Directions - Editing Workshop

Editing Workshop Notes 

Types of Editing

Editing 

Continuity editing 

Montage theory

Continuity story

Continuity Drama

Film editing

• Editing is the art of joining separate shots together to make longer sequences that make the complete story.
• It’s the only part of the production process that is unique to filmmaking.
• However, int not just about joining shots together, it's about creating emotion, drama, rhythm and action.
• What has changed the most is the editing software.
• Up to the early 2000s, all films were edited together using a machine called a Steenbeck, splicing the film together with sellotape.
• Making a single cut using the Steenbeck could take a few minutes, which meant every cut had to make a difference. It taught you economics of story-telling.
• Lot fewer cuts in films before the 1990s compared to modern films with more cuts.
• Films cut in the digital age are on the whole “quicker”

Video linear editing 

• Linear video editing is the most basic kind of editing, only allowing you to place one shot after another in order. You can NOT move shots around without starting again.

Video and the MTV cut

• Video linear editing developed further, whereby you could have bank machines with your source material, allowing faster access to shots and allowing mixes and dissolves.
• This meant that companies like MTV have an increasing demand for faster cut videos.
• This creative shift found its way into films and television programmes with cutting becoming faster.

Digital Non-Linear

• Digital technology brought with it non-linear editing. This combined the freedom of film editing and the speed of the cuts.
• You could now move shots about where ever you wanted.

Continuity Editing 

• The main purpose of editing is to take discontinuous shots and create a continuous whole.
• This doesn’t always mean a continuous story or scene.

Alternative continuity editing

• The French New Wave rallied against the classical Hollywood style. So they would purposely cross the line and have jump cuts.

Continuity editing story

• The first layer of continuity editing is creating a continuous story.
• This doesn’t mean that you have to include every bit of action within a story.
• You ONLY include the things that tell the story.
• Cutting out material you have shot is the hardest thing to do - especially when you have spent a long time shooting it.
• It’s crucial for good storytelling to only leave in the elements that propel your story, that adds to it. No fat.
• The simple rule of less = more apple all the way through the editing process 

Continuity Editing: Drama

• The most creative layer of editing is creating the drama of a scene, through pacing, rhythm and emotion.
• The main thrust of pace is created through how quickly or slow you cut from one shot to the next.
• It doesn’t just mean “fast cutting”.

Pacing, Rhythm, Emotion

• Tow people talking
• The obvious choice is to always cut to the person talking, back and forth.
• Ordinary a scene would start wide and slow, and then gets closer and quicker (usually)
• A SLOW stilted conversation becomes more free-flowing and ENDS abruptly.
• Creating real dramatic emotion in a scene is the cornerstone of great editing and hardest skill to pull off.
• You can create love, sadness, danger, tension.
• As a general rule:
• An emotional scene you will hold shots longer, slower.
• A section scene, you will cut quicker.
• A scene of tension is created by moments of holding shots and then quickly cutting.

Cross-cutting

• Cross-cutting is an editing tool that can create great suspenseful, action sequence.
• Essentially it is the cutting between two or more scenes that are occurring at the same time in the story.
• This allows the editor to open the story out onto many levels.
• You can also create moments of sadness, irony and symbolism.

Montage

• is a collection of shots, often cut to music.

Editing stages:

• Log: Log and arrange your rushes, so you know where they are and what shot they are.

Our Task we were given a bunch of clips that was filmed by the 2nd years. The clips were of a student giving some papers, but he was late handing it in. We had to make 3 edits out of all the clips:

1. Fullest version (show full story)
2. Shift the power to Effie 
3. shortest edit, but has to make sense.

Here is my long version of the scene. I probably could have made the edit a bit longer, however, I was trying to make the scene flow smoothly without any jarring edits. I think the scene I've managed to get was good how it all fit in nicely and I didn't feel as if I didn't understand at any point. 

The shift in power was a really simple technique that I was able to pull off. Due to the variety of shots, we were given. I knew if I wanted to have the power shift to Effie there needed to be a movement towards her character. So, I made sure that when we meet her the movement is going towards her to show the audience her power in the situation.

Also, at the beginning of the power edit, I edited it so that we couldn't see Effie's face this is to make her character seem mysterious and important.

The final edit was the short edit, this meant we had to read through the script that was provided as well as the shots and annotate the script to try and find what it actually tells us to show. The script says that Alan's character just gives the script to Effie so what I did was take away all of the shots showing us more information about the characters. it was just the basics.