Editing Workshop Part 1

 

Editing Workshop

In the morning of todays workshop, we had a masterclass of practicing our editing skills. This meant, we got given a few flips from the stock, we figured out the story and by using editing, to create a more dramatic story via the use of editing. To me, the focus within this masterclass was aiming to practice the Mac shortcut keys. This meant that I was referring to the tech support handout when I needed, for example, play backwards which is J. When cutting the shots, either by the razor tool or simply dragging out the clip on the timeline, I was aiming to create a dynamic that when there was more comfortable, intimate conversation there were close-up up shots but as soon as there was a divide between the two characters, the editing went into a two shot/wide shot. I tried to use this technique as a way of storytelling, so that the spectators can create that disconnect with the characters whilst they are having that disconnect themselves.

Overall, this master class was very useful in terms of gaining more practice to use the short keys and refreshing my memory on the previous editing workshop. I found using the short keys challenging, as it did slow down my process with editing, so that was sometimes frustrating, but once I practice more hopefully there is a fluidity to it and will help speed up the post-production process in the long run. This is something that I can take with me in future projects, as it will allow me to continuously practice my editing skills and possibly be quicker at editing, so I spend less time fiddling about with tutorials, when I have a tech support sheet on hand. Moreover, it could potentially make the editing process more fun as there will be a level of professionality to it.

This is the tech support sheet

of some of the short cut keys

i was trying to use.

After this masterclass we then had a talk about editing as a whole and how it is the invisible art of joining separate shots together to create longer sequences that make up the complete story of the film/programme. I think editing is rightly called the ‘invisible art’ as it must submerge the viewer, so they don’t even notice the cuts. Within this talk, we had a re-cap of editing and what it is, due to not having an editing workshop in a while. I learnt that the theme of editing is about the time, space and movement to create that drama/emotion. Editing is about story telling through the combination of shots and the first film edit was ‘The Great Train Robbery’ from 1903 by Edwin S. Porter. Learning a little about the history of editing, I felt as though it was very beneficial due to being able to visually see the development through time that editing has had compared now to modern day, and it makes me more aware that when doing my own productions, I need to be more tactical in how I want something to be represented, to enhance the story telling, and therefore holding the attention of the spectator’s. Moreover, we then expanded our knowledge on the type of techniques used.

Continuity Editing

This is the predominant form of editing style in a narrative film/television as the idea of it being the main purpose of editing is to take discontinuous shots and a create a continuous whole.

Match Cut

A match cut matches either the action, object or movement. It does this by focusing on one of the elements, so there is a natural and logical progression between certain shots and therefore, enhances the story telling by making it flow more.

The Kuleshov Effect

This is when one image can affect another image, to evoke a certain emotion. For example, you get a picture of a man and a picture of a sandwich, and when putting them both next to each-other, it can make it out to seem as though the man is hungry.

Montage

A montage is the process or technique of selecting, editing and piecing together separate sections of the film to a continuous whole. The most well-known style of a montage is a thematic montage in the well-known film ‘ROCKY’. The idea of a montage is when cutting two shots together, it then creates a third meaning.

Cross Cutting

This is when there is cut between two or more scenes that are occurring at the same time within the movie.

French New Wave

This style rallied against the typical, classical Hollywood system by having their shots cut to together in a discontinuous style and deliberately crossing the line/jump cutting.

Pacing

This is a creative aspect of editing as it can initiate your intended effect for the film, for example, dramatizing the scene by rhythm to create emotion. The main thrust of pacing is usually created by how quickly or slowly you cut from one shot to the next or one scene to the next. If it is an emotional scene, the shots are usually longer and slower, an actions scene would have quicker shots and if you want to hold tension, then you would hold on to a scene. However, if the pacing is too quick, there is a chance the spectators may feel left behind and vis versa, if it its too slow, the spectators may lose interest.

In general, I found re capping different editing techniques extremely useful as now, when I move onto my own productions, I can almost think ahead on what shots I may want and how they will connect smoothly in post-production. I will ask myself what am I showing? How long am I showing a certain scene? And most importantly, why I am showing it? This will aid my progress and understanding of being a director and give myself that appreciation of the level of detail a director must think about for a film, or even just one scene/shot. Furthermore, I can then revisit this blogger post, to keep up my understanding of editing techniques and to experiment more to challenge myself.