Cutting to sound track

Cutting to soundtrack is when you edit based on the soundtrack that has been chosen, for example if you have picked a fast paced song then your cuts are most likely to be fast too, so the track and the edits match. This is to keep the audience up to speed, but its also to keep the audience in the right mood for the right scene for example in a fast cut scene the music will be fast paced so the audience will be either on the edge of their seat and excited. 

Here is an example of a fast paced song matching the cuts:

Cross cutting

Cross cutting, also known as split screen, is a drama technique which has been borrowed from the world of film editing. This is where two scenes are inter cut to establish continuity. The technique is used to highlight or contrast a particular theme or aspect of the story. Using different groupings, both scenes could happen at the same time, or one could be frozen while the other comes alive. This can have a similar effect to spotlighting particular areas of the stage or using a split-screen in a film. This could be used in a chase scene for an action film. This techniques allows the audience to follow the action. 

Here is an example of cross cutting:

Editing rhythm

Editing rhythm is a technique used by editors to keep the pace of the film up to match the action that is going on in the film. Slow cuts edits has a calming, bordering feel to the edit, however fast cut edits have a lively, aggressive feel to the edit. This is done so the audience can feel the right emotion for the right scene, and so everything has a nice flow. 

Here is an example; 

Providing and withholding information

Providing and withholding information is a technique used to try to make the narrative more dramatic by giving the audience more information or taking away that information. An example of providing and withholding information would be the scene from the exorcist III. The audience know something is going to happen because of the clip lengths and cuts and you can automatically assume something bad is going to happen as soon as the police officers leave but the audience don't know what exactly is going to happen. 

Here is the Exorcist III scene 

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot is usually used when two characters are having a conversation. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. This shows the audience that the characters are having a conversation and it also allows them to see the facial expression of the character talking.

Here is an example: 

Point of view shot

A point of view shot, also known as POV shot, is a short film scene that shows what a character is looking at, its represented through the camera. It is normally shown by showing that the character is looking at something and then in the next shot showing what the character is actually looking at. 

A POV shot doesn't always need to be a direct shot which is just a shot of what the character is looking at it could be filmed as an over the shoulder shot.

Cutaways

A cutaway is a short that's usually something different to what the current action is. It could be a different subject, a close up of the subject (e.g. the subjects hands) or just about anything else.  This editing technique could also be used as a "buffer" between shots (to help the editing process), or to add interest/information.

Here is an example of a cutaway shot. 

Transitions

In film editing, transition basically is how one shot replaces the other.  Here are the few ways you can do that: 



Cut: Cuts are the most common and also basic type of transition. A cut is when one shot immediately replaces the other. Cuts are used so frequently that feature movies normally count thousands of them. 








Fade in/out: The second most common type of transition is the fade ins and fades outs. Fade outs happen when the picture is slowly replaced by a black screen or any other solid colour. Traditionally, fade outs have been used to conclude movies. Fade ins do the opposite job; they use a solid colour which slowly gives way to a picture. This is commonly used in the beginning of movies.







Dissolve: This transition is also known as overlapping, dissolves happen when one show gradually replaces by the next. One disappears as the following appears. for a few seconds they overlap, so both would be visible. This is normally used to signify the passage of time.








 Wipes: This transition happens when one shot pushes the other off frame.

Splicing.

Usually in Europe a film splicer is called a film joiner. Its a technique which can be used to physically join together lengths of photographic film. Most of the time its used in film motion pictures, what it can do is add a scene in between two scenes to make one scene appear longer. There are three types of splicers all used for different purposes.

Tape splicers: Tape splicers join film using clear tape, they can work with all types of film like Mylar, acetate and polyester. The tape can be perforated or non-perforated. When using non-perforated tape the machine punches out the perf holes as it makes the splice. Non-perforated tapes are less expensive.

Cement splicers: With cement splicers, they join pieces of film together using glue. The film is melted with chemicals (welded) which forms an invisible permanent bond. Because of this, cement splicers are used with negative film in preparation for striking release prints. They can also be used to repair and restore release prints as well. Professional cement splicers have heating elements that allow the glue to set faster.

Ultrasonic Splicers: Ultrasonic splicers are used with Mylar and polyester based film stocks. They work by fusing two pieces of film together and they are electronic.

180 Degree Axis Rule

The purpose of the 180 Degree Axis Rule is to establish and maintain the screen direction of your actors or action in a particular scene. If you don't successfully achieve the 180 degree rule then it can be very difficult for your audience to follow what's going on in the scene. The most important factor about the 180 degree rule is the line of action. The line of action is a imaginary straight line between a subject and the item or person they are interacting with and its also a straight line drawn along a path that a subject is moving on.

Before introducing the 180 degree scene the establishing shot is normally placed to help orientate the audience. The establishing shot gives the viewer the basic geography of the scene and determines screen direction of the actors of action. As long as the camera doesn't cross the action line our actors sight line stays consistent. This prevents the viewer from being confused. If we cross the action line the actors won't look like they are looking at each other like they are meant to be, this will create confusion for the audience.

Breaking the 180 degree rule can be used for dramatic purposes such as creating a disoriented feeling, like showing that the character is lost and this effect can give the audience the same feeling.



Here is an example of the 180 degree rule:



During this scene both characters are having a conversation with each other, the 2 cameras constantly flick back and forth onto each character as soon as its their turn to speak. Both cameras are placed behind the line of action but on each end of the room. Both characters are not looking directly at each other but instead they are staring at the camera that is opposite them to make it appear to the audience that they are staring directly at each other. This makes it easier for the audience to follow the action.

