Conventions and techniques

Conventions and techniques:

Seamless editing is when you combine two completely different pieces of film together to create a film so this would mean taking two parts of a movie from different moments or time and combining them together to make something smooth and ongoing.

Continuity is a set of rules in editing that are about cutting content and putting it with another piece of content and making sure it is clear to the audience and doesn’t confuse them, if it wore to it may discourage the audiences interest. These set of rules consist of:-

Establishing shot

Shot/ reverse shot

180 rule

30 rule

Crosscutting

Match on action

Eyeline match

Re-estalishing shot

And why editors use these rules? Because its easier for the audience to watch your film, the audience don’t want to be confused half way through. This is also to ensure that the movie is smooth and not jumpy.

Montage is when you combine a lot of shots and parts together to make something that makes sense to the audience but can be at complete different times and points for example the opening to hot fuzz he speaks about who he is (well mostly his carrer) and how he ends up moving from the city to a village where crime rate is presented as low. This consists of many different shots at different times to explain his story over a voice over as the montage shows what he is talking about. Want to check it out? Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBNnHlqO4cs This is my favourite movie montage, don’t ask why XD but anyway this alone showed the audience the narrative and was an amazing introduction to the movie as it explained everything clearly and only lasted a few minutes saving screen time for other things and it seems to be audiences like information given to them quickly so this would of intreged the audience right from the start and couldn’t of been done in a better way.

180 rule is a rule that is done to not confuse the audience so this rule means the camera will stay a rotate around a 180 angel reason being if it was a 360 angel it could confuse the audience or be hard to watch. For example a talking scene the camera will stay on a 180 angel as showing a close up of someone talking and then the person facing them will have the next shot as long as it’s in the 180 angel so it doesn’t look as though they are talking to themselves. The only way to change sides of the 180 is if you show the camera changing sides in which case then it is acceptable.

Transitions

Dissolving is when you change scenes by making the end dip to black, cross dissolve into the next scene or dip to white (which is rare), dissolves are a nicer way to keep a movie smooth for it to be easier to watch because if every scene ended suddenly it could confuse the audience or be hard to watch. Not only that but it could look like the next scene is out of context if editors don’t use dissolves and that makes the audience not wanting to continue the movie.

Wipe is when you clearly show black coming across the screen to the next scene or show as if the scene is a window being washed away into another scene this is commonly seen in star wars as they are famous for using this to go to the next scene. This gives the audience a clear view of what is happening and that the scene is changing.

Point of view known as POV is a shot that is in the eyes of the actor, this is famously used in hardcore henry which is a movie that is all shot in the point of view of henry and is a very clever movie and is the first of its kind and probably many to come, this shot can show the audience clearly what the actor is feeling and makes the audience feel as though they are in the movie properly. POV is in many movies but this one only has point of view and works amazingly and keeps the audience watching from how interesting it and the fact they feel like they are there.

 providing and withholding information is a clever piece of editing as the editor withholds information from the audience to leave them wanting more and to continue watching to find out what happens, this has been used in Momento which is about a man that has short term memory loss (yes like dory from finding nemo) this movie makes the audience feel as confused as the main character as he tries to figure things out, there are two different times in the movie that are mixed up for the audience to figure out and all comes together at the end so it provides us with information and keeps it away at the same time, scary but clever editing. Another example could be Donnie Darko which is a movie that provides information but withholds it and never reveals what actually happened leaving the audience to still think about it to this day, clever? Oh yes it is.

Cutting is when a editor cuts a clip from a movie shorter or in a sense of where he/she thinks it’s a good place to stop and change scene by combining another clip to the cut version. This allows the editor to make the film more interesting and flow easily in places and if not for cutting every movie would be one scene and one shot like it used to be.

Cutting to soundtrack is when a scene blends into the soundtrack being played over it as maybe being cut on certain beats to make it more comfortable for the audience or to show a very tense moment such as a car chase and ensuring the soundtrack blends with that scene if done badly this could encourage the audience to stop watching.

Editing rhythm is important within editing, this is the amount of time a shot last, the amount of time a cross fade is, the music used in shots and how long it lasts through the movie, how things blend into one another. It is basically the smoothness of the movie and how it’s presented to the audience. This is vital since if it’s done wrong it will look low budget and possibly homemade if done badly. It could also be hard to watch any other way.

Shot reverse shot is a technique used in most movies where it shows a shot of someone talking and then another shot after showing the other person talking back, we spoke about this in the 180 rule due to the rule applying to this technique, well this is used in most movies when speaking and gives the audience a clear understanding of whom is talking to whom. If they break the 180 rule then it will look like they are talking to themselves..

Crosscutting is when there is an action taking place somewhere then cuts to a scene from the same action area but will be from someone elses point of view but this usually comes together in the end, an example of this could be batman V superman when batman and superman are in the same action place fighting dooms day but in two completely different points of view, from batmans you can see doomsday and hes fighting him and then superman is about to kill dooms day and they both become one scene as superman stabs doomsday with poison making him die. This gives the audience a clear understanding of the situation and can build tension on whats going to happen.

Parallel editing is when similar scenes are taking place in different locations that relate to eachother. An example of this is someone getting arrested in one place and someone else getting arrested in another for similar reasons. This is a weird technique that keeps the audience watching.

Jump cutting is when there is something maybe being shown in a close up but then shown again in a medium close up. This can be used to make tension in a moment or to make the audience focus as much as the actor on whatever a object may be and the importance of what it is for the movie for example a painting is being shown at a mid-shot, it is the shown again with a close up on writing on the painting so the audience can read it or focus on it.