Chapter 5 Editing

Question 1

Editing definition

Answer 1

• is the process of selecting and joining film footage and shots, selected images linked in selected patterns
• May try to emulate(copy) the way we see the world or transcend it
• film can be shaped to make sense or to have an emotional or visceral (a gut reaction)

Question 2

Sort History of Film Editing

-the storyboard

Answer 2

-goes back to Ancient Assyria to show different phases of lion hunt
-tapestries like the Bayeux Tapestry shows the conquest of England in 1066
-today comic strips, manga
-

Question 3

Juxtaposed images

Answer 3

-tell stories symbolically, sensationally, educationally

Eg religious triptychs, magic lanterns

Question 4

1895-1918 early cinema and the emergence of editing

Answer 4

-quickly moved to connecting images
—-eg. Melies used stop motion photography and later editing to create tricks like Trip to the Moon in 1902
-first creative uses of the edited cut, the transition between 2 separate shots or scenes
-Edwin S Porter (employee of Edison) synthesized techniques for storytelling in Life of an American Fireman 1903
—Porter’s The Great Train Robbery 1903 was 14 shots

Question 5

By 1906 period known as early cinema turned into a cinema dominated by narrative, which was helped by a more codified (organized into codes) practices of editing

Crosscutting/ parallel editing

Answer 5

DW Griffith

• began making films in 1908
• important figure n development of classical Hollywood editing style
• associated with crosscutting ( also known as parallel editing - a technique that cuts back and forth between action is separate locations, implying the 2 are related —-like a girl lying on tracks crosscut with speeding train, back and forth

Question 6

DW Griffith continued

Note after Birth of a Nation feature filmmaking became the norm and the began the development Hollywood’s classical editing style

Answer 6

Film
The Lonely Villa 1909 -crosscutting between women isolated in house and villains trying to break in.then shots of father rushing in to save the day
Most famous but controversial Birth of a Nation 1915 cross cutting between villainous blacks and heroic Ku Klux Klan
—-the merging of technique and race its theory shows power of editing in moving people’s belief systems

Question 7

Soviet Montage

(Note after the revolution @ 1922 Russia became the USSR — the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) they got rid of the hierarchy and embraced socialism in which everything from chickens to money is shared equally by the people)

Answer 7

Sergei Eisenstein film ‘Strike’ 1925 crucial

• center on the concept of MONTAGE ( the French word for editing) that maximizes the effect of the juxtaposition of disparate (very different) shot
• key component of modernist politically engaged filmmakers

Question 8

Eisenstein: dialectical montage, also called intellectual montage- a dramatic form f intercutting conflicting or unrelated images to create an emotion or an idea in the viewer

Answer 8

• he argued that 2 contrasting or otherwise conflicting shots will be synthesized when they are juxtaposed
  Eg. Battleship Potemkin 1925 shots of several stone lions are juxtaposed in sequence suggesting that one stone lion is leaping to life.
  —-according to Eisenstein the concept of awakening, connected to the revolution over the tyrants, is formed in the viewers minds as they react viscerally (in the gut) to the lions leap
  -association of aesthetic fragments with a political program has persisted in disjunctive editing ( viewer aware of the editing)

Question 9

Women in the Editing Room

Answer 9

• open to women -piecing together bits of film seen as similar to typical women’s work, like sewing
• also actors, editors producers and directors
• most important Dorothy Arzner who became a successful director (also an editor)
• similar in USSR where they were important in the development of montage

Question 10

1930-1959 continuity editing in the Hollywood Studio era

Answer 10

-Hollywood movies refined storytelling style known as CONTINUITY EDITING which gives the viewer the impression the action unfolds in spatiotemporal consistency (consistency in space and time)

Question 11

Beginning in the 1940s cinematic realism became an important aesthetic principle in film editing
—continuity editing incorporated these variation and remained dominant at least until the end of the studio system at the end of the 1950s

Answer 11

-Italian new-realism (fewer cuts to capture ordinary people in real locations) even extended to classical Hollywood
Eg Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place 1950 emphasized imagistic depth and longer takes, less frequent cutting

Question 12

1960-1989 Modern Editing Styles

Political and artistic changes starting in the 1960s affected editing as well as everything else

Answer 12

-alternative editing styles aimed to fracture classical editing illusion of realism
-new disjunctive style (assoc Soviet montage) creates feeling of human disconnection in the modern world
DISRUPTION of continuity by creating cracks/holes in the story, shifting our comprehension of time and/confusing the relationships among past present and future.