Parallel editing

When we cut back and forth between two scenes and the action in one scene remains discrete from the action in the other scene that is to say one unit of action is not directly continuous from the other, parallel is maybe an operation. Parallel editing it a editorial technique which is used to make an abstract connection between a person or event or place in one scene and a person or event or place in another scene. A good example happens at the begging of lat resort directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. We follow a Russian woman arriving with her sun at UK customs and being detained there, we cut to another scene of a man who is English shadow boxing in his room and then going outside in the corridor to sort out an argument. Finally we cut back to the woman and her sun back at customs. The action in the two scenes in the 2 different locations in neither continuous nor directly connected. Parallel editing has being used to indicate a possible relationship dynamic between the two characters at some point forward in the narrative.

Jump cutting

Normally when we want to record to prepare for a cutting point between two consecutive shots such as cutting from a wide shot in a scene to closer coverage we would vary both the size and angle of the shot. Some film makers deliberately choose not to vary the size and angle of the second shot which results in the cut having a jarring effect, literally jumping awkwardly from one shot to the next in the industry this is known as a jump cut.

Filmmakers use jump cuts for several reasons. Some do it just for rebellion, to break the traditional continuity editing. They can be used to add a sense of speed to the sequence of events or it could suggest how the mind works or jump cuts can be used for skipping time.


Here is an example of jump cutting

Montage (finish tonight)

- Montage is a type of editing
- A series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time and information.
- Soviet montage is a type of montage and it comes from Russia.
- In soviet monatage theory the editing of shots create symbolic meaning.
- Key figure is Lev Kuleshov
- for Kuleshov editing a film is like constructing a building. brick by brick, shot by shot.
- He conducted an experiment to show that montage can lead the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film.
- The experiment was that he put together a small film in wich a shot of the expressionless face of Tsarist matinee idol Ivan Mosjoukine was alternated with various other shots ( A plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, a woman on divan.)
-



- The audience thought that Mosjoukine's facial expressions changed according to what he was looking at

- The audience thought that these were what the facial expressions were

- Soup= hunger
- Girl in coffin= grief
- Woman on the divan= desire

- The facial expression was actually the same in each shot.

- Montage works because viewers infer meaning based on context




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruoPT9JeYHA






- Hitchcock uses his own example of how we as the audience picture a sequence according to the context.

- the same close up is seen to express different emotions according to the image its put with ( Woman and child) (Woman in bikini)

Motivation

Motivation and editing sequence can be achieved in various way the simplest is to show the audience a new shot which provides new information where this new information requires or stimulates or causes a change in action or behavior in the proceeding shot.Looking at the example of the extract from fast 5 we see and instance of such motivation. At 0:40 the camera tilts p to reveal a man on a roof top holding a rocket launcher pointed in the direction of the verchiles  in the convoy who's directory we have been following thus far in the scene at 0:41 we cut back to the rock surveying the landscape ahead not having yet noticed fully the ambusher but noticing sometiming. At 0:42 we have a shaky P.O.V on the ambusher representing the rocks visual perseption in respect of the view through the windscreen and in the next shot his reaction to what he has now realised is a potention Ambush, the shots of the man holding the rocket launcher and motivate in 2 stages, the first shot of the rock inclinded to make sense of something he has notice on the roof top and the 2nd shot of him reacting to his own realization this is a good example of the action in some shots motivated by the action in shot they are jumps proposed with

Conventions of techniques: seamless and continuity

 Seamless:
Classic continuity editing of Hollywood is editing that aims to be invisible.
Good continuity editing shouldn't draw attention to itself  this is what leads us to the term of reference 'seamless'.
To be seamless, cuts should take on an invisible quality about them, the viewer should not notice them. To be seamless continuity in terms of all elements of mise en scene and all elements of action in the frame should be preserved perfectly from one clip or take to the next across the cut. Any mise en scene element such as a prop the position of which changes ironiously across a cut breaks continuity and last leads to editing which is not seamless any unit of action that doesn't match properly across a cut also breaks continuity and this again leads to editing which is not seamless.

Continuity:
Continuity editing is the dominant style of film editing in the western world and more broadly in most cinematic culture throughout the rest of the globe. Its purpose is to 'smooth' over the essential discontinuity of the process of editing and to establish a logical ilherance
between successive shots in a sequence. What we mean by this is that the very act of cutting so that there is a change of any kind whatsoever between to shots, even cutting into the same stretch of footage and removing as much as one frame, is a detraction from the continuous progression of a piece of action in real time. If we cut from one angle of action to another the break from the continuous action of the first take is more significant. If we cut forwards in time the break from the continuous first take is more continuous still.

Continuity editing is a process which attempts to make such deviations from the continuous real time action of a single stretch of footage as inconspicuous as possible. Editors achieve logical coherence by cutting to continuity where the emphasis is on smooth transition of time and space.

In the extract from avengers, we witness a fight between Thor and Hulk and are provided a good example for successful continuity editing which is seamless in nature and unsuccessful continuity editing which is not seamless. Up until 0:22 seconds matches of action are good with limbs being in complimentary positions across cuts following the the momentum
of the movement of the two characters. The cut between 0:22 to 0:23 marks a break in good continuity at the end of the shot which finishes at 0:22 fore arm and hand are lower down more towards the underneath of the hulks fore arm. At the beginning of the tape which commences at 0.23 Thors hand and fore arm are higher covering more of the hulks arm with no motion or momentum rational for this change of position. This lack of action match emphasizes the discontinuity and fails to achieve seamlessness