This document discusses various editing techniques used in video and film production. It covers purposes of editing like storytelling and how editing can change time, space and interpretation. Specific techniques covered include match cutting, shot-reverse-shot, jump cuts, parallel editing, continuity editing and the 180-degree rule. Examples are provided from films like The Shining, Silence of the Lambs, and Fast and Furious 7 to illustrate how different techniques can be applied.

1. TASK 4
UNIT 1
BENJAMIN KARRASS

2. PURPOSE OF EDITING
Video Editing- Cutting shots together is when you piece together raw
footage.
Editing is powerful because it can change things like time, space and
interpretation.
Storytelling- It is the background story, .it’s the plot of what happens in
the story
Narrative- it’s the order you receive information about the plot of the
film. It’s the arrangement of events that reveal the storyline.
Editing is used for many different things, one of the purposes is
storytelling. A good edit means a good piece of footage. Any sequence
needs to be able to tell a story to enable the audience to be engaged
and entertained. The viewer needs to be drawn into the story and to do

3. PURPOSE OF EDITING
Many shots are used in editing to create setting
and feeling for the people watching, close ups are
used to show emotions in the actors faces this
allows the audience to notice what they are
feeling. There are also cuts that usual work with
the scene for example if the movie or scene is
quite fast with a car chance there will be a range
of different cuts showing the audience all
different parts of what is going on, this wont
really work for a scene that is slow, its like if a
music video had a slow beat but lots of cuts, it
just wont work. An example of this is in James
bond spectre (2015)where there is a car chase,
https://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=jygRW
M3nIA0

4. PRINCIPLES OF EDITING: STORYTELLING
• Storytelling in editing allows the people to get a message across.
• Editing is used to piece together scenes in a logical sequence.
• Usually in the film it would often end with an open ending or a
closed ending this means that the film ends with no questions
left to ask or if the story is left as a cliff hanger with things going
on that may of not been answered. A story can either be in
chronological or non chronological order. If its chronological that
means the story is all in the correct order from the start middle
then to the end, if its in non chronological that means the story
may start with the ending and end with the middle, it means that
the story of the film has been changed. In game of thrones
(2011) there is storytelling through out of all the seasons, at the
end of each episode it ends on a cliff hanger this makes the
audience want to watch the next episode. Game of thrones is also
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=cCMaaC1tyP
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5. COMBINATION OF SHOTS
• Editors will combine a mixture of shot
types and angles in order to draw in the
viewers and establish settings, feelings and
relationships.
• Once all of the shots have been individually
edited they can they be place together in a
sequence a successful edit mean the
sequence will look good. The editing needs
to be that good that its almost invisible to
the audiences eye. An easy way to practice
this method nowadays is down to computer

6. CREATING PACE
• Having pace in a film or TV shows allow the audience to
feel what the scene is about, if there are a lot of cuts that
follow the beat you will be able to know that the song is
quite fast paced and if the cuts are slow you can tell that
the scene may be about something slow like people
eating at a table, if didn’t have a lot of cuts for
something fast like people running or people fighting it
wouldn’t fit or seem right, this works the same with a
slow scene with a lot of shots, it wont fit and would look
wrong. An example of creating pace is in fast and furious
7, this is used when the car is going from building to
building, lots of cuts are used to show a different view of
what is going on.
• In order to create a sense of pace or speed within a
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=xAiM8xR
1CfM

7. THE 180° RULE
• This rule states that once two or more actors have been
established on a certain side of the screen, then they must
remain on that side throughout the edit. You can change
sides but you need to make sure your camera is moving
while recording to show the audience they are in the same
position. The rule applies to camera work and editing when
filming two or more characters.
• The 180 rule is best used for conversations, interrogations
and interviews, its important to make sure the actors stays
in place. When the camera passes over the invisible axis
connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line
and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. The
180 rule is used in most films and TV shows. An example of
this is in the shining (1980) at the bathroom where the
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN6TPta

8. Editing
techniques

9. CONTINUITY EDITING
• Continuity is all about making sure
everything in the scene is where it is
meant to be and is not missing. Its to
ensure the mise-en-scene is kept
constant throughout the cuts that is, the
settings, the props and the costumes.
• Continuity editing is a system of cutting
used to maintain continuous and clear
narrative action by following a set of rules.
• An example of this is if something's
misplaced in the scene or something is
missing like in the film harry potter (2002)
he is sitting on one side and then in the

