T3: Editing Key Conventions

Task Three – Editing Key Conventions

 Continuity 

The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots. Continuity editing can be divided into two categories: temporal continuity and spatial continuity. Within each category, specific techniques will work against a sense of continuity. In other words, techniques can cause a passage to be continuous, giving the viewer a concrete physical narration to follow, or discontinuous, causing viewer disorientation, pondering, or even subliminal interpretation or reaction, as in the montage style.

Montage 

Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. Montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity. Montages are used in movies like Rocky IV and Avengers Assemble. 

Jump-cutting

A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way. For this reason, jump cuts are considered a violation of classical continuity editing which aims to give the appearance of continuous time and space in the story-world by de-emphasizing editing. Jump cuts, in contrast, draw attention to the constructed nature of the film.

Parallel editing 

parallel editing is a method of cutting in film editing between a couple of scenes or stories that are happening at the same time.

180o rule 

The 180o rule is a guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be in the frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left to right. if the camera passes over the axis, it is called crossing the line or jumping the line.

There is a scene in 'The Hunger Game' where the 180o rule is taking place. When the girl walks into the room the bed is on the left hand side of the room and then the next time we see the bed it is on the right hand side of the room. This was a 180o rule. Below is an example of how a 180o rule works.

Transitions

Transitions are the way that one shot is linked to another shot. An example of this is in Britain’s got Talent 

which uses transitions of fade to black then fade in to the next shot each time they go from shot to shot in 

most clips. Transitions could be a cut, dissolve, fade, wipe; cutaways; points if view and shot-reverse-shot. 

Editing rhythm

Editing rhythm is what editors use to keep pace of the film up to match the action that is going on in the film. Slow cuts edits has a calming, bordering feel to the edit, were as a fast cut edits has lively, aggressive feel  to the edit.  Below is an example of this is in the first episode of ‘Dead Set’  it uses fast cut edit to create a loud, breathless feeling.

Crosscutting
This is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions but this is not always the case.

Cutting to soundtrack

Cutting to soundtrack is what it tells you it’s a technique means that edit point would determined by the soundtrack that is used. The most conmen way that this technique is used is when a editing to a song. An example of is in ‘Glee’ where in most of this clip the use the beat of the music to determined the editing points.