Editing creates meaning

1
Editing creates meaning
2
EDITOR

• The role of the editor is to select and arrange
  shots in a way that conveys a specific meaning to
  the audience.
• The types of edit between shots known as
  transitions are equally important as they convey
  meaning.

3
Continuity and non continuity editing

• Two types of editing.
• Continuity, most common form as it retains a
  sense of realistic chronology and generates a
  feeling that time is passing.
• Continuity takes the drama from one shot or scene
  to the next.
• This type of editing makes the dramas narrative
  progress in a realistic way.
• Dramas may use flashfowards and flashbacks within
  their structure, but this is strill described as
  continuity editing because the overall sense of
  FORWARD is present.

4
Four Main types

• Cuts Most common and visible, if one shot moves
  to the next without the audience being conscious
  of the transition then a cut has been used. Cuts
  help to retain a dramas reality.
• Dissolves The audience will be able to see both
  shots on the screen. A dissolve can sometimes be
  used to make to indicate a connection between
  characters.
• Fades Fade to black or white, signifies the end
  of a particular section of time.
• Wipes Image pushed off the screen-star wars,
  comic book effect.

5
Continuity editing The classic Hollywood
technique

• Cutting shots to tell a story, ensure narrative
  continuity and smooth flow from shot to shot
  keeping figures in continuity, lighting remains
  constant and action stays central to the frame
• Particular narrative style which to relate cause
  and effect which came to disguise their means,
  what you expect to see
• Establishing shot (establishes the space in which
  action is to happen)
• Shot/reverse shot one shots shows one end of
  the central line, the other shows the other end
  to show conversations.
• Eyeline match character look offscreen, next
  shot shows us what they see
• Match on action character begins to move in one
  shot, we see continuation of movement in next
  shot
• Long shots have longer takes than medium shots,
  and medium longer takes than close-ups (spectator
  needs more time to take in detail)
• The 180º system everything happens in the
  half-circle in front of the camera, which marks
  the centre line
• This ensures that the same space is described in
  each shot

6
Continuity editing is made up of rules or
conventions.

• Establishing shots
• 180 degree rule
• Straight cuts
• Match Cuts
• Shot reverse shot
• Three part shots
• It also makes the diegesis- the world of the
  programme- real to us! Believable!
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v8xauSCz1mEk

7
Non continuity editing

• Montage is the second type of editing.
• A montage contains many different images, edited
  quickly together. Images do not provide a sense
  of narrative moving forward, but the sequence is
  still full of meaning.
• The rapidity of cuts in the montage creates
  meaning and the viewer is forced to consider the
  connection.
• There does not always have to be an obvious
  connection, it could represent the thoughts of a
  characters state of mind.
• Montage sequences are used to conotate chaos,
  tension or disturbance
• Montages can also have no deliberate unconnected
  link which then allows a different kind of
  meaning to be evoked.

8
Non-continuity

• Non-continuity editing is one way in which
  art-house films challenge Hollywood conventions.
  By breaking down continuity, filmmakers reveal
  that film is constructed, not natural, and
  also challenge the relationship between cause and
  effect and the assumed ideologies of Hollywood.
•  
• The jump shot shooting a subsequent shot from
  almost the same angle and distance, even though
  the action has moved on (gives the impression
  that the camera is not with the action i.e.
  it is there and makes the film feel jerky)
• Non-diegetic insert insertion of something from
  outside the plot, i.e. a metaphorical image.
• Poor editing
• Voices talking over another, poor sound quality
• Plot, subplots, logical progression challenged
• Non-continuity or discontinuity editing can
  create its own meaning.

9
Montage editing

• Homicide and NYPD Blue in 1990s used whip pans
  rather than shot/reverse to show characters
  talking.
• Editing literally refers to how shots are put
  together into sequences to make up a media text
  TV programme or film.
• Editing (just like lighting, sound etc) can
  create meanings for the audience and create an
  emotional response to a scene.
• Continuity Editing (or chronological editing)
• Continuity editing is the dominant form of
  editing in mainstream media texts.
• It is also known as invisible editing as it is
  designed to make the narrative flow seamlessly (
  so we dont see the joins!)

10

• Speed of Editing
• The speed of the editing in scenes determines the
  mood of the programme
• Fast paced editing- when shots are cut short it
  creates excitement and anxiety in the audience
• Slow paced editing shots last longer between
  cuts creating a calm relaxed mood.

11
Psycho

• Consider
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v8VP5jEAP3K4

12

• Editing techniques usually contributes to the
  plots manipulation of story
• time. (Story in narrative media is all the events
  that we see and hear, as well as those that we
  infer or assume to have occurred, including their
• presumed causal relations, chronological order,
  duration, frequency, and spatial locations.
  Opposed to plot, which is the actual presentation
  of certain events in the narrative.

13

• Editing guides the spectator to construct the
  story time out of the plot
• time by emphasizing order, duration and
  frequency.

14

• 1) Order. The events order of presentation can
  be controlled with
• editing. Temporal succession may be maintained
  but also manipulated.
• These manipulations affect the relation between
  story and plot. Examples
• of out-of-order placement of events

15

• Continuity Editing A Shot Sequence Editing Code.
  Editing can be seen as a series of codes which
  regulate how a series of shots or scenes are
  organized into sequences that are meaningful.
• The most widely used and pervasive of these codes
  is continuity editing. The purpose of continuity
  editing is to tell a story coherently and
  clearly, to map out the chain of characters
  actions with the minimum of disruption or
  distraction.