Types
01.
What is a shot?
In filmmaking and video production, a shot is a series of frames that runs for an uninterrupted period of time. Film shots are an essential aspect of a movie where angles, transitions and cuts are used to further express emotion, ideas and movement.
Source: Wikipedia
03.
What is editing?
Film editing is the art and craft of cutting and assembling finished film. This work is done by a film editor who helps complete the director's vision of the movie.
Source: StudioBinder
05.
What is continuity editing?
Continuity editing is the process in film and video creation where you combine related shots, or different components of a single shot, into a sequence which directs the audience's attention to the consistency of story across time and location.
Source: NoFilmSchool
07.
What is montage editing?
This is the technique where you take separate scenes from a film or TV show and edit them together to form a rhythm that shows the passing of time and functions together as a continuous whole.
Source: NoFilmSchool
02.
What is a sequence?
Sequence shooting is a method used to capture a scene from various distances. Sequence shots ensure that the editor ends up with plenty of shot sizes to tell the story and keep the audience’s attention.
Source: Adobe
04.
What is the 'role' of the editor?
The editors role is to do cuts, splices, (re)arranges raw footage to create shots, scenes, and more. They also make choices that affect the film’s pace, atmosphere, narrative, music, etc. They work with the director and producers to make a final cut.
Source: StudioBinder
06.
What is non continuity editing?
Non-continuity editing is when shots are mismatched to disrupt the impression of time and space. This draws the audiences' attention to the process of cutting and disturbs the illusion of 'reality'. An example is the use of flash backs.
Source: MyTutor
History
Timeline of film and video production
Source: TimeToast
Louis Le Prince
Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince was a French artist and the inventor of an early motion-picture camera, possibly the first person to shoot a moving picture sequence using a single lens camera and a strip of film.
In 1886 he created a 16-lens camera and applied for an American patent on 2 November of the same year, receiving this at the beginning of 1888; on 16 November 1888, he received a British patent for his invention.
Source: Wikipedia & ScienceAndMediaMuseum
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.
One of the most famous and prolific inventors of all time, Thomas Alva Edison exerted a tremendous influence on modern life, contributing inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, as well as improving the telegraph and telephone.
Source: Wikipedia & Library of Congress
The Lumiere Brothers
The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière and Louis Jean Lumière, were manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905 which places them among the earliest filmmakers.
In 1895, Louis and Auguste Lumière gave birth to the big screen thanks to their revolutionary camera and projector, the Cinématographe. Auguste and Louis Lumière invented a camera that could record, develop, and project film, but they regarded their creation as little more than a curious novelty.
Source: Wikipedia & National Geographic
Lev Kuleshov
Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov was a Russian and Soviet filmmaker and film theorist, one of the founders of the world's first film school, the Moscow Film School. He was given the title People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1969.
Kuleshov’s first attempt at ‘making cinematography’ was Proekt inzhenera Praita (Engineer Prait’s Project, 1918). In 1920, he opened a ‘workshop’ at the Gosudarstvennaia shkola kinematograficheskikh iskusstv (State School of Cinematic Arts), the creation of which, in 1919, had been a key step in the Bolshevik leaders’ attempts to nationalise the film industry and bring it under state control: it was intended to train future Soviet filmmakers and teach them how to make Soviet films.
Source: Wikipedia & Reflect
Narrative
Enigma Code: The Enigma Code is simply a theory that suggests a text (whether that can be television, film or a poster) portrays a mystery to draw an audience in. This allows the audience to pose questions and as such become intrigues in the piece.
Barthes identifies five different kinds of semiotic elements that are common to all texts. He gathers these signifiers into five codes: Hermeneutic, Proairetic, Semantic, Symbolic, and Cultural.
Linear/Non Linear: Linear narrative is the most common form of narration, where events are largely portrayed in a chronological order, that is, telling the events in the order in which they occurred.
A nonlinear narrative is a storytelling device that portrays events of a story out of chronological order, e.g., in reverse order or going back and forth between past and future events.
Source: Wikipedia & VCG Harvard
Multi-Strand Narratives: Many works are made up of multiple narrative strands. Instead of a single hero and a group of supporting characters, a narrative with multiple strands can have two or more isolated groups of characters existing at once. For example, the comic book series X-Men does not have one central hero, but many.
