I. Editing is the process of selecting and assembling various shots (takes / prints) and sound tracks into a coherent whole. The aesthetic choices of the editor will vary according to the kind of film in which he or she is working. Editing is normally done in post-production, the period after the shooting of a film or tape during which the production is edited, dubbed, and prepared for distribution..

A. Montage -- A term derived from the French word for mounting, or assembling—hence, staging in theater usage and editing in film terminology.

1. In the US, the term has been used in a sense akin to that of photomontage in still photography—that is, the combining of several images in one frame by superimposition.

2. As applied to motion pictures, this came to specifically describe a sequence made up of a quick succession of brief shots blending and dissolving into one another, created to compress action and convey the passage of time.

3. The technique, typically featuring linked images of such items as calendar pages, newspaper headlines, place names, and train wheels, was particularly popular in Hollywood films of the 30s. \

4. In Citizen Kane, it creates the muckraking style of Kane’s newspapers that leads to the Thatcher / Kane tension.

5. The term montage (collision) as it is generally understood today is associated with the work and theory of Sergei Eisenstein. He argues editing represents the rhetorical arrangement of shots in juxtaposition so that the collision between two adjoining images creates a third independent entity. And this gives the audience a whole new meaning of the visual / aural images.

6. Eisenstein's ideas of montage were inspired by the editing techniques of D. W. Griffith and the laboratory experiments of Lev Kuleshov.

7. Eisenstein saw montage as a means of eliciting emotional responses from the audience.

8. Eisenstein identified five types, or levels, of montage:

a. Metric

b. Rhythmic

c. Tonal

d. Overtonal

e. Intellectual or the expression of abstract ideas

B. The classical Hollywood narrative film is usually cut according to the rules of continuity or the invisible editing that is critical in the storytelling process but the viewer shot be unaware of shot transitions (how we get from one shot to the next) -- the editing.

1. This type of editing optimizes the illusory power of cinema and semester we are trying to avoid getting caught up in the illusion so that we can see how the audience is being manipulated.

2. Continuity editing can work only if the director shoots the original sequence according to certain rules. These rules include:

a. The 180-degree rule (drawing an imaginary line through the action and shooting from only one side of that line)

b. The 30-degree rule (moving camera set-ups at least 30 degrees from each other during a scene).

3. Continuity editing in narrative filmmaking is used to condense time and space as well as to emphasize story elements, structuring the narrative material so that patterns of meaning are created.

4. The sound track is mixed and foleys (sound effects created in order to match certain sequences) are added.

a. Sound tracks

i. The recorded sound of a film is magnetic in production recording and optical in exhibition projection.

ii. Optical sound tracks operate by the modulation of a beam of light that creates a band on the film that widens and narrows to encode the information of the signal.

iii. Magnetic sound tracks, like tape recordings on a Nagra, are recorded at the same speed the film runs.

iv. It is encode electro-magnetically on a specially prepared surface.

iv. The tracks are mixed onto a 35-mm magnetic tape that matched 35-mm film sprocket holes and all.

Iv. The final sound track, whether optical or magnetic is a mixture of several primary tracks mixed together in the final mix.

a. Effects

b. Dialogue

i. Sync

ii. Non- Sync

c. Music

b. Mixing -- mixage -- The general term for the work of the sound editor or mixer, who combines and edits various separate sound tracks into one final version.

c. Mix --

i. Optical: A dissolve.

ii. Sound: The marriage of several separate recording tracks such as music, dialogue, and sound effects.

d. A Foley artist creates such routine sounds as footsteps, moving furniture, and clinking silverware, which are not recorded during the principal photography of a feature film.

i. These sounds are then recorded (or re-created with higher fidelity sound) during post-production and added to the final mixing of the complete sound track.

ii. The technicians responsible for creating these supportive sounds are known as Foley artists (named in honor of Ed Foley, a pioneering sound technician at Universal Pictures).

iii. They work on a Foley stage, where a variety of props and surfaces (rough, smooth, sandy, rocky, etc.) are used to make and record sounds that match the footsteps and other actions of the actors on- screen.

iv. The Foley editor is the sound editor, who edits the Foley sound effects together.

ix. The process of synchronizing the sound and picture on the same filmstrip is known as marriage or marrying the print.

e. Postsynchronization -- The recording of sound in synchronization with a picture after filming has been completed.

i. It is similar to the playback technique of prerecorded music, postsynchronization is intended to provide a film with a quality sound track when original recording cannot be made under the proper acoustical conditions.

ii. It is also used to substitute one performer's voice for another or in dubbing from one language to another or to correct errors in the original recording

iii. Usually, a guide track is recorded with the picture.

iv. Loops made from the guide track are then played back to the performers as they watch the corresponding picture on a screen.

v. The session is called looping and is handled by technical experts in a process called automatic dialogue replacement (ADR).

