Principles of Editing discusses how editing techniques like collage, tempo, and timing are used to construct meaning in films. Editors create collages by joining together different shots to tell a story. Tempo refers to the pace of a scene and is controlled through shot length and transitions between shots. Shorter shots and cuts quicken the pace while longer shots and fades slow it down. Timing refers to when shots are cut away from or to in order to emphasize a reaction or detail. Hitchcock's film Notorious is used as an example to illustrate how these editing techniques are applied.

1. Principles of
Editing

2. Creating meaning
through collage,
tempo and timing

3. Joining Images
Editing forms a collage, an assortment of images
joined together to create meaning
The master of collage is Hitchcock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bieIiX5KLQ

4. Tempo
Shot Length – the most obvious way editors
create Tempo is by controlling the length of
shot
• Long shots slow down the pace of a scene
while short takes quicken the pace and
intensity (For example, long shots for romantic
scenes, quick shots for action)

5. Cont…..
• Studies have suggested that shots are gaining
pace compared to The Golden age of Hollywood
• The average shot length was 5.15 seconds it is
now 4.75 seconds
• The change of length can be seen when you
compare Casablanca to the remake of Sherlock
Holmes
• This is due to the fact that films are now
electronically cut

6. Problems
• It takes the average person 3 seconds to
adjust to a shot change. Brandt has argued
“…..if the audience takes 3 seconds to adjust to a new scene,
what happens when the average shot length is so short
that the audience is never given a chance to catch up”
• The tendency to rely on such rapid editing in
recent films may explain why younger
audience are not receptive to older films; they
seem slow paced

7. Shot transitions
• The second way editors adjust the tempo is shot
transitions
• Common shot transitions:
Cut from A to B – Pulp Fiction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qauBQkgJsc4
Fade in/fade out – Hugo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR-kP-olcpM
Dissolve (overlapping) – Red River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00bbRbEN0sg
&feature=related

8. Cont….
• These shot transitions convey a passage of
time, but they also affect the pacing of a scene
• Cuts quicken the pace of the action and
connote instant change.
• Even a scene with long takes, a cut often
suggests sudden change in mood or character
dynamic

9. Fades
• Fades effect the pace of the film as they
literally pause the action.
• They rarely occur in films but when they do it
is to introduce memory or fantasy

10. Timing of a shot
• The third editing technique is timing of shots
• Cut away to emphasis a persons reaction or
response for example
• Cut away to a newspaper on the table when
presented in narrative
• Cutting from a two shot to a close up for
reaction or a close up to a long shot for
landscape effect

11. Hitchcock's ‘Notorious’ 1946
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPd5uSRDrZk
• Attribute to editing • Techniques used in
• Collage Notorious
• Medium shot (romantic
intimacy) vs. Close up
(disappointment)
• The cut abruptly changes the
• Tempo pace of the conversation; As
Alicia and Delvins words
become more heated, the
scene relies on shorter takes
• Cut to close up of Alicia
• Timing coincides with Delvins line “I
bet you’ve heard that line
enough’

12. Story- centered
Editing and the
construction of
meaning

13. Editing and timing
• Narrative sequencing
• Telling the story as it happens in Linear editing
• This is the most common
• ‘Medias res’ is the term used when narrative is
jumbled up (Fight Club for example)

14. Condensing / expanding time
• Collages condense time
• Spiderman uses ‘condensed editing’ when
thinking of a costume – speeds up hours, days or
years in the characters lives
• Expanding – overlapping shots of a single action
example: Someone pressing a door bell shot from 3
angles and shown after each other to portray
time but also nerves in the person pressing it

15. Arranging the order of events
• Media Res
• Events taking place in the present are interrupted by
images that have taken place in the past.
• Flashbacks
• Rare occasions there are flash-forward's
• By their nature ‘flash forwards’ can be confusing as
they can only be understood once the event has
occurred on scene.
Easy Rider – Captain America is interrupted as he talks by a
shot of burning debris on the side of the road. Only later will
viewers realise that the debris is from CA motorcycle crash at
the end of the film

16. Time and Space
Editing draws the viewers attention to the detail
• Close up (example of the very first ‘close up’ used in film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2X_BZpnWFc
• Establishing
Example: Return of the king
Editing traces the lightening of Pyres across a mountain range in a
majestic call of arms.
This drawers the viewers attention to a number of things; be it the
emotional tenor of a conversation, the object of a characters
gaze, important detail in the mise en scene and the group
dynamics of a scene

17. Shot reverse shot
• Conversation between two people
• One speaks to the other listening
• Rule of thumb is: the actors will never speak
directly to the viewer as this destroys the
illusion of a naturally unfolding story
• Cameras are normally slightly angles to the
side rather than using point of view shots

18. Eye line match
The match cut uses the characters line of sight
• Powerful storytelling devise as it This draws
the viewers into a characters thought process
and emotional state
Cutaways
• Unlike eye line match a cut away is not
character centered, the on screen appearance
of an object does not depend on the character
having to ‘see it’ in the previous shot

19. Creating meaning outside the story
• Continuity
• 180 degree rule
• Soviet Montage (political meaning)