Analysing film Editing

Film editing is part of the post production when the film or soundtrack is cut and sliced to fit together in a specific way.

In camera editing is when the film is constructed in the order of when the shots are taking meaning there is no post production editing. This technique was started by the magician ‘George Meilies’. He used this technique on his trick ‘the vanishing lady’ in 1896 when he used the tool of editing to make it appear as he has made a person disappear.

Linear editing was first used within television in the 1950’s. This is when the film being used is shown to tell a story in the correct order. Non-linear editing however is when the film can be arranged in any order. The first non-linear editor was in 1971. The first non-linear editing system was the CMX-600. Examples of films that are non-linear are ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘Pulp fiction’.

Splicing is when film is edited by cutting sections of the film and rearranging or discarding them. This is very straightforward and mechanical. It can be done with a pair of scissors and splicing tape however is not a very practical option as usually a splicing machine is used. This method was used when first ever cuts of films were made like the 1898s ‘Come along, Do!’  

When editing you have to consider the genre of the film you are editing and the style you are editing in. For example in a horror film you would expect the edit to be fast paced showing quick shots when the tension is building in maybe a chase scene and close ups of the characters showing fear in there facial expressions. You would also expect very dark shots.

Editing Techniques:

·        Following the Action – This is when the camera follows the action or movement in the scene. One use of this is a pan or tilt. A pan is when the camera rotates across horizontally whilst a tilt is when the camera rotates up vertically on an axis or tripod. Another technique to help follow action is to use a dolly or a truck. A dolly moves the camera either closer or further away from the subject being shot whilst a truck moves from side to side.

A sled and vest system can also be used to follow action. This consists of a waited camera sled, an elastic arm which can appear to show human movement, and a vest which the person shooting the film would wear to distribute the weight of the gear evenly. This helps move past characters smoothly to show the view of characters. Another popular camera technique  to follow action is to use a Boom. This is a camera on an arm that can pivot on a fixed point. This can be useful when doing shots very similar to ones done by a tilt or a pan. However a boom is also useful to also to

Many other shots, including high end shots.

·        Continuity – When editing you need to remember that the footage all needs to be continues to everything links up.

·        Montage – a montage is when short shots are edited in a sequence. A famous example of a montage is the training montage in ‘Rocky 4’ to the song ‘Hearts On Fire’

·        Manipulating Dietetic Time and Space – This is when something is shown to change. It could be a person, an object or an environment.

·        Multiple Points of View – This is when a scene is shown through more than one person’s point of view.

·        Speed – Slowing down and speeding up shots can give a film a complete different effect. An example of a big use of this would be ‘The Matrix’.

As well as techniques within the shots an editor can use within their film, there are also a wide range of transitions that an editor may use to go from one shot to another. Commonly used ones are:

·        A cut – A straight cut. One shot straight to another.

·        A Fade – Often done to show time passes. This is done as one shot fades out to full opacity whilst the new shot fades in.

·        A Wipe – This shows the new shot coming sliding in from one side.

Examples

For my first example of an edit I chose the opening fight scene of the 2009 film adaption of the graphic novel ‘Watchmen’. This films genre is action, mystery and sci-fi and is unrealism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i7l6Mh6giE

This scene is a fight scene between the old superhero ‘The Comedian’ and a character that appears at this point of the film to be unknown. The character is very dark as well as most of the shot to show something important is there but you just can’t see it which communicates the mystery genre.

The use of dark colour also adds to the very dark tone of the film and communicates how it’s not going to be a really fun family superhero film. The colours on a lot of the close up objects used are very unrealistic bright colours to make them stand out and also give them the tone that they would have in a graphic novel.

Many shots shown in this film are exactly the same as shown in the graphic novel to give it the tone of the superhero unrealism film. This scene has very unrealistic and over the top sound effects to also communicate the unrealism of the film and the graphic novel it has adapted. Many of the sound effects are also shown to be a lot louder than they probably would be in real life to also give the impact that they had. There is also a technique with the use of very calm quiet music in the background of the fight scene to give it soundtrack dissonance.

This scene uses a range of quick shots to show the fast passed fight scene however there are many slow-motion shots also shown. These slow motion shots are often the shots adapted from the graphic novel to communicate to the viewer that this is the adaption of the graphic novel.

The scene is also scene from multiple points of views as when the shot starts it could be seen from the Comedians view however when the door is broken open it is shown from the other characters view.

There is the technique following the action throughout most of this scene. One use of the truck technique is when the Comedian is thrown across the room. This shot follows the comedian going from one side to the other. Straight after this shot the Comedian looks at a set of knives. A dolly may have been used here as we see the knives from the comedians point of view and the shot looks forward in too the set of knives. After this shot He throws the knives. Here a pan would have been used as a pan follows the knives being thrown from one side of the room to the other with a horizontal turn. Towards the end of this scene there is a tilt. As the comedian is thrown out of the window, the camera tilts down on him falling.

My second example is the car chase scene from ‘Pineapple Express’. The genre of this film is comedy but could also fit in to the category of action or crime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uddXJ_USe2U  

This scene shows the two main characters of the film, Dale Denton and Sol Silver, in a car chase with a police officer. This chase scene uses a lot of quick shots to make the chase seem really fast passed. It also uses very tense music to add to the tenseness of it.

In this scene there is a lot of the technique of the camera following the action. Towards the beginning of the scene before the scene begins Sol tries to stop the cop car he later drives however the driver isn’t looking and runs into him. This shot where the car runs into him is taken from the car. A dolly may have been used here to show the car moving forward.

Throughout the chase scene the camera is shown to be a bit shaky. This makes the viewer see the chase scene as very rough and tense.