Media Studies Education

1. Editing Terminology
Revising the key terminology relating
to post-production editing of film

2. Editing Basics
• Editing is the art of assembling shots together
to tell the visual story of a film. An editor is an
important crew member in any film because
he will give final shape to the project. They are
called the third storytellers of a movie
because, after the writer and director, the
editor will construct the narrative and truly
define the story that the audience will see.
Watch Hitchcock’s view on the essentials of
editing.

3. Lev Kuleshov, a Soviet filmmaker,
was among the first to dissect the
effects of juxtaposition. Through
his experiments and research,
Kuleshov discovered that
depending on how shots are
assembled the audience will
attach a special meaning or
emotion to it.
In his experiment, Kuleshov cut
the shot of an actor with shots of
three different subjects: a girl in a
coffin, a hot plate of soup, and a
pretty woman lying on a couch.
The footage of the actor was the
same expressionless gaze. Yet the
audience raved his performance,
saying he looked sad, then hungry,
then lustful.

4. Quentin Tarantino on film editing

5. Cut
The most basic and common type of transition is
the cut. A cut happens when on shot instantly
replaces the other. Cuts are widely used. They
are essential for the effects of juxtaposition.
Although most cuts exist for a technical need,
the abrupt replacement of one shot by the other
often demands a certain interpretation from the
viewer.

6. Cuts rely on the audience’s
interpretation.
Three Days of Condor (1975). On this shot Dr. Lappe
informs his secretary that Turner is late again.

7. The second shot cuts to the exterior of a busy street,
showing a man driving a motorcycle. The obvious
understanding is that the man on the bike is Turner
(mentioned in the first shot), and that he’s riding to work.
Though the audience’s assumption may not be a correct
one, the editor must be aware of the implications
inherent to the way he cuts a scene.

8. Why are cuts industry standard?
During the early years of cinema, when editing
actual film, the editor could very easily cut the
celluloid strip with a blade or scissors and splice
it together. Any type of transition would require
further processing and increase costs. The other
types of transition are also more distracting.
Cuts allow for a better flow of the film and
development of the narrative.

9. Fade in/out
Fade ins and fade outs are the second most
common type of transition. Fade outs happen when
the picture is gradually replaced by black screen or
any other solid colour. Traditionally, fade outs have
been used to conclude films. Fade ins are the
opposite: a solid colour gradually gives way to
picture.
They imply the end of a major story segment and as
a result, are used rarely, despite being the second
most common editing technique.

10. Dissolve
Also known as overlapping, dissolves happen
when one shot gradually replaces the next. One
disappears as the following appears. For a few
second, they overlap, and both are visible.
Commonly used to signify the passage of time.

11. Wipe
Wipes are dynamic. They happen when one shot
pushed the other off frame. George Lucas
deliberately used them throughout the Star
Wars series.

12. Jump cut
Jump cuts show the passage of time or to add a
level of urgency to a scene. They are used in
montages (sequences showing the passage of
time).

13. Match cuts
The match cut moves from one shot to another
by matching the action or the composition to
link the two together. They are often used as
transitions to allow a character to move location
or time.

14. Invisible cut
Hiding a cut within the action so the viewer is
hardly aware of the cut. Watch the video on the
blog for an example of this.

15. Cross Cutting or Parallel Editing
Cross cutting is the technique of alternating two or more
scenes that often happen simultaneously but in different
locations.
Watch the clip on the blog from Silence of the Lambs
(1991) to see an example of this to great effect relating to
suspense, tension and narrative development. In Francis
Ford Coppola’s Godfather (1972) parallel editing is used
to develop theme. The cross cutting back and forth during
the baptism scene shows the contradictory lives of
Michael Corleone. The religious church man contrasting
with his mafia violence.

16. ellipsis
Ellipsis is both a narrative device and also the
most basic idea in film editing. Ellipsis has to do
with the omission of a section of the story that
is either obvious enough the the viewer to fill in
or concealed for a narrative purpose, such as
suspense or mystery.
Alfred Hitchcock famously said: “What is drama
but life with the dull bits cut out.”

17. L-cut or J-cut
An L-cut or J-cut, also known as a split edit, are edit
transitions from one shot to another, where
transition of the audio and video happen at
different times.
In an L-cut the audio from the previous shot carries
over into the next shot. This creates a sound bridge
and can link the shots together to create seamless
edits.
The J-cut means the audio for the next shot starts
before the visual begins.