Question 13

French new wave proved some of the first and most dramatic modern styles of editing

Jump cuts

Answer 13

Jump Cuts: an edit that interrupts a particular action and intentionally (or not) creates discontinuity in time and/or space in the development of shots
Eg Godard’s Breathless 1960 edits create gaps on purpose

Question 14

1990s to present: editing in the digital age

Nonlinear digital editing

Answer 14

Before use of computers editing was done on a moviola ( a device that an editor could see film and edit) a flatbed editing table or in a linear sequence on tape

In nonlinear editing film footage is stored as digital information on high capacity hard drives

• allows for individual takes to be organized easily, accessed instantly, sound can be edited at the same time as pictures, and optical effects like dissolves and fades can be visualized a lot earlier
• soon became the way to edit even if the film was 35mm stock

Question 15

The rapid pace of contemporary films seems to correlate with digital editing

Answer 15

-the average shot length has declined significantly like 3 seconds in the transformers of 2014 as compared to 10 in 1940s the Grapes of Wrath.

• that being said because of digital the length of a single take is virtually limitless.
• however, faced paced films = fast paced editing

Question 16

Elements of film editing

Answer 16

Film editing is the process through which different images or shots are linked together sequentially. A shot is a continuous image
regardless of camera movement or changes in focus
-Editing can create meaning by combining shots in an infinite number of ways: one shot is selected and joined to other shots by the editor to shape the viewers perceptions

Question 17

Film editing conveys multiple perspectives by linking individual shots (each presented from a single perspective)in variou relationships

Answer 17

• some of these relationships mimic the way a person looks at the world -for example linking a shot of someone looking off in the distance to an extreme long shot of an airplane in the sky
• however often these relationships exceed everyday perceptions, like The Birds 1963 showing birds flying over Bodega Bay, an inhuman perspective juxtaposed with street shots, giving film its eerie effect
• May leap from one location/time to show different perspectives on the same event

Question 18

Editing is very important to the development of cinema because

Answer 18

• it allows departure from limited perspective ( in English, first person, limited) to omniscient
• allows for continuous duration of a shot

Question 19

The Cut and Other Transitions

Earliest Films

Answer 19

-consisted of a single shot running only as long as the film stock
-Melies manipulated this by stopping camera, rearranging mise en scene and resuming filming to make objects, people disappear or transform
—Transitions and the work of editing often go unseen by the viewer unless you are looking for it

Question 20

Foundation of film editing is the cut
-the join or splice between the 2 pieces of film

Shock cut (used less frequently except in horror) juxtaposes 2 images whose dramatic differences caused a jarring effect, often accompanied by a jolt on the soundtrack -like Psycho’s shower scene

( I think you call this a jump scare)

Answer 20

• the break creates the relationship between the 2 shots from 2 pieces of film
• the story can be developed by using composition and editing, like first shot highlights characters in foreground with one turning to look behind him, then the second cuts to show the tension between the one in the front with the one in the back

Question 21

Edits can be embellished in ways that affect our perception or understanding

Answer 21

FADE-OUT: optical effect, image gradually darkens to black
FADE-IN: a black screen gradually brightens to full picture
—-often used after a fade out to create a transition between scenes

Question 22

Edits continued

Answer 22

DISSOLVE: briefly superimposes one shot over another, which takes its place
—in Hollywood studio era often used to indicate a break in time or space that is more definite than created by straight cuts
-often mark pauses between narrative sequences or larger segments of a film

Eg a dissolve can take you to different places in town whereas a more visible break like a fade out might show action is resuming next day (temporal or time shift)

Question 23

Edits continued

Answer 23

IRIS - masks corners of frame with a black, usually circular form
WIPE: transition used to join 2 shots by moving a vertical horizontal or sometimes diagonal line across one image to replace it with a second which follows the line across the frame

