INTOTHEIBFILM
EDITING
Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging video shots to create a new work. Editing is usually considered to be one part of the post production process — other post-production tasks include titling, colour correction, sound mixing, etc.
The definition of video editing can be broken down into three sub-definitions of the term. Video editing can refer to non-linear video editing, linear video editing, and vision mixing. The most basic goal of video editing is the removal of unwanted video clips. Once the flaws of the video have been removed, the best parts of it are to be determined. When the only remaining clips are what you want to be in your new creation, you try and create a flow to give your film structure and substance. Once this goal is achieved, your next goal is to make it look good with special effects and appropriate transitions. The last goal for video editing is giving your new work a sense of meaning. Why does it exist? Why did you create it? Answer those questions and you have successfully created a new work via video editing.
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Linear Video Editing
This was the original form of video editing. It involves the basic process of selecting clips, rearranging clips and modifying the images and sound on clips all by using a video tape. It was originally done by physically cutting the tape and splicing it to achieve a new sequence. This was a very complicated and arduous process and it was avoided whenever possible.
Non - Linear Video Editing
The basic idea behind the video editing process remains the same in non-linear video editing. However, the tools are different. The destructive nature of linear video editing is eliminated by the computer-based cutting and pasting of clips. The original recording remains intact even with multiple modifications because it is never touched. A copy of the original is used in editing, leaving the original untainted and unmodified. This is a way faster method considering that an editor can work on any part of the film at any time. It's much cheaper too since video editing software can now be purchased at affordable prices. Video editing can be done at home thanks to the advent of new technology.
Vision Mixing
Also called production switching, this type of video editing is usually done in TV broadcasts. The process involves selecting from several video sources and featuring it on the broadcast. Sometimes, multiple video sources are mixed together with some special effects added to achieve a dynamic look for a broadcast.
These essential cuts will help any editor transform their footage into a gripping, solid narrative.
Essential Edits
Hitchcock has summit to
say about editing...
1. The Standard
The hard cut is the basic type of cut in editing. This type of cut is utilized when you want to cut from clip to clip without any type of transition, or where you cut from the end of one clip to the beginning of another. The only down side of the hard cut is that (out of all the cuts we’ll talk about) this one gives the least amount of visual meaning.
The History of Cutting
Basic Cutting of a Conversation
2. Jump Cut
The jump cut is a technique which allows the editor to jump forward in time. We see an early version of this technique in Eisenstein‘s Battleship Potemkin, where the battleship fires a mortar round and we watch the destruction as various angles jump cut from one to another. In this very early version of the jump cut, contemporary audiences were introduced to a new way of time passage in film.
Battleship Potemkin Early Jump Cut
City of God
A great use of jump cutting and cutting between two different sets of action. Incredibly technical editing at it’s best, particularly good because it is at the very start of the film, as it has to introduce the main characters.
Royal Tenenbaums Jump Cut
Understanding Jump Cuts
3. L Cut and J Cut
L Cut: This editing technique is used not only by narrative filmmakers, but is also a favorite of documentary filmmakers and commercial videographers. What L Cut means is that you are hearing the audio from the previous shot, even though we’ve moved on to another shot.
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Fight Club where Tyler recites the rules as various characters ready themselves to fight. What is happening here is that the audience is introduced to the voice, and then we are given visual information on the environment where the voice is located. This technique will keep your film or video flowing naturally, while also giving your audience much needed spacial information.
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Again, this type of editing technique is used to help lead audiences along in the narrative by giving them spacial information and audio. L Cuts are also used to contextualize a conversation or give it deeper meaning, as was done in Skyfall during the museum scene with Q and 007. As they are talking, we cut to the painting of the old warship on the wall while Q continues to talk, eexplaining what they are looking at while also correlating 007s career to the warship in the painting.
J Cut: J Cut is essentially the opposite of the L Cut. Here we hear the audio before we see the video. So, the audience is is looking at clip A but still hearing audio from clip B. This type of cut is used quite often in all forms of filmmaking and videography, but you can see it quite often in content featuring an interview.
