A Brief Guide To Editing

A Brief Guide To Editing

Film editing can be thought of as “the coordination of one shot with the next.” (Bordwell & Thompson).

The job of the film editor is to eliminate unwanted footage and to join the desired shots together. Generally, the means by which these shots are joined are as follows:

·      The fade-out. This is when the shot darkens to black. The fade out is generally used at the end of a sequence or of the whole film.

·      The fade-in. this is when the shot is lightened from black, typically used at the start of a sequence.

·       The dissolve. This edit briefly superimposes the end of shot A onto the beginning of shot B. For a brief period of time, both shots can be seen together.

·      The wipe. This is where shot B replaces shot A by means of a boundary line moving across the screen.

·      The cut. This is the most common form of edit and it occurs when shot A is replaced immediately by shot B. In order to achieve this, two shots are simply spliced together.

Editing is one of the main aspects of film making through which the audience acquire meaning from what they see. There are four main considerations in editing.

·      Graphic considerations in editing. This is the consideration given to the effect of the edit in terms of what the audience sees. It is the basic relationship between two shots and can be thought of as either a juxtaposition (light to dark) or as a continuity (light to light). Bordwell & Thompson say that, “Graphics may be edited to achieve smooth continuity or abrupt contrast.” The elements of mise-en-scene (lighting, costume, setting and action) can all contribute to graphic editing.

·      Rhythmic considerations in editing.  Each shot consists of a strip of film made up of frames. Played at normal speed, (sometimes called “sound speed”) the film passes at 24 frames per second. A shot in a finished text can be as little as one frame (lasting 1/24^th of a second) or it can be many thousand frames (lasting for several minutes). The process of editing allows the filmmaker to determine the duration of each shot. The editor, upon controlling the length of each shot in relation to each other is controlling the rhythmic elements of the film. Thus, the editor can control the tempo and the beat of the film. Consider the fast edits typical of an action sequence where no single shot is on the screen for more than a fraction of a second compared to the slow dreamy editing of a love scene in the countryside which will accentuate the contentment and may signify the character’s feelings that time has ceased to be on their minds.

·      Spatial considerations in editing. Editing also helps to construct awareness of space. The most obvious example of this is the use of the establishing shot, typically a long shot which sets the scene, followed by a closer more intimate shot which makes the audience focus upon an element of the shot where the action will take place. Another example of a spatial consideration comes when we might see in one shot for example a gun being fired. In the next shot we see a person falling to the ground with a bloodstained shirt. The shots may show entirely different events and the ‘victim’ may not have been hit by the shot we see fired but by placing the two shots together we assume a “spatial co-existence.”

·      Temporal considerations in editing. This refers to the contribution of editing to considerations of time within the film. The basic way this occurs is through the syntagmatic arrangement of the narrative, or the order in which things happen. A straightforward linear narrative in which events occur chronologically is the most common form of arrangement but directors like Quentin Tarrantino seem to prefer the non-linear narrative which has a non-chronological syntagmatic arrangement. Pulp Fiction (1994) is an excellent example of this. Editing also presents the opportunity for the natural duration of events to be altered. Elliptical editing is where the  action takes up less time on the screen than it would in real time (it is shortened) and overlapping editing is where through a process of repeating part or all of the action in a shot, it is expanded.

To conclude, graphics, rhythm, space and time are all elements which the editor must consider. However, the consideration of these elements for the editor is limited and the overwhelming majority of film texts reflect a very narrow range of possibilities. So much is this so that in most cases, the dominant technique of film editing is simply called continuity editing.

The basic idea behind continuity editing is to create a smooth flow from shot to shot. Graphics are kept continuous from shot to shot. The characters are balanced and symmetrical, the action is centrally placed and the lighting tends to remain constant. Issues of rhythm tend to depend upon the type of action shown-physical action tends to have an accelerated rhythm and close-ups are on screen less than mid shots which are on screen less than long shots etc.

The need for a smooth flow of action dictates that in terms of spatial considerations the common 180° system is used in which cameras are used only on one side of the action to ensure consistent spatial relations between the objects or people on the right and left of the screen.

The temporal flow of the film with continuity editing is normally chronological although in a bid to create an element of difference from the repetition of genre texts, some directors are turning towards non linear narrative structures. Some temporal ellipses (time that passes between two shots) is irrelevant to the narrative whereas in other narratives, the temporal ellipses is all important and it becomes necessary for the audience to know that some time has passed. However, in continuity editing the normal practice is for elliptical rather than overlapping editing as film texts rarely expand the duration of the narrative beyond that of the film time.