Editing creates meaning

1. Editing creates meaning

2. EDITOR • The role of the editor is to select and arrange shots in a way that conveys a specific meaning to the audience. • The types of edit between shots; known as transitions are equally important as they convey meaning.

3. Continuity and non continuity editing • Two types of editing. • Continuity, most common form as it retains a sense of realistic chronology and generates a feeling that time is passing. • Continuity takes the drama from one shot or scene to the next. • This type of editing makes the dramas narrative progress in a realistic way. • Dramas may use flashfowards and flashbacks within their structure, but this is strill described as continuity editing because the overall sense of FORWARD is present.

4. Four Main types • Cuts: Most common and visible, if one shot moves to the next without the audience being conscious of the transition then a cut has been used. Cuts help to retain a dramas reality. • Dissolves: The audience will be able to see both shots on the screen. A dissolve can sometimes be used to make to indicate a connection between characters. • Fades: Fade to black or white, signifies the end of a particular section of time. • Wipes: Image pushed off the screen-star wars, comic book effect.

5. Continuity editing – The classic Hollywood technique • Cutting shots to tell a story, ensure narrative continuity and smooth flow from shot to shot keeping figures in continuity, lighting remains constant and action stays central to the frame • Particular narrative style which to relate cause and effect which came to disguise their means, what you expect to see: • Establishing shot (establishes the space in which action is to happen) • Shot/reverse shot – one shots shows one end of the central line, the other shows the other end to show conversations. • Eyeline match – character look offscreen, next shot shows us what they see • Match on action – character begins to move in one shot, we see continuation of movement in next shot • Long shots have longer takes than medium shots, and medium longer takes than close-ups (spectator needs more time to take in detail) • The 180º system – everything happens in the half-circle in front of the camera, which marks the ‘centre line’ • This ensures that the same space is described in each shot

6. Continuity editing is made up of rules or conventions…. • Establishing shots • 180 degree rule • Straight cuts • Match Cuts • Shot reverse shot • Three part shots • It also makes the diegesis- the world of the programme- real to us! Believable! • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xauSCz1mEk

7. Non continuity editing • Montage is the second type of editing. • A montage contains many different images, edited quickly together. Images do not provide a sense of narrative moving forward, but the sequence is still full of meaning. • The rapidity of cuts in the montage creates meaning and the viewer is forced to consider the connection. • There does not always have to be an obvious connection, it could represent the thoughts of a character’s state of mind. • Montage sequences are used to conotate chaos, tension or disturbance • Montages can also have no deliberate unconnected link which then allows a different kind of meaning to be evoked.

8. Non-continuity • Non-continuity editing is one way in which art-house films challenge Hollywood conventions. By breaking down continuity, filmmakers reveal that film is ‘constructed’, not ‘natural’, and also challenge the relationship between cause and effect and the assumed ideologies of Hollywood. • The jump shot – shooting a subsequent shot from almost the same angle and distance, even though the action has moved on (gives the impression that the camera is not ‘with’ the action – i.e. it is ‘there’ – and makes the film feel jerky) • Non-diegetic insert – insertion of something from outside the plot, i.e. a metaphorical image. • ‘Poor editing’ • Voices talking over another, ‘poor’ sound quality • Plot, subplots, logical progression challenged • Non-continuity or discontinuity editing can create its own meaning.

9. Montage editing • Homicide and NYPD Blue in 1990s used whip pans rather than shot/reverse to show characters talking. • Editing literally refers to how shots are put together into sequences to make up a media text – TV programme or film. • Editing (just like lighting, sound etc…) can create meanings for the audience and create an emotional response to a scene. • Continuity Editing (or chronological editing) • Continuity editing is the dominant form of editing in mainstream media texts. • It is also known as ‘invisible editing’ as it is designed to make the narrative flow seamlessly ( so we don’t see the joins!)

10. Speed of Editing • The speed of the editing in scenes determines the mood of the programme… • Fast paced editing- when shots are cut short – it creates excitement and anxiety in the audience • Slow paced editing : shots last longer between cuts – creating a calm relaxed mood.

11. Psycho • Consider • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4

12. Editing techniques usually contributes to the plot’s manipulation of story • time. (Story in narrative media is all the events that we see and hear, as well as those that we infer or assume to have occurred, including their • presumed causal relations, chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial locations. Opposed to plot, which is the actual presentation of certain events in the narrative.

13. Editing guides the spectator to construct the story time out of the plot • time by emphasizing order, duration and frequency.

14. 1) Order. The events’ order of presentation can be controlled with • editing. Temporal succession may be maintained but also manipulated. • These manipulations affect the relation between story and plot. Examples • of “out-of-order” placement of events:

15. Continuity Editing: A Shot Sequence Editing Code. Editing can be seen as a series of codes which regulate how a series of shots or scenes are organized into sequences that are meaningful. • The most widely used and pervasive of these codes is continuity editing. The purpose of continuity editing is to tell a story coherently and clearly, to map out the chain of characters’ actions with the minimum of disruption or distraction.