Editing; style of editing, speed of editing

Editing; is the process of looking at all the footage shot during the making of a film/T.V show and placing it in the desired order and then joining it together. 

There are two parts when it comes to editing;

• the speed of editing
• the style of editing

The speed of editing is how long the shot in a scene will last. Style of editing is how each shot is joined into the next one. In some films, each scene could last a few seconds or in other film cases, a matter of seconds. The length of each sequence will then establish the pace (speed) of the entire film moving the action along. 

If the editors want the audience to feel anxiety or suspense, they will aim to edit the film so it has quick scenes, this type of editing is found in action films such as 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. 

If the film requires a relaxed mood, the scenes will last longer and change to a different one less frequently so the audience can see the connection between two characters for example. This type of editing is used for romance films such as 'sleepless in Seattle'. 

A film we looked at was called 'The Russian Ark' which was filmed in one take using just a steadicam and a digital camera which required organisation and split-second timing. 

Scenes at the beginning of a film-  As it starts to tell the story, must be long enough for the audience to understand where we are in the film and what is meant to be happening. 

As the film processes-  Scenes tend to become a lot more shorter as the editing will cut between telling two or more story lines at the same time (E.g. Spider man) . 

Style of editing

How the shots are linked together. The movement of one shot to the other is known as a transition. 

straight cut-  Most common used transition and is an invisible form of transition. One shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audiences attention.  help to retain the reality of the film and don't break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

• Dissolves-  Fading one shot off the other screen whilst another shot is fading in. Mostly used when the filmmaker wants to show the connection between two characters, places or objects.

wipes-  When one image is pushed of the screen by another. 

Mostly common for the image to be pushed off by the left hand 

side as it is more consistent with sense

 of time moving forward (E.g. Starwars) 

Jump cut-  Audiences attention is brought into 

focus on something suddenly, 

this occurs by breaking the continuity editing. 

The Montage theory;

Lev Kuleshov was one of the first to theorize about the relatively young medium of cinemas in the 1920s. He believed that editing films was just like constructing a business. Around 19818 Kuleshov performed an experiment to prove his point. He to an old film clip of a Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with numerous images.