Film Editing

 EDITING

Film editing is a creative and technical part of the post-production process of film making.lmEditing is the art and craft of cutting and assembling finished film.

Editing is performed in the post-production process.  The editing procedure is like any creative job. The editing process is view, re-view, re-view, review, and view again.

 This work is done by a film editor who helps complete the director's vision of the movie. The creative choices of an editor are usually a combination of what they think is best for the film and what the director (and producers) want for the finished project. 

The history of film editing starts in the early cinema days of the 1890s, the purpose of editing in film was simply a matter of putting frames together to create scenes 

 The Soviet Montage movement emerged in the 1910s and ‘20s, with filmmaker Lev Kuleshov pioneering his famous Kuleshov Experiment.

What does a film editor do:

• Cuts, splices(join), (re)arranges raw footage to create shots, scenes, and more.
• Makes choices that affect the film’s pace, atmosphere, narrative, music, etc.
• Works with the director and producers to make a final cut.

• A  shot is defined as a short, continuous single run of the film. 
• A scene is composed of numerous shots  and they are joined together. 
• A sequence is a number of scenes joined together.

Editors select sounds and images from all the film that has been shot and arrange them to make the movie. 

The film editor shaped the scene into its final form.  The editor works closely with the director during different phases of the editing process. 

  The editor begins with all the film footage.  (Footage is the raw, unedited material as it was originally filmed by the movie camera or recorded by a video camera, which usually must be edited to create a motion picture.) 

 The Process

Editing film used to literally be a cut-and-paste process, involving splicing and glue by hand. Splicing was the way film editors made their edits, working with copies of negatives and creating workprints. Later on came what were known as “flatbed” machines that made cutting up and splicing film strips much easier, quicker, and precise.

Decades later, digital film editing technology helped make the editing process easier than ever, removing the need to touch the film at all. 

SHOOTING IN THE ROUND. 

A rough cut is the first edited version of a film, which make include unfinished visual effects and a temporary musical score. Rough edit and assembly cut are also terms that can be used to refer to this initial cut. 

The first cut of a film, called a "rough cut," takes up to three months to complete. The final cut may take another month to finish. Sometimes the editor works alone, sometimes with the director

All of the main pieces have been assembled in sequential order, but it may not contain all of the finer details, such as finished CGI.  Rough cuts, and especially assembly cuts, tend to be far longer than the finished film.

  

 The sound designer and music composer join them for the final cut, adding sound effects and the musical score. When the editing is complete and the director and producer have approved the final version of the film, this final cut is sent to a negative matcher.

 Cuts and Transitions

CUT

If the camera moves from one shot to another directly without fading out that technique is called cut.  Editing often begins as soon as film has been shot.    Today most editors use computers or nonlinear digital editing systems to compile a film.

A “cut” in editing refers the splicing of two shots together. This cut is made by the film editor at the editing stage of a film. If the camera moves from one shot to another directly without fading out that technique is called cut.

 FADE IN  AND FADE OUT

Fade in  and fade out are opposite effects. Fade in is a shot that begins in total darkness and gradually lightens to full brightness. This is a type of transition is similar to “dissolve,”

DISSOLVE

Dissolve is a transition between two shots during which the first image gradually disappears while the second image gradually appears. 

Dissolve was used for capture the time difference between this shot and the next shot. In dissolve one image fade out gradually and another takes its place. The execution of a dissolve naturally takes a little longer than a cut.

     CROSS-CUTTING

Cross-cutting is cutting a scene between different sets of action that can be occurring simultaneously or at different times. Cross-cutting is used to build suspense or to show the relationship between the different sets of action.

WIPE

The third type of transition is the wipe. A wipe is a type of film transition where one shot replaces another by travelling from one side of the frame to the other or with a special shape.

JUMP CUT

A jump cut, which is a term that viewers often hear, is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forward in time.

 

CONTINUITY EDITING

Continuity editing is a system of cutting to maintain a continuous and clear narrative action. Continuity editing relies upon matching screen direction, position, and temporal relations from shot to shot. The film supports the viewer’s assumption that space and time are contiguous between successive shots.  Logical coherence is achieved through continuity editing.