EDITING TECHNIQUES

 EDITING TECHNIQUES

What is editing? And why is it important. 

So let me tell you guys a fun fact, listen to it carefully: No matter how good your camera angles are, how immaculate your stage production is, how precise your costume design is, if you mess up the editing, none of it matters. None of it matters at all. Now let that sink in.

So now that we've established the importance of editing, let's talk about its definition, techniques and most importantly, how we can implement it in our final product. 

Editing: editing is what allows you to organize the pieces of your film in a way that conveys information in the exact atmosphere, timing and structure that you see fit.

So there are different ways to achieve that. The first one that we will be discussing is the continuous editing.

• Continuous Editing  

Continuous editing makes sure that everything happening seamlessly in a shot-to-shot fashion. It involves cutting sequences and stringing them together and making them appear as if they're connected and continuous. You see this in all daily-life shows and movies that you see, and you'll definitely see it in our final project as well.

• Discontinuous editing 

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the discontinuous. So it basically means that there are breaks in the shots. One shot might show travelling, and the next shot will show reaching the destination, and the next might show some drama in that destination. All of these shots are disconnected, but they convey the meaning and the intent very clearly, which is the purpose behind this form of editing. 

• Montage

On number 3, we have montage. A montage is a collection of shots shown in a single sequence. It is quite common in the athletic films such as a Kung-Fu film where the athlete is shown training or preparing for his fight.

• Cross-cutting

Next we have cross-cutting. Cross cutting refers to the form of editing where you show two shots next to each other and convey that they are happening simultaneously. 

For example, in a movie, someone has abducted a child. So the kidnapper will call the parents of that child so to ask for ransom. Now one shot will be of the parents listening to the call, and the next will be of the kidnapper talking to the phone (preferably in a raspy voice, in order to convey depth😂)

Note: we love movie stereotypes here. Kidnapper has a raspy voice, lives in a dark place. Whereas parents live in a colorful home, love their child and are conventionally good-looking.

Hilarious! By the way, tell us about your favorite stereotypes down in the comments

Anyways, continuing forward, we will talk about the cut-away.

• Cut-away

The cut-away technique is very tasteful, and is usually made to convey the director's taste. It includes the abrupt ending of one shot and bring the attention to something else, most probably something unrelated. This can be used to provide a portal into the character's mind, and can also be used for comedic affect. 

For example, in a male protagonist centered movie, the hero might be feeling depressed from all the tribulations, whilst sitting in his room and the scene shows his close-up depressed face, and the next shot will show the character's childhood toys' looking at him with their lifeless faces. Though this has no connection to what is happening at that time, it conveys the time when the protagonist was happy and how he needs to revive that happiness back into him.

• Dissolve

Dissolve is pretty basic and understood. So to end a shot, it dissolves into nothingness while the next scene fades in to the screen. It can be used to stimulate the viewer's mind to think on the dissolving scene, or to create a comparison with the incoming scene. Overall, its quite simple, and lets talk about more complex ones.

• J & L Cuts

For all the passengers who are new to media studies, this is one of your key take-aways. A J-cut is when the audio of the next scene enters the visuals of the preceding scene, before the next scene starts. A favorite example of the J-cut of the bus driver's would be Matthew McConaughey's humming entering into the scene before he is shown. The link of the clip is in the bottom.

An L-Cut is the opposite, its when the visuals of a scene enter the screen, but the audio is still of the preceding scene. It's used in conversation sequences to show continuity and make the scene easy to digest.
So newcomers, jot these points in your notes ✐📗, they're going to help you immensely

• Jump cuts

Jump cuts is where there is no continuity in shots. It's used to eliminate unnecessary seconds from the movie, and it serves the purpose faithfully.

• Match Cut

The chauffeur loves match cuts! Match cuts are an absolute creative genius, and changes the way you look at things. What is it? And why does the chauffeur like it so much. Alright so listen. Match cuts are basically when an element of the previous scene acts as a transition to the next scene. For example, zooming into the protagonist's iris when he wakes up, and then match cut to the irises in the next scene when he's walking to his office. Pretty amazing right? 

• Shot/ Reverse Shot

Let's end the lesson in a different font.

So, Shot/ Reverse shots are usually used in conversation, but not exclusively. Includes reaction shots, using 180° rule. For example, showing the face of character number 1, when he is talking, and character number 2 when they are talking.

So guys, I think that is all for today, we've discussed the basics of editing and their accurate examples, I hope this helps you all in understanding the beauty of media, and how different editing techniques can be used to convey different feelings. See you in the next post. Cheers!

Note: Here is the promised clip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmz7noVP0Sw
Focus from 00:06 to 00:09, and see the J-cut for yourself :)