Source: PenAndThePad
Serial Narrative/Series Narrative : Serial fiction is literature that is released in sequential instalments, much like the format of an episodic TV show.
Series Narrative is a narrative, story or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc.).
Source: Masterclass & Wikipedia
Flexi-Narrative: This challenges audiences and keeps them curious about how the many narratives will develop. This type of narrative tends to have complex characters that are ambiguous which creates tension and mystery.
Source: BBC Bitesize
Episodic drama: Scenes are episodic, which means they stand alone and are constructed in small chunks, rather than creating a lengthy and slow build of tension. Dramatic theatre has a linear narrative which means its events happen in chronological order.
Source: BBC Bitesize
Unrestricted Narrative/Restricted Narrative: Unrestricted narration is when the viewer knows more than the character (but seldom everything), which helps build suspense. Restricted narration limits the viewer to what characters know (or less?), which helps create greater curiosity in the viewer and can lead to surprise.
Restricted narration is seen when a movie is filmed from the point of view of only one character making it, due to this us as the audience only know as much as they do.
Techniques
Straight Cut: The straight cut is the most simple way of getting from shot A to shot B. It is the continuation of one shot too another in the same place and at the same time. A cut is where one shot is instantly replaced with another usually from a different camera angle. Source: Weebly
Transitions e.g. Fades + Dissolves + Washes + Wipes: A film transition is a technique used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing by which scenes or shots are combined. Most commonly this is through a normal cut to the next shot.
Source: Wikipedia
Cross Cutting/Parallel Editing: In film editing, crosscutting describes the video editing technique of switching back and forth between scenes, often giving the impression that the action occurring in different locations is unfolding at the same moment. Source: Adobe
Quick Cuts: Fast cutting is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shots of a brief duration. It can be used to quickly convey much information, or to imply either energy or chaos. Source: Wikipedia
Long Takes: In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take or continuous shot) is a shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general.
Source: Wikipedia
Elliptical Editing: Elliptical editing makes it that an event's duration on-screen is shorter than its duration in the story and in character development. Many directors utilise elliptical editing simply to compress the length of a film, and to develop the story in as little time as possible.
Source: Sites at Lafayette College
Cutaway: A cutaway shot is a shot that "cuts away" from the main action to any shot that adds visual information, and then returns to the original shot with new meaning. Source: StudioBinder
Cut - Ins: Cut-ins emphasise a particular part of a scene, offering a close-up or detailed view of a specific point-of-focus. Cut-ins can enhance the mood or understanding of a moment, and add to the smoothness and continuity of the scene. Source: MasterClass
L-Cut vs J-Cut: An L-cut is when the audio from the preceding scene continues to play over the footage from the following scene. A J-cut is just the reverse of an L-cut. The audio from the following scene plays over video from the preceding footage. Source: TechSmith
Eyeline Match: Eyeline match is a film editing technique to indicate to the audience what a character is seeing. Eyeline match allows the audience to believe that they’re looking at something through the eyes of the character. Source: MasterClass
Match On Action: Cutting on action or matching on action refers to film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action. Source: Wikipedia
Reaction Shot: A reaction shot refers to when an action takes place on screen, and then cuts to a separate shot that allows the viewer to see the reaction to this action from other players in the scene. Source: StudioBinder
Shot/Reverse Shot: Shot/reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. Source: Wikipedia
Establishing shot: An establishing shot is a shot in filmmaking or television that sets up the context for the scene ahead, designed to inform the audience where the action will be taking place. Source: StudioBinder
30-degree rule: The 30 degree rule in film is a standard that is set specifically for the purpose of creating continuity between shots when a large sequence of shots is captured. Source: BeverlyBoy
180-degree rule: The 180 rule is a filmmaking technique that helps the audience keep track of where your characters are in a scene. When you have two people or two groups facing each other in the same shot, you have to establish a 180-degree angle, or a straight line, between them. Source: Reststream
Jump Cut: A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time.
Source: Wikipedia
Match Cut: A match cut is an edit in cinematography that uses elements of one scene in the transition to the next scene. The purpose is to create a visual match for different scenes that are not inherently linked, like scenes set in different locations, by having a second shot that — in some way — mirrors the first.