II. In motion picture production, the editor is the person responsible for cutting a film in consultation with the director. Working behind the scenes, the film editor is an unsung member of a motion picture's creative team. Yet the success or failure of a production may hinge on the quality of her work.

A. Sharp film editing can make a good production look great and a great production look like a masterpiece.

B. Conversely, sloppy editing can undo a solid script and even negate fine efforts by the director, the actors, and technical crews.

C. An expressive language of editing has evolved that enhances the film's narrative and emotional power.

D. Editing is a complex art as well as a demanding craft. It is unique to film (video) among the plastic arts.

E. The individual contribution of an editor to a film varies from situation to situation.

1. Some editors with proven skills are given a great deal of autonomy and creative freedom. Others execute their craft mechanically under precise instructions by the director or producer.

2. Sometimes, when working on a high-budget film, an editor may become involved in the preproduction stages of a project and may be invited to attend the actual shooting of some complicated scenes, but normally his role is confined to the cutting room.

3. Robert Wise claims that his previous experience in the cutting room has helped him "visualize the scenes as they will look on the screen before they are shot."

a. Robert Wise edited The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.

b. He won Academy Awards for directing West Side Story and The Sound of Music.

4. It is difficult to detect a consistent style in the cumulative work of any editor, for, after all, the most he or she can possibly do is rearrange existing material and tell a story in the best possible way. But the quality of an editor's work can be discerned by such details as:

a. Smooth matching of action

b. Creative use of editing devices (dissolves, fades, etc)

c. The general flow of the continuity

5. The best compliment one can pay an editor is to tell him his editing is invisible. Editing is considered a success when it goes unnoticed on the screen.

III. Review -- The footage is the raw material that the film editor gets when principal photography is completed.

A. There are two basic classes of movement in motion picture art.

1. Movement within a shot creates an internal visual rhythm within each composition.

a. The Camera

b. The Actor (or object)

c. The Background

2. Movement between shots, scenes, and sequences create a structural rhythm for scenes and sequences and a total film.

a. This is the purpose and process of editing.

b. It refers to the assembling of the shots into meaningful patterns.

c. It creates relationships between:

i. Images

ii. Sounds

iii. Images and sounds

B. The are a basic collection of shots

1. Shot types

a. Establishing or Master shots--cover large portions of physical area and establish locations (also called a cover shot).

b. Body shots-- described in terms of how much of a person is seen on screen.

i. Long shot--complete body and large areas of background.

ii. Medium shot--(American shot) includes the body from the knees up.

iii. Medium close-up (chest shot if shot from the chest up). In TV we talk about a waist or bust shot.

iv. Close-up--head or object where close detail may be seen.

v. Extreme close-up--less than the complete face or object

c. Numerical shots --number of characters in the frame at a given time

i. Two shot

ii. Three shot

iii. Group shot

d. Emotional shots --physical angles used to help create emotion reactions.

i. Dominance-- shot from below.

ii. Subservience-- shot from above.

iii. Point of view-- seeing the scene through the eyes of the actor.

e. In addition, several factors impact upon the "look" of individual shots, and this look must be consistent so that the audience is not jarred when the shots are edited together.

i. Lenses impact upon the size, clarity and depth of field in a shot.

ii. Exposure and processing impact upon the density, grain, value and colors of images.

iii. Lighting reveals and disguises images.

iv. Compositions must be planned so they can be edited meaningfully, and this is the most important decision the cinematographers make because it CONTROLS THE EYE.

B. Intrashot movement is movement during a given shot

1. Camera movement:

a. Pan--horizontal or left-right movement. The base remains stationary. Only the camera moves.

b. Tilt--vertical movement. The base remains stationary. Only the camera moves.

c. Dollying/Tracking--movement of both the base and the camera toward or away from the object

d. Zoom--simulates the dolly without moving the camera.

e. Trucking/Tracking--movement of both the base and the camera to the left and right and parallel to the object being shot

f. Pedestal--raising or lowering the camera.

g. Crane or Boom--uses a crane device and may move in any direction, often reaching quite a height

h. Crab-- an irregular movement such as a semicircle using a crab dolly rather than a set of camera tracks

2. Movement of objects or actors

a. Since the frameshape is a two dimensional rectangle, actors' " moves" are used to enhance the illusion of depth (the third dimension).

b. Actors/objects move through the space within the frame.

i. They move from / to background, midground & foreground.

ii. They move from / to right-center-left

iii. They move diagonally and in circles to reshape the compositions.

iv. They "counter" moves by other actors or reposition themselves within the composition.

v. All moves are done in relation to the camera and the composition within the frameshape being registered by the lens.