Note: these 2 edits were most often found in silent and early sound films

Question 24

What happens when we make movies

Answer 24

We make sense of a series of discontinuous linked images by understanding them according to conventional ways of interpreting space, time, story and image patterns
- editing patterns also anticipate and structure narrative organizations

Question 25

Continuity style

In both narrative and non-narrative films editing is crucial for ordering space and time

Answer 25

VERISIMILITUDE: (the appearance of being true)
- the quality of verisimilitude allows viewers to accepted a constructed world as believable (plausible)

• verisimilitude is enhanced by clear consistent spatial and temporal patterns that -along with conventions of dialogue, mise en scene, cinematography and sound - form Hollywood’s CONTINUITY STYLE

Question 26

Continuity Editing (sometimes called invisible editing) 
- is that each shot has a continuous relationship to the next shot

Answer 26

-uses cuts and other transitions to establish verisimilitude, to construct a coherent time, and space and to tell stories clearly and efficiently, requiring mi image effort on the part of the viewers

-2 goals are:
A) constructing an imaginary space in which the action develops
B) approximating the experience of real time by following human actions

Question 27

In continuity editing, after the initial view of a scene subsequent shots typically follow the logic of spatial continuity.

Answer 27

• if a character appears on the left of the screen looking right in the establishing shot, they will likely be looking in the same direction in the medium shot that follows
• movements that carry across cuts are consistent
• if a character exits screen on right he will enter new space from the left
• chase sequences give directional clues

Question 28

Continuity editing are consistent and the dominant way of dealing with dramatic material

Answer 28

—minimizes audiences awareness of editing
-invisible cuts in The Notebook2004 shift focus seamlessly from character to character to underscore emotion - not obvious to viewer

Question 29

Establishing Shot - establishes location and setting and orients the viewer on a space to a clear view of the action

Answer 29

The Hateful Eight 2015 western

—Begins with extreme long shot of wide open space then cuts in to a shot stagecoach/saloon then even tighter shots

Question 30

Conversations

Answer 30

• usually established with a TWO-SHOT: a relatively close shot of both characters together in a recognizable space and context
• then the camera alternates between the speaking characters often using OVER-THE-SHOULDER SHOTS where the camera is slightly behind and over the shoulder of one character, focussing on another character or object
• the director may insert a REESTABLISHING SHOT by returning to the original establishing shot to restore a seemingly objective view to spectators

Question 31

Dialogue

Answer 31

• continues over cuts
• viewers expect conversations will be coordinated with medium close ups of characters speaking and listening in a realistic space

Question 32

Another device in continuity editing is the INSERT

Answer 32

• a brief shot often a close up that points out details significant to the action, like a hand slipping something into a pocket or a subtle smile other characters cannot see
• helps overcome viewers spatial separation from the action and pointing out something that advances the story

Question 33

Continuity editing: 180-degree rule

Answer 33

• primary rule of continuity editing
• restricts camera setups to the 180 degree area on the one side of an imaginary line drawn between the character or figures in a scene

Question 34

Axis of action

Answer 34

• film as if the space is bisected by the axis of action, with the filming done on ONE side of the axis
• ensures consistency in mise en scene
• if camera were to cross axis line, the characters onscreen positions would be reversed
• as the scene unfolds, a new axis line can be established by the movement of a character or the camera
• breaking the 180 degree rule and crossing the axis = chaotic action, or desire to break continuity

Question 35

30 degree rule

Answer 35

• seeks to preserve spatial unity
• rule is that a shot should be followed by another shot taken from a position greater than 30 degrees from the first
• if it were taken within 30 degrees of the previous shot it will appear to ‘jump in position’ onscreen

Question 36

Shot/reverse shot ( also known as shot/countershot)

Answer 36

• is common in continuity editing and is an application of the 180 degree rule
• begins with a shot of one character looking offscreen in one direction, followed by a second shot of a second character who appears to be looking back at the first one
• the effect is that characters seem to be looking at each other
• the Focus May change close up, medium shot etc but the angles from which the characters are shot do not
• viewer feels like they are participating in the back and forth conversation
• CUTTING LINE: the angles shot have each character at the ends of the axis line

Question 37

Eyeliner Match: a cut that follows a shot of a character looking offscreen with the shot of what the character is seeing

Answer 37

Shot/reverse shot sequences use characters gazes to establish the space in a conversation.

