‘The common conventions, techniques and purpose of film editing’ Film. One of the biggest if not the biggest industry in the world. Since the year of 1903, there have been countless films that have captivated many different audiences to certain films. Most of them use a variety of editing techniques such as parallel editing, or a long take. These help make the film look sharp and fresh and overall more entertaining. It is no doubt that a film wouldn’t be the same without the work applied off the camera. The first film to use any sort of editing dated all the way back in 1898 in Robert W. Paul’s film; ‘Come along, do!’. This was the first film to use more than one shot and from then on, more and more films were developing more ways to enthral the film audience. One such method of editing is called ‘in-camera editing’. This is when every shot that will feature in the film will be captured and recorded in the exact order in which they will appear in the film. This is commonly used if events in a film will take place in certain times throughout the day. This helps with all the lighting and the day and night aspect of the film. An example of a film that uses in-camera editing is Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘Rope’.
Another notoriously well known editing technique is ‘Following the Action’. This is more commonly used when a tripod just doesn’t cut it anymore in situations such as a car chase. This is so the audience can see exactly what is happening in the midst of the action and makes them feel like they are there as well. There are many examples of ‘following the action’ in the Fast and Furious films. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013752/ Multiple points of view are also used to capture the action by using multiple cameras focusing on different angles of the same shot. This is mainly so the audience can see exactly what is happening from different angles to get a better all-round picture of the action. A famous example of this would be the iconic scene in E.T. Where the boys all appear to be flying in front of the moon, and the use of more than one camera is used to capture all views of this shot. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083866/
Many films use a variety of shots in a film. This is called Shot Variation. Most films tend to start with an Extreme long shot which helps capture the whole setting for the opening scene. A good example of this would be the 1963 film ‘Cleopatra’. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056937/?ref_=nv_sr_1 More popular shots that happen in most film scenes are close ups, medium shots, and long shots. These help show how different shots can make the audience have a different opinion on what is happening. For example, in the film Transformers, most shots are long shots to capture the sheer size of the robots, however if it was all close ups of the robots, they would be far less intimidating.
There are also mixes of two shots, such as a medium close up. This shot is a mix between a medium shot and a close up, and are mainly used when the main character has some important new to tell the group, or similar. There are also shots like the Dolly shot/Hitchcock zoom. This shot is different from a normal shot as it tries to create a visual effect just with a camera and no editing. A Dolly shot is where the camera moves away, or ‘dollies’, from the main subject, however the camera zooms in at the same time.
This shot is the most commonly known example of the Hitchcock zoom as shows how effective the shot is. Another editing technique is the Manipulation of diegetic time and space. This is where the editor adapts the speed of the film to create a short view of maybe the main character’s back story. A good example of this would be the karate Kid as at the star, there is a shot film of his journey and his hard training. This gives the audience a brief overview of the character’s personality. This shot also allows the editor to add lots more footage to the film that maybe wouldn’t have been added if there was no use of diegetic time and space. There are more types of editing techniques called conventions. These add extra emphasis to the editing side of a film and give the audience more enjoyable content. There are many different conventions: The first convention is called Seamless. This is where the transitions between shots are very discreet and flow with the nature of the film. They are so well edited that the audiences’ minds are not distracted from the film by the transitions so they do not lose track of the narrative. The next one is motivational. This is where the editor uses a reason behind the editing to use that certain technique. An example of this is using motivation of ‘cross-cutting’ to show two things happening at the same time. Montage is used to put lots of short shots into a short sequence to save time within a film. This makes it look like a montage. A jump-cut is editing transitions to make them very fast to keep the flow of continuity and to confuse the audience. Parallel editing is a technique used in filming to cut between two scenes in a film at the same time. It could mean flickering between two important narratives in a film resulting in a clash of paths at the end. For previous work, I have made my own parallel edit. The link will be below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgcFEzR1i7Q My edit was a good example of a parallel edit as it includes all the common inventions and is clearly visible as a parallel edit. The 180-degree rule is used to get two camera angles on the subject, and both cameras are positioned 180 degrees away from the other. This is commonly used to capture a conversation where each camera is over one person’s shoulder. Film Splicing is a device used to cut 35mm roll film for editing. It would cut the film in 2 and then you would slightly overlap the film strips and glue them together. There are also a lot of transitions used to cut between scenes. There are lots of different film transitions. Here are a few: Dissolve- when one shot gradually replaces the other, fading out. Fade- when the shot gradually gets darker until the screen turns black Wipe- when one frame pushes the the other off screen replacing it Cutaways-cutting to an inserted shot from a long shot. Shot-reverse-shot- one character is looking at another character then the reverse camera angle is shown to make it look intense.
There are also many technological innovations used within film editing. There were some factors that single handedly revolutionized film editing on their own. For example, the introduction of colour in 1939 is still the biggest part of filming today. The biggest example would be The Wizard of Oz in 1939. As the film shows Kansas in black and white, the later part of the film is in Technicolor. Another key factor in todays editing is Computer-Generated Imagery, or CGI. However, this was first introduced in 1973. The first real example of CGI has to be the film Westworld in 1973. There was a 2-D rendition of a robot cowboy’s vision and for its day it was quite the editing. Other famous CGI films include Jurassic park and Avatar. When the green screen was introduced in 1940, it gave editors the chance to superimpose actors in places they would never be in real life, which also creates optical illusions. A great example of this has to be The Thief of Bagdad and the genie who appears to be in a bottle, like a genie would be. The introduction of portable equipment in the 1950’s helped film editing a lot because it granted more freedom to film longer shots in different places. Otherwise you would be filming in the same places every time. There was a famous movement called the French New Wave which started in 1950. This movement gave film makers the opportunity to explore social issues on the streets. Probably the most famous film of the French New Wave movement was Jean-Luc Godard’s film; Breathless of 1960. Another innovation that helped editors was synchronous sound which was introduced in the 1920’s. This would include matching the sound with the action in which the characters are doing. For example, if someone plays the piano, the sound of a piano is projected to the audience. The synchronous sound and real sound effects all started in the 1927 with the film The Jazz Singer. Trying to engage the audience is one of the most important things to consider when editing a film. If the audience isn’t interested, then the film won’t have as many views. The most effective way to keep the audience engaged is through having a good narrative. Most of the time, a narrative has a beginning, middle and an end so the audience knows what is going on the whole time. The purpose of keeping the audience engaged as they are the only thing that can make the film successful, so if they do not enjoy the film or do not understand it, then the film will not make much. Some films include the include the development of drama. This builds up lots of suspense and mainly relies on emotion. There is a lot of long winded shots which are used to drag out the suspense. This technique is mainly used as a constant theme in horror films.