Source: Adobe
Freeze Frame: A freeze-frame is a technique where motion in a film is suddenly halted to make it look like a photograph. Source: ScreenRant
Slow motion: Slow motion is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. Source: Wikipedia
Split Screen: In filmmaking split screen is also a technique that allows one actor to appear twice in a scene. The simplest technique is to lock down the camera and shoot the scene twice, with one "version" of the actor appearing on the left side, and the other on the right side.
Source: Wikipedia
Flashbacks/Flash-forwards: A flashbacks occurs when the writer decides to insert details from the past into a present narrative in order to provide necessary plot information or insight into a character's motivation.
A flash forward, on the other hand, is when some event that has yet to happen in the present narrative time intrudes.
Source: K12Reader
Purpose
1. Manipulating a sense of time (linear/non-linear narratives): Dissolve, this is because it symbolises the passing of time. For example if a character has done a lot of work there will be a dissolve transition between the scenes.
2. Controlling the perception of space to create a logical and believable space between characters/objects not sharing the same angle: Split screen, this is because it allows to characters/objects to appear on a screen at the same time even though they are not in the same place
3. Controlling the rhythm and the pace to control the flow of the production: Straight cut. This is because it allows one shot to suddenly end and the next shot too come onto the screen. It allows footage that was not needed to be removed or shortened.
4. Creating a narrative through motivation: Match in action, This is because cutting from one scene to the next, or from one character to the next, will aid in persuading the audience. It's also crucial to cut at the right moments to allow the story's narrative to flow and evolve.
5. Creating a sense of drama through withholding of information: Freeze frame does this by freezing on the scene in question, this leaves the audience guessing as to what could happen next.
6. Embracing continuity between different shots/angles: Jump cut, this is because a jump cut give the effect of moving forward through time but the subject moves around.
7. Engaging the viewer through suspense and causing an audience reaction: Slow motion, this is because it slows down the whole scene which makes the viewer more interested in the scene and want to know what is happening.
8. Form a meaning by juxtaposing elements within editing and creating a sense of personal connection and empathy with a character: A reaction shot does this because we can see how the character reacts to what is happening in the scene which creates emotions from the audience
Types and Purposes of Editing for Film and Television
Continuity editing follows the action of the scene and is happening in the scene, therefore it is more narrative based in the editing. Continuity editing often follows the basic rules of editing itself such as the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule. It also uses techniques such as the reverse shot and eyeline matches are often used durning continuity editing. Big blockbuster films do not use continuity editing, this is because continuity editing is use more in mainstream films like Marvel movies and Star Wars, this is due to the fact that they need to convey a storyline to their audience which is mostly mainstream.
In this scene from Mean Girls (2004), they have used continuity editing. This is because they have used the 180 degree rule making it easier for the audience to understand that there is a a conversation that is happening. This is also indicated by the use of eyeline match technique. This is seen during the conversation between Cady and Regina
Continuity Test
Storyboard
Shooting script
Script Writing
Continuity Sequence
Evaluation
The purpose of an edited sequence is to show the audience what is happening within the scene without them telling that the sequence itself has been edited. The type of editing depends on the genre, for example in the horror genre the sequences are usually quick cuts so that it can build tension with in the scene and make the audience more scared. However in the romance genre they often use cross cuts and straight cuts. The types of continuity techniques are eyeline matches and match on action, eyeline matching is important because it helps the audience to understand what the character/s are looking at off screen, match on action is also fundamental to continuity editing because it cuts on the same frame of a character’s action between two shots.
I used match on action in my sequence because it helps to bring the audiences focus to the next scene.
Non-Continuity
Non-Continuity Test
Shooting script
Storyboard
Script Writing
Non Continuity: Dream sequence
This sequence was edited order to show the audience that our main character is having a dream, this was show through editing techniques such as using the the white wash transition, this shows that she is now inside of the dream, I was influenced by trippy movies such as A Space Odyssey and animes like Madoka Magica and Neon Genesis Evangelion. I used cross fades in order to break continuity and symbolise the passing of time. These are often used in continuity edits, especially cross dissolves because they symbolise the passing of time. I wanted to convey to the audience that this was not reality by using lots of distortion effects and flashes. I wanted to achieve the distorted weird effects that dreams usually have.
Learning Aim C
Narrative Breakdown
Shooting script
Script Writing
Video Log Sheet
Storyboard