10. MATCH ON ACTION
This is an action that begins in one shot, and
is continued or completed in the next shot,
which is from a different angle. Cutting
on action or matching on action refers to film
editing and video editing techniques where
the editor cuts from one shot to another view
that matches the first shot's action. A
common example is a man walking up to a
door and reaching for the knob. A example of
this used is in the film scream (1996) where
the girl reaches the door to lock it, it zooms
into the lock so the audience know what is
happening and when she runs through the
https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=laUPi7
MPOSQ

11. PARALLEL EDITING
• Parallel editing is when you have two scenes
happening at the same time as on another and
it cuts to each scene in the different location,
this means the people who are watching are
able to understand more of the story and what
else is happening at the same time compared
to another scene. An example of parallel
editing is in silence of the lambs (1991) where
it cuts to something else happening at a
different location but at the same time, then it
cuts back to the first scene.
• This means that juxtaposition is included
because two or more things are being seen or
placed close together with contrasting effect.

12. CUT-AWAY
• A cutaway is where something is cut from the
main subject to show other things happening
around it. cutaway scene is the interruption of a
scene with the insertion of another scene,
generally unrelated or only peripherally related to
the original scene. The interruption is usually
quick, and is usually, although not always, ended
by a return to the original scene.
• An example of this is "a quick cutaway to the
forest and back“ this is a good technique to allow
the editor to film a longer sequence and to extend
time. This happens in the film 300 (2006) when it
cuts to a tree and then back to the main scene.
Skip to 53 seconds
to see the Cut-Away

13. JUMP CUT
A jump cut is to jump forward and to skip a
boring part of the scene such as a long journey,
the start of the scene allows the audience to
know what they are doing for example if they are
in a car you know they are driving some ware
and if it includes a jump cut, you know that you
haven’t missed anything but the car journey, in
À bout de soufflé (1960) it skips a lot of the
journey because you can see the scenery has
changed in the background, this is to make the
journey shorter so the audience don’t get bored.
It’s a way of reducing a long take by editing out
one or more sections. The just cut is rarely used
in movies unless something long that needs a
jump cut occurs.
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=1KUVwKp6
MDI

14. MATCH CUT
Its when you have one shot with something happening
and then another shot with something the same or
something similar happening, its repeated in a similar
fashion. This can be between two different objects, two
different spaces, or two different compositions in which
an object in two shots graphically match, An example of
a match cut is in the 150th year anniversary of john Lewis
because the scene keeps on changing but the actors and
doing the same thing when cutting the scene. Match cuts
are used because it draws parallels or contrasts between
two different time-space locations. In this link the clip
shows someone moving towards the screen but it cuts to
a new location each time and you can see this person
move towards the screen.
https://vimeo.com/272463

15. GRAPHIC (MATCH) CUT
This is similar to a match cut but instead of the scene
changing to another actor doing a similar action its
when an object/shape in one shot transforms into
something similar in the next shot. Graphic cuts are
used because rather than the seamless cuts of
continuity editing within a scene, the term graphic
match usually denotes a more conspicuous transition
between two shots, this makes the scene feel more
meaningful and exciting, an example of a graphic
match cut is where a sink with water transitions into
an eye. An example of this match cut is that a bone
gets thrown into the air and then transitions into a
ship that has a similar shape so it looks like nothing

16. SHOT-REVERSE-SHOT
• Shot-Reverse-Shot is focusing on the people talking.
Its to get both of the characters involved. You don’t
have to speak to cut to someone. Having a Shot-
Reverse-Shot allows and helps the audience to
establish who the character is talking to and to know
what the character is talking about. Its to establish
who is saying what.
• For example character A looks at character B. The shot
then cuts to character B looking at character A. Then
the shot eventually goes back to the original shot of
both characters or just character A. this is done in
most movies, in the wolf of wall street (2013)this
happens when they are in a conversation.