3. Movement of background.

a. These movements can be recorded as the camera films the scene in "live action".

i. If the scene is "dangerous", normally a stuntman/woman (a double) is used to eliminate the danger to the actor playing the role being doubled.

ii. The reason for doubling is to get the action right and avoid injury, which would delay production and therefore increase costs of completing the film.

b. Previously shot footage can be rear screen projected and "synched" with the camera recording the scene. In 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

i. Stanley Kubrick used front screen projection on a highly reflective background surface.

ii. The low light level did not reflect on the dark ape suits worn by the actors, but can be seen in the glowing eyes of the animal.

c. The actors/objects can be shot in front of a blue screen actually a green screen these days) and using computer operated cameras have that move and then matted into the shot to create a moving background, a technology first exploited commercially in STAR WARS.

C. Specialized techniques include freeze frames, slow or fast motion, distortion, and racking focus.

D. All of these factors must be considered in advance of the editing process.

IV. Review of sound elements that must be used in editing.

A. Synchronous sound levels must be the same between takes and shots within a scene. This is PRIMARILY actor's voices or recorded dialogue.

B. Non-Synchronous sound is normally recorded after the shoot is completed and must also match dialogue levels, unless the director is going for a psychological effect or must have the audience hear a sound or musical refrain. This involves:

1. Dubbed dialogue to correct problems in recording sync sound.

2. Voice Overs (Narration and Commentary) which is normally used for transitional purposes.

3. Sound Effects (SFX) which create a "new reality" for the visual images, whether local or background.

4. Music is written after the rough cut (except for songs that must be "lip-synched" during shooting) and used to:

a. Support images, dialogue, and action

b. Create mood, emotion, and atmosphere

c. Identify time, place, and characters

d. Carry ideas and meaning beyond the visuals used

e. Music is always a support element

f. The visual image is of primary importance--but music is a critical emotional lubricant that psyches up an audience that is unaware of the music.

5. Silence (or apparent silence) that is emotionally full of tension when used well.

IV. Editing is a quality that is unique to film (and video) and it is at this point that the editor takes the raw material and manipulates the raw material and recreates (visually and aurally rewrites) the film for the final presentation.

A. Continuity, here comes that word again and it has shades of meaning.

1. The uninterrupted progression of related shots, scenes, and sequences necessary to maintain a logical development of theme or story in a film.

2. Since motion pictures are shot out of sequence, care must be taken to avoid breaks in the flow of action and dialogue as well as discrepancies in the minutest details.

a. The appearance of performers, props, costumes, and backgrounds must match exactly from one shot to the next .b. This must occur so that the illusion of sequential filming is maintained.

B. Editing literally creates a new kind of motion in moving pictures, It literally "picks the audience up" psycho/physically" and moves it from position to position, from place to place, from time to time, from emotion to emotion.

C. Motion pictures are constructed using editing techniques.

1. Shots build into scenes.

2. Scenes build into sequences.

3. Sequences build into complete films.

D. Definitions:

1. A shot is the film exposed from the time a camera starts running until it stops in a given take. (Parts of the beginning and ending are usually deleted.

2. A scene is a unit that has a coherent/consistent, time/space line.

a. A good rule of thumb is, if the time changes it is a new scene.

b. Or if the place changes, it is a new scene.

c. A scene is made up of one or more shots.

3. A sequence is a complete dramatic unit and is made up of one or more scenes. (In the production schedule of a film, sequences are not identified but are understood to exist and then edited into a film.

4. Editing, then, is the means of building a film, of exploring ideas and telling stories.

a. It begins with the single exposure of a frame.

b. A series of frames during one "run of the camera" is a shot and must, in and of itself, be a unified whole intellectual unit.

i. A single continuous take, filmed in a single session from one camera setup.

ii. The basic grammatical unit of the language of film is a shot and may range from a single frame taken from a fixed position to a setup involving complex camera movement to the complete roll of film in the camera (approximately 10 minutes in length.

c. A series of one or more shots makes up every scene. Scenes have traditionally used cuts as the major editing device and have a definite time/space line. If time or place changes, it is a new scene.

d. A series of scenes (one or more) construct a sequence.

i. Scenes within sequences have traditionally been edited with dissolves, wipes, focus, etc. as a major editing devices.

ii. Today edits between scenes commonly use cuts as an editing tool.

iii. A number of scenes linked together by narrative continuity to form a unified episode in a motion picture is then called a sequence.

iv. Traditionally, but not necessarily, a sequence begins with a fade-in and ends with a fade-out or some other optical transitional device.

a. D. W. Griffith with Billy Bitzer, his DP, "invented" the iris in and out, which is a dramatic and very noticeable editing device.

b. Bitzer did it mechanically within the camera.

c. Today that and other editing techniques are done on an optical printer.

e. A series of sequences make up the total film and have traditionally been "joined" by fades. The sequence is the major thematic or storyline unit of the film.

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