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Just like with L Cuts, you can give your audience additional visual information to go along with the dialogue that is being fed to the audience. As was with the video below, this allows your audience to gain a better understanding of the environment the character exists in.
4. Cutting on Action
The technique of cutting on action is a huge component of, well, action films. Of course, this type of cut can be used on less-explosive action as well. The basic idea of cutting for action is that the editor cuts from one shot to another and matches the action of the shots. Editing is all about motivation. Each time you cut to a new shot you need to ask yourself: why?
In the words of Videomaker:
"Don’t be tempted to wait for a pause and then cut, unless you have a good reason."
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One of the best modern examples of cutting on action is the Watchtower of Turkey by Leonardo Dalessandri. The video is a great example of not only cutting on action but also using motivated edits to seamlessly transition between scenes.
Point Break Cutting on Action
5. Cutaways
Cutaways take the audience away from the main action or subject. These are used primarily as transition pieces to give the audience a view of what is happening outside of the main character’s environment. This also goes a long way in helping you emphasize specific details of the mise-en-scène and allowing you to add meaning to them.
Family Guy - without cutaways
Ferris Buellars Day Off: Another way to use cutaways is during dialogue sequences. A great example of this is during a scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, where Rooney believes he is talking to Ferris, only to be met with the realization that he is on another line.
6. Cross - Cut or Parallel Editing
The technique of the cross-cut, also known as parallel editing, is where you cut between two different scenes that are happening at the same time in different spaces. When done effectively you can tell two simultaneous stories at once and the information being given to the audience will make complete sense.
In the last 10 years, probably no filmmaker has loved using the cross-cut technique more than Christopher Nolan. He’s used this technique on several films and always uses it effectively to connect the various stories lines in each film. In his 2010 film Inception, Nolan utilizes the cross-cut technique to aid the audience in keeping up with the various levels of the dream state. In fact, it often feels like the entire film is just one long series of cross-cuts. For an example of this cut, let’s watch the now famous zero gravity fight scene and watch how it connects to the crew in the van in a previous dream level.
Inception - Christopher Nolan
Silence of the Lambs
Utilizing this type of cut, you’ll need to be careful in how you structure your multiple story lines. If not done correctly, you’ll just confuse the audience more. When using the cross-cut technique, I’ve always found it extremely helpful to get a separate pair of eyes on the edit. It may make complete sense to you as the editor, but it may go right over the audiences’ head. For other examples of this type of cut, all you need to do is look to other work by Nolan. He successfully uses this technique in Memento, The Dark Knight, and Interstellar.
7. Montage
Montage is another technique that has been around for a long time, but isn’t used as much as the previous cuts. The idea behind the montage is to use rapid cuts of imagery to help convey the passing of time or to help aid the context of the narrative. There are many different forms of montage, but one of our favorites is the rhythmic montage in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. During the three-way standoff, director Sergio Leone uses quick montage cuts to give the audience the facial reactions of all three characters. This works perfectly to heighten the tension of the moment.
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Karate Kid
Montage is also used quite often to help get the audience through a passage of time. There are great examples of this throughout film history, but one of our favorites is its usage during the original Karate Kid. Editor John G. Avildsen uses the montage to quickly get us through the karate tournament showing the main characters progress, as well as the progress of those he will eventually face.
Not forgetting 'ROCKY'
Team America
8. Match Cuts
The match cut is the technique of matching the movement or space of two opposite environments together. This technique has been used for many years. It’s most effective when you need to move the narrative along, but you need to find a way to connect them together seamlessly. There are two particular films that do this extremely well, and they are two of the most lauded films in history. The first film that we’ll look at is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and how Stanley Kubrick found a way to move from the ‘Dawn of Man sequence’ to the ‘Space Station sequence’ in the span of a second without continuity issues. He did this by showing the primitive man throwing the bone up into the air and then replacing it with a spaceship floating through space. This was extremely effective and allowed the audience to move from one scene to another easily.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Lawrence of Arabia
The second example comes from Lawrence of Arabia. After being introduced to Lawrence, director David Lean and editor Ann V. Coates needed a way to move from the space of the government offices to the deserts of Arabia. In this case they used the blowing out of the match to jump us forward in time to the rising sun of the desert. This cut works because we have the extinguishing of one light and the rise of another. Again, this keeps the flow and pace of the narrative going without disorientation to the audience.
