Editing

Editing

The editor has a number of tasks on a film:

To select and reject footage filmed by the director

To organise the various shots filmed by the director into a coherent whole

To co-ordinate one shot with the following shot in order to produce the desired

effect on the audience and to keep a narrative moving

 The editor starts by looking at the various individual shots available to create a particular scene.  A scene is a self-contained, continuous series of shots that show a particular dramatic and/or narrative moment.  The editor adds one scene to another to form a sequence, which is a self-contained group of sequential scenes grouped around a specific set of sections of the narrative. Editing all of the sequences together will finally give us a finished film.

The common features of continuity editing, that we so often do not notice include:

Establishing shot

This is typically used at the beginning of a film or sequence to ensure that the audience knows where and when the action takes place. We could see the outside of a building, landscape or a city skyline.

Shot reverse shot

This is commonly used during conversation, it makes sure that we the audience can see how both people in the conversation respond and deliver specific pieces of information.

180 degree rule.

This basic rule ensures that the audience can understand the scene in terms of where things are within the filmic space. For example, two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

Rules can be broken, of course and if a director and editor break the 180° Rule by choice, it is to create confusion and disorientation in either the characters or the audience. 

Film editors can connect scenes in a number of ways. The most common transitions you will see include a:

straight cut

fade out

dissolve

wipe cut

jump cut

These transitions affect the pace and mood of the scene and how the sense of the film is communicated to the audience.