Question 38

Match on action

-a cut between 2 shots continuing a visual action

Answer 38

• must be consistent in direction, what is happening as the movement evolves, like the correct way a horse moves, or a diver performs a specific dive
• often done with an invisible cut, like the action of a person going through a door
• quickens a films pace like in a chase/fight scene

Question 39

Graphic match
-an edit in which a dominant shape or line in one shot provided a visual transition to a similar line or shape in the next

Answer 39

-May grow in size or movement progress through the cuts but the emphasis is on an element of composition like shape, line, colour etc

Question 40

Point of View shots

Hitcock: emphasizing the drama of looking

Answer 40

• viewer sees character looking and the next shot reveals what they were looking at from their optical point of view, as if the camera were the eyes of the camera
• often followed by a third shot in which character is shown again looking which shows us that this was all his perspective

Eg The Birds 1963

Question 41

Reaction shots

-depicts a characters response to something shown in a previous shot

Answer 41

-emphasizes human perspective and ‘stands in’ for audiences own response

Eg. Clueless 1995 in the coffee shop
1) tracking establishing shot = environment
2) scene cuts back and forth across the booth in shot/reverse shot using eyeliner matches
3) Cher is alone (showing she is the focus)
Creates the space and the continuity of their reactions to one another

Question 42

Art Cinema editing

Answer 42

• in art films continuity might take a back seat so you can’t predict the space
• changes in space may not be continuous, may reflect psychosis,or be a metaphor etc.

Question 43

Editing and Temporality (keeping time continuity)

Answer 43

Story Time - the length of the story, might be someone’s entire life a lot of which will be offscreen
Plot Time: the temporal (time) selection and arrangement of events( might be in flash back/forward)
Screen Time: running length

Question 44

Non linear time construction

-usually introduced with strict cues about narrative motivations

Flashback a sequencer hat follows an image set in the present with an image set in the past, maybe in a dissolve conveying the characters memory or with voice over narration indicating the shifting timeframe

Answer 44

Eg Citizen Kane is linear with a series of lengthy flashbacks adding complexity to the chronology (time) of the film

• uses NARRATIVE FREQUENCY- the number of times a plot element is repeated throughout a narrative
• the cues for a shift in time may not be obvious

Question 45

Flash forward

Answer 45

-technique mostly used in films that challenge our perceptions, psychological or science fiction

Question 46

Descriptive and a Temporally Ambiguous (time is unclear) sequences

Answer 46

Certain edited sequences cannot be located in time

-purpose is such a sequence is often descriptive that might be for instance identifying the setting of a film

Question 47

Narrative Duration

-is the length of time used to present an event or action in a plot which MAY NOT conform to the length of a story

Answer 47

ELLIPSES: a short form/summary implied by editing—-cutting through movement as a transition, like out a door, or by object, like picking up an object like a key
—also shown by dissolves and fades
CUTAWAY: a shot that interrupts an action to ‘cut away’ to another image or action and then back
—-seeing things happen in the real length of time they would take is now really boring

Question 48

Extension of Time Through OVERLAPPING Editing
-occurs when an edited sequence presents 2 or more shots of the same action across several cuts ( like the repeated showing of the smashing of a plate in Battleship Potemkin)

——plot time here is longer than the action
——used for emphasis

Answer 48

• is a violation of continuity and although used for emphasis often is strange or gimmicky

Question 49

Pace - is the tempo at which the film seems to move

Answer 49

• is influenced by the duration of individual shots and the style of the editing
• related to genre
• May vary historically culturally and stylistically
• May be used to achieve rhythm

Question 50

Average Shot Length (ASL)

Answer 50

Of narrative films has decreased over recent decades

• this is societal
• rapid cutting = shots of less than 2 seconds are the result of digital technology and blockbusters

Question 51

Another way of controlling pace is through LONG TAKES or shots of relatively long duration

