Types of Editing

Rachel Williams

Editing: The work of selecting and joining together shots to create a finished film.

The Editor

A film editor must know how to tell a story, the responsibility of guiding the picture through post-production and into the cinema rest in the their hands. Scenes may have been done poorly and performances might be flat, but a skilled, creative editor can assemble the film so that the audience never see those imperfections.

Everyone involved creates a scene, from the screenwriter and director, to the actors and film editor. After hours of reviewing unedited film, the editor creates a much shorter scene. Each part of a scene is quite often filmed in different locations and months apart, with the sound recorded in a studio, but when you see the finished scene, all of the sounds and images work together. They appear to have taken place at one time and in one place. This is the magic of editing.

Continuity Editing

Continuity editing creates action that flows smoothly across shots and scenes without jarring visual inconsistencies. It establishes a sense of story for the viewer. Errors of continuity disrupt the flow of a scene, for example, failure to match action or the placement of props across shots.

Here is a link to a short documentary on Continuity Editing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xauSCz1mEk

180 Degree RuleThe continuity approach to editing dictates that the camerashould stay on one side of the action to ensure consistent spatial relations between objects to the right and left of the frame.

Match on ActionA continuity cut which places two different framings of the same action together at the same moment in the gesture, making it seem to continue uninterrupted.

Shot-Reverse-ShotTwo or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation.

Elliptical Editing – Parts of an event of cut out, causing an ‘ellipsis’ in the plot and story duration. The following link is a good example of how elliptical editing can be used. The clip is from the film ‘Batman Begins’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpJGC13TG6k

Graphic Editing – Two shots of a similar composition are joined together. The audience eye is focused on the same point of the screen, when one object leaves the next takes the same place on the screen. This short clip is a simple yet effective example of a graphic match : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HG5kPlxzeU

Parallel Editing – This is a technique where a scene is cut between two or more related events occurring at the same time, in two separate locations, or different points in time. The following clip is from ‘The Godfather’ and shows how parallel editing works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_I82117oAw

Montage Editing – A segment of a film that summarizes a topic or compresses a passage of time into brief symbolic or typical images. Frequently, transitions like dissolves, fades, and wipes are used to link the images in a montage sequence. The opening sequence to ‘Hot Fuzz’ demonstrates this type of editing well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBNnHlqO4cs

Other Types of Editing

Cut – A visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantaneously replaced on screen by another. It is the most basic and common type of transition. Cuts became industry standard because in the early years of cinema, the editor could very easily cut the celluloid strip with a blade or scissors and splice it together, any other type of transition would require specialized processing, increasing the cost. Also, other types of transition are more distracting, cuts help the film flow better.

Fade In/Fade out – A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on the screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. It is often used to indicate a change in time and/or place. These are the second most common type of transition. Traditionally, fade outs are used to end a movie and a fade in is used to begin a movie. In ‘Pulp Fiction’, one fade out happens right after Butch rams his car into Marcellus Wallace, an unexpected accident that drastically alters the lives of those two characters.

Dissolve – A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one, it can also be known as ‘overlapping’. For a few seconds, they overlap, and both shots are visible. This type of transition is commonly used to signify the passage of time.

Wipe – A bar travels across the frame, pushing one shot off and pulling the next shot into place. They are rarely used in contemporary film, but are common in films from the 1930s and 1940s. Wipes are a dynamic transition and George Lucas deliberately used them throughout the ‘Star Wars’ series.

Iris – A circle closing down over or opening up on a shot. They are seldom used in contemporary film, but were commonly used during the silent era of Hollywood films. Irises are also found in some cartoons.

Transitions used in Film Editing