17. FADE IN/FADE OUT
• Both fade in and fade out’s are transitions
used in editing to create an effect to end or
start a scene. A gradual transition from one
shot to another, one darkness and the next is
bright, a fade usually goes into or coms out
black to show it’s the start or end of a scene.
It the scene fades up into black it shows the
audience that a new scene is starting an
example of this happening in a film in in the
longest yard when it fads to the prison bus in
the desert, it allows the audience know that
time has passed and is now a new scene.
https://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=3bu
p_zehvBo

18. DISSOLVE
• This is when one scene fades out
while another fades in over the top of
it, the two scenes mix into each other
it relates to the graphic match cut
example when one thing turns into
another. The scene dissolves turning
into another scene to show that the
first scene has ended. Dissolving is
used in films because it shows us that
the scene is held to indicate that a
period of time has passed between
https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=DTPctD
hOCzE

19. WIPE
• A wipe is when one scene wipe over the other
to change the scene to the next, not a lot of
films uses this editing transition anymore
because it feels and looks cheesy, some
movies still use it like star wars (1977) but
this movie can work with this transition
because it’s a SIFI and a comic film meaning it
would work well. A wipe is a type of film
transition where one shot replaces another by
travelling from one side of the frame to
another or with a special shape. Wipes are a
good way to show changing location or
viewpoint. Another example of a wipe was
used in the movie “the longest yard” (2005)
this is where someone takes a basketball shot

20. SUPERIMPOSITION
• This is when one image is mixed over the
first image, the first image turns into the
background for the second image. The
second image starts to fade over the first
image but it doesn't full fade over it only
fades half way so both scenes are in one cut
like someone is imagining something. Its
when one image is placed over another. An
example of this is when a face appears onto
the existing face.
https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=r7Op1VJan8s

21. SLOW MOTION/FAST MOTION
• Firstly with slow motion it slows down the scene and the
moment that is going onto emphasise the movement of the
character, this gives a bigger meaning to the audience allowing
them to see what is happening with every detail, this is good
because if it was a fast scene with fighting and was slown
down the audience would be able to see every movement of
the characters. The most famous slow motion used in a film
was the bullet fighting scene in the matrix because it showed
the audience how fast the bullets moved and how the actor
dodged them, in the matrix they also use fast motion to show
the audience how fast the character was and it moves time
faster to skip non important bits.
• Its to speed and slow down an action.
• Fast motion is rarely used to speed up time for a comedy https://vimeo.com/9434
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=WhxbYTMN
Mxo

22. ELLIPSIS
• An ellipsis emphasises something to come, when you
cut out a period of time it allows the audience to use
their imagination to think and wonder what happened
in that period of time, this allows the audience to
wonder and think what has happened in that period of
time (…). An example of ellipsis is if friends go out
drinking and then it fades to black and the next scene
is of that person in bed, this allows the audience to
use their imagination to think what might of
happened that night.
• The editing out of a period of time or series of events,
leaving the viewer to fill in the narrative using their
own imagination. In game of thrones season 5
episode 10 there is a battle that starts but cuts to the

23. DEVELOPMENT
• Digital video started in 1999, the first digital reel
movie was star wars episode one.
• Hardware- physical, you are able to touch it.
• Software- its virtual, you cannot touch it because
it is not physical it’s a computer program.
• Analogue editing was used before editing on a
computer. The film negative when completed was
cut down and pasted into an order. It then went
through a machine such as Moviola.
• Digital editing is editing with a computer and is
much faster and more efficient for film. Many
different programs can be used such as final cut
pro, adobe premier and iMovie. Footage is put
onto the timeline and is then cut and pasted into

24. DEVELOPMENT
• The first films in the 1900’ were filmed on cameras and
didn’t go through the editing stages, the scene of the movie
was filmed until they got bored. After a while a film called
the great train robbery in 1903 and this film included the
first type of editing called a cut, this allowed the film to
shorten parts of the film and add different scenes, this
made the film more entertaining it showed a range of
locations and had a story instead of just showing one place
the whole time. The first film also used parallel editing.
Over 200 hours of film footage can be cut down in to 2
hours.
• Moviola-where film was cut and created before computers,
it’s the way of editing before it became digital.
• Nowadays smart phones can also be used for editing
because they contain all the software's that allow people to
edit. On the iPhone it includes iMovie and this allows people
to edit on the go but sometimes it might not include
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Bc7wWOmEGGY

25. EDWIN S. PORTER
Edwin porter was the first ever film creator,
he created films such as the great train
robbery and life of an American fireman.
Porter invented his own film projector,
called the Beadnell this allowed his film to
have a more clear and steady image. Edwin
Porter was known for cutting his footage
and putting it together, this allowed the
film to be more interesting and enjoyable
for the audience. Edwin Porter cut his
footage and put them in different places to
create a storyline for the audience. Porter
was central in the organisation of the first
projected movie show in New York on the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ym7-QW