Answer 51

-by the SEQUENCE SHOT in which an entire scene is played out in space and time in a single shot
—promoted by film theorist Andre Baxin
—are more like human perception/realism
—use mise en scene and camera movement instead of editing to focus viewers attention

Question 52

Slow Cinema
-in contemporary art films
Sustained single shots/long takes

Answer 52

• Taiwan’s Flowers of Shanghai 1998 is only 40 shots
• Quentin Tarantino uses this technique to juxtapose fast editing in Kill Bill

Many films use shot length to create rhythm, like Psycho’s 70 camera setups for 45 seconds of film

Question 53

Rhythm
Germaine Dulac: Film is ‘ a visual symphony made of rhythmic images’

Rhythm or rhythmic editing describes the organization of editing according to different paces or tempos determined by how quickly the cuts are made

Answer 53

• Links fast slow, moderate according to the development of the film
• in Rocket Man 2019 the rhythm of the editing follows the music itself

Question 54

Scenes and Sequences

Answer 54

SCENE: action in a single location, in a continuous time ( not over time) and made up of at least one shot usually several
SEQUENCE: any number of shots unified in a coherent action like taking a walk or a motif (like the expression of a anger (regardless of time or space)
—-sequence continues on primary action

Question 55

Segmentation-

Answer 55

the process of dividing a film into large narratives its for the purpose of analysis

Question 56

Film editing has 2 aims

Answer 56

1, To generate emotions and ideas through a constructed images
2 move beyond limits of normal time and space

Question 57

Primary traditions in editing practices: continuity, disjunctions and convergences

—you can find multiple ‘ways’ of editing in one film

Answer 57

• DISJUNCTIVE EDITING: challenging or not following continuity rules
• visible rather than invisible editing. Viewers see the cuts.
• not verisimilitude; spatial tension, temporal jumps, rhythmic/graphic patterns
• confront viewers with juxtapositions/links that seem unnatural or unexpected for 2 purposes:
  1. To call attention-to editing for aesthetic, conceptual, ideological or psychological purposes or
  2. Affect viewers viscerally (in the gut)

Question 58

Jump cuts are disjunctive

- they are interrupt the action intentionally (or not) creates discontinuity in development of space and time

Answer 58

• jump cut can identify several disjunctive practices
  1. Cut out the middle of a shot causes jump ahead in the action
  2. Keep the background but characters change positions inexplicably
  3. Two shots from the same angle but from different angles cause a jump
• is a big mistake in continuity editing but in alternative exciting, Godard’s Breathless 1960
• or in combination to create sensations things falling apart, chaos

Question 59

Jump Cuts illustrate 2 primary aims of disjunctive editing

Answer 59

1. Contribute to films overall stylization
2. Play with space and time : eg. Characters who have differing opinions or versions about what happened in the post, jump cuts shake up point of view, creates disorientation, inability to define time and space

NB jump cuts force the viewer to interact with the film rather than passively watch it

Question 60

Concept of distanciation
-idea goes back to playwright Bertolt Brecht in the 1920s and is intended to create an intellectual distance between the viewer and the work of art in order to reflect on the art itself, or to think about the id as and issues it raises

Answer 60

-use of nondiegetic inserts (sequences that have nothing to do with the narrative)
—-in Two or Three Things I Know AboutHer 1967 Godard includes them -numbered chapter headings, printed text, advertising images)
—-function to distance/takeout the viewers from the narrative

Question 61

Montage Sequence

Answer 61

Is a series of thematically linked shots, or shots meant to show the passage of time, joined by quick cuts or other devices like dissolves, wipes, and superimpositions

Question 62

The term montage today is used to emphasize the creative power of editing, especially the potential to build up a sequence and make meaning, rather than merely ‘cutting’ (the idea of removal is negative

Answer 62

-principle of construction (positive, not negative) is the concept behind abstract and animated films and videos that create visual patterns through their editing

Question 63

Converging Editing Style

• mainstream films no longer strive for invisibility
• convergence (coming together) of continuity and disjunctive editing

Answer 63

Digital technology has revolutionized the craft and language of editing
-the values continuity and disjunctive become less distinct as the styles merge