Breaking Bad
Skyfall
9. Assembling of Close-ups and Slo-mo with powerful Music
Use of Adagio for Strings, a slow moving piece of music, set to fast and brutal action. It uses simple imagery and enhances it to incredible effect by using slow motion and close-ups sparingly.
Platoon
10. Close Cropping
The sequence shows how the editor can slowly and subtly move the viewer into the scene. Watch how the camera is cropped closer and closer to the characters between each take. The editor also knows exactly who to cut to at any time, choosing to cut to McMurphy only to allow the viewers to ‘breathe’ during the intense argument.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
11. Parallel Cutting with Emphasis on Sound
Parallel cutting between two different conversations at once, one in the park and one in which Harry Caul listens to the audio and argues with his employee (played by the late John Cazale). mix two different scenes into one without disrupting the flow. It also comments on how Harry Caul will willingly spy on another person, but still try to respect their privacy. The intruding eye of the flashback helps to counteract his morals, making him seem foolish and alone at the end of the scene.
The Conversation
12. Split Screen
Split Screen and Parallel editing to an extent, in order to show two scenarios at the same time – followed by a stunning pencil portrait
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Split-screen filmmaking is one of the oldest techniques used by film editors and VFX artists alike. Whether it’s editing clips together or building a single shot from multiple takes, here are some of the many different uses of split screen.
500 Days of Summer
Analysis of Expectations V's Reality
In 2000, the film Requiem for a Dream crushed the hearts of every audience member as they watched a realistic fall into drug addiction. In one of the film’s more sentimental moments, Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly intimately share a bed and the split screen is used to draw attention to the couple’s caressing hands. It’s the rare love scene that focuses attention on the lover’s embrace, rather than pure erotica.
Requiem for a Dream
The Art of Split Screen
The Rules of Attraction uses the split-screen technique in an unconventional manner. After a montage of split-screen clips, this sequence ends with two characters having a conversation. The audience sees the face of each character during the conversation, and then, with the use of a motion control camera rig, the split screen folds into a single shot.
Rules of Attraction
Stranger than Fiction
13. Creating Suspense
1. Give You Character Breathing Room
Many films today utilize a fast cutting routine of quick edits and spastic pacing that encourages a quick cheap suspense. For deeply suspenseful editing, try giving your characters a few extra seconds of screen time. Create a slow, methodical pacing in your scene, showcasing close-ups.
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If you are in the process of revealing an important plot element, or simply establishing the anxious nature of the character surrounding their situation, allow the shot to linger before cutting away. The longer you hold on your character, the more anxious the audience will become when the stakes get high.
The Shining
Suspense in film is based around the anticipation of an upcoming event, and how the story unfolds in the attempt to get there. As you decide where to place your reveal, allow your cuts to build without becoming too hasty. As we can see in this example from The Dark Knight, music plays an important role in building the tension until the reveal.
The Dark Knight
The visual field in your film is key to creating cinematic suspense. How much depth you place in your image is important, especially when your suspense is built around an environment. Try utilizing different lens types in your scene to help build the tension. As you transition from a wide angle 24mm to a 50mm, the difference will cause your audience to pay closer attention while giving them important surrounding detail. Or if you really want to throw them off, try going from a super wide 16mm to a shallow 85mm. The difference could help your audience stay connected longer.
Psycho
Slowly pulling back the camera to reveal the ‘bigger picture’ is a shot that has been used time and time again. This technique is great to utilize when you want to tease your audience by prolonging the reveal until the perfect moment.
Alien
A staple for filmmakers, the tracking shot is great for any form of storytelling. As your scene progresses, the lack of cutting could create a more realistic feeling for your audience and the constant motion of the long take will engage your audience in a way that quick cuts may not.
Touch of Evil
Cuts and Transitions 101: Everything you need to know
which i could have shown you at the start but decided to be mean
Creating the 'Oh F**K Moment
