This document discusses different editing techniques used in filmmaking to create tension, suspense, shock, or signify the end of an action. It lists common transitions like cuts, wipes, dissolves, and fades. Specific techniques are mentioned like smash cuts, L-cuts, and parallel cutting. Examples from films Sicario, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and a mystery film demonstrate how editing builds tension through shot sequencing, cross-cutting between perspectives, and drawing the viewer's focus within a scene.

2. EDITING TECHNIQUES
Talk through a list of the different transitions and techniques you have been taught.
You should get:
• Cut
• Wipe
• Dissolve
• Fade to/from black or white
• Shot-reverse shot
• Match on action
• Graphic match (or match cut)

3. EDITING TECHNIQUES
Talk through a list of the different transitions and techniques you have been taught.
You should get:
• Cut
• Wipe
• Dissolve
• Fade to/from black or white
• Shot-reverse shot
• Match on action
• Graphic match (or match cut)
Which ones work
best in terms of
action codes -
creating suspense
and/or shocks in a
thriller?

4. EDITING TECHNIQUES
Talk through a list of the different transitions and techniques you have been taught.
You should get:
• Cut
• Wipe
• Dissolve
• Fade to/from black or white
• Shot-reverse shot
• Match on action
• Graphic match (or match cut)
Which ones could
be used to create
enigma codes or
signalling the action
has ended?

5. EDITING TECHNIQUES
In addition to these basics, we also need to consider other types of
editing:
• Smash cut (or contrast cut) – a sudden cut to a completely opposite
scene, action or piece of dialogue, often to create a shock
• L-cut (or sound bridge) – when the sound and vision cut out of sync,
e.g. sounds from the next shot are heard before the visual cut
• Parallel cutting (or cross cutting) – allows the director to show
perspectives of different characters (i.e. person being chased and their
pursuer) without having to have both in frame at once

6. EXAMPLE 1
In Sicario, a scene in a traffic jam becomes a masterpiece of tension
as we realise police are about to be attacked by a drugs gang.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhHwgDAM8uU
Try to keep track of the different kinds of shots, but pay special
attention to the way in which the editing creates a connection
between the cop cars and the criminal cars, then the rise in tension
between them.

7. Technique?
Technique?

8. Technique?
Technique?

9. Technique?
Technique?

10. Technique?
Technique?

11. EXAMPLE 2
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (genre – political thriller), a
large group of men attempts to capture Steve Rogers in a lift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC7U8C2X1Uw
Similar techniques are used to Sicario, so this time watch for ways
in which we are moved inside and outside the action, so that we are
both in it and observing it. How does this create tension?
We’ll watch this one twice but you need to notice for yourselves
what the editing is doing.

12. EXAMPLE 3
The mystery film – arguably one of the best action scenes for editing
and cinematography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g4bpb8fxcE
Notice the ways the director draws our focus and attention to
various threats within the scene – you know what will happen with
each one, but the getting there is the fun part. And, yes, slow motion
and other effects of that nature count as ‘editing’.