological idea of one's child being killed in front of you this gets any member of the audience filled with sorrow and despair, so will link our emotions with the mother. What helps amplify these emotions is that the shots are made more empathetic and elaborate as we are given the reactions from both ends of the horror. The clips on their own are still sending information to the viewer but since they are cut between one another in a shot-reverse-shot order we can see the effects both of the two events that are seen in two different shots have on one another. We see the mother screaming in a close-up (To show more detail of the terrific sight the mother has just seen) then we have an eyeline

matching cut to the son, we are presented what exactly the mother is so horrified at and then when it cuts back we can feel loss and sorrow for both characters. We see a young boy lose his life and then we are presented with the effects it has on the mother which both are powerful enough images when they stand alone but when placed together, the impact on the audience acts as a truly phenomenal catalyst of emotion. After the boy falls, each shot of him gets closer and closer and I believe the purpose on doing this was to furthermore show what the mother is focusing on, that she doesn't care about the guns and the soldiers as she is only focused on her child. Throughout the sequence, we see that there a rhythmic method to its cutting, as the shot's get shorter and shorter to give the feeling of rush and thrill of the event. The build-up to the brutal killing of the baby is shown by an increase in the tempo of the editing towards a close up of the baby, where the

sequence ends abruptly with another close up to show blood on a woman's face.