Why do we edit?

Film editing is a post-production process in which all the captured footage from a film is altered and spliced together in many different ways. Many films have 10+ hours of footage, which can, and normally is, edited down to as little as a fifth of what it started out as. Editing is often used to convey emotions, add in effects, shorten the film as a whole and largely to try and keep the audience interested. Sometimes in movie making the original story can/is changed because of editing.

Timeline:

1895: The Lumiere Brothers invented the Cinematograph and, alongside this, cinematography. The first instances of editing would stem from there. Their first captured footage was of a train entering a station. It was all single film, with no evidence of editing, but it did lead to the development of editing techniques we still use today.

1896: Robert W. Paul's 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' was the first camera to feature reverse cranking.

May, 1896: The Lumiere Brothers exhibited their films in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

1897: The first film studios were built.

1898: Robert W. Paul's Come Along, Do! was the first film to feature more than one shot. Georges Melies's The Four Troublesome Heads was produced using the same camera to create multiple exposures.

1901: Edwin S. Porter tried putting different parts of a film together, introducing us to one of the first forms of editing.

Primitive instances of editing can be seen in films like The Great Train Robbery  (1903) and Rescued by Rover (1904)

1908: D.W Griffith's film For Love of Gold features the first ever continuity cut between scenes. He was also one of the first to realise that character emotion could be portrayed through different editing techniques and camera angles instead of film solely relying on people's acting abilities.

The Birth of a Nation (1915) is the first film that used a variety of camera techniques, including long panoramic shots, still shots and cross cutting. Griffiths also directed this.

1920: The Kuleshov effect is discovered by Soviet director and film theorist Lev Kuleshov. The Kuleshov effect was a montage effect on a film which Lev Kuleshov thought the audience would respond to better.

Before Digital Editing it was Analogue, which involved cutting down the film negatives and placing them in a certain order. It then went through a machine called the Moviola or the K.E.M.

Digital editing is faster and more efficient. The first computers were only capable of basic sound and video editing, and machinery in the modern day shows a vast difference, with current software capable of creating amazing effects.

Continuity Editing - When the material being edited is kept in a relatively sound sequence of events. This is used to convey to the audience an already established story, which is consistent across time and physical location.

Non-Continuity Editing - This is when time is disrupted in a film sequence, most commonly in the form of flashbacks. This is mostly used to show the audience a previous event that has an important connection to the current events happening in the film.

Linear - This is when all scenes are in an order of continuity, i.e. someone going through their morning routine, be it waking up, getting dressed, having breakfast, brushing their teeth and then leaving, it all follows the same timeline going forward. 

Non-Linear - The counterpart to linear, this doesn't follow a timeline going forward, but rather is out of order. This could mean the film starts in the middle of the timeline, jump to the end and then finish at the start.

Cut - This is when one shot is instantaneously replaced by another. An example of this would be a film of a conversation, with the frame constantly switching between whoever's talking, and whoever's listening, generally to convey emotion or show speech.

Match Cut - A cut between two different things that are matched either by the subject or an action.

Flash Cutting - Can also be called a Short Cut, meaning it has a very brief duration, less than two seconds.

Subliminal Cut - A cut consisting of frames so brief and fast moving the viewer is only subconsciously aware of them.

Cross Cutting - An edit that alternates shots of at least two lines of action, often happening at the same time. Used to display two different events happening at the same moment.

Intercutting - Intercutting is the use of different shots of the same scene shown within seconds of each other. Different shots such as one over the shoulder, then switch to a mid shot, then perhaps a low shot and so on. This is done to show more elements of one scene, and to keep the audience's attention. This can also help prevent plot holes by showing off things that might not be seen through just one shot/angle.

Line Cut - Tape of the switches from one camera angle to the other. These are called out by the cam director as the event is shot.

Elliptical Editing - Transitions that show different parts of an event, causing ellipsis in plot and duration of the story.

Overlapping Editing - Cuts that repeat either parts of or all of an action, increasing its viewing time and the plot duration.

Montage - A montage is many short clips put together to form a longer sequence. This is often used to tell a long story in a short amount of time, or to show a long sequence of events condensed into a few short minutes.

Jump Cut - A sudden change of frames similar to a cut, jumping slightly forward in time and leaving a gap for the viewers to fill in themselves. In editing this can be used to increase the pace of a scene, which saves time and keeps the audience's attention.

Eyeline Match - When two or more characters' eyes have been matched. This is often used to give the audience the feeling of being on the same eye level as the characters, which adds a definition of realism to the scene, as if the audience were interacting with the environment as well.

Dissolving - The gradual transition of a scene done by overlapping one clip with another. This technique is used to make scene changes smoother, and is generally used to follow a sequence of events, or to help tell a story.

In this clip, from the movie Hot Fuzz the main character is shown moving from a city to the countryside, to a place called "Sandford" . This takes the form of a sort of montage, with the character being shown on multiple forms of transport. Shots of the phone are also a constant, showing the signal going down, to emphasise his move to nowhere, and the time on the phone is also present, giving us a timeframe for how long his journey took. 

Jump Cuts

A lot of jump cuts were used throughout this clip, showing Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) moving to Sandford from London. The journey is condensed into this small clip, and the use of jump cuts shows us how he got there, moving from a cab to the Underground and then on to a train. These cuts were likely used 1) to condense the large journey into a smaller clip, and 2) to show off how robust and lively the city is in comparison with the countryside.

Fade/Slow Cuts

Closer to the end of the montage, the clips begin to slow and fade into each other. Not only does this tell us Nicholas is close to his destination now, but it's also a metaphor for the life he's left and the one he's about to start. The city being fast paced and a bit difficult to keep up with, shown in the form of the jump cuts, and the countryside being much slower and calmer, as shown by the fades and slower cuts. This is also shown in the sounds used.

Sound

As briefly mentioned above, the use of sound throughout the clip gives us an idea of the environment Angel (Pegg) finds himself in during the journey. Starting in the city there is a lot of metropolitan ambience, people, cars and so on, but as we move further into the countryside everything gets a whole lot quieter, a stark comparison to the city life and it's ever present noise. Another part of this is using that sound to create a faster pace, with the sounds jumping and changing with the cuts, and the loud noise of the train being incorporated to not only enforce the idea of travel but also add in a faster pace, waking Angel up and also catching the audience's attention once again.

This is a short clip from the film Little Shop of Horrors which is comprised entirely of jump cuts, used to show the passing of time. The first thing we are shown is a clock, an obvious reference to time, and by extension waiting. Then we are shown a room, with three people. The angle remains exactly the same throughout, but the positions of the people in it do not. Instead they are moving around, but we don't see it. We are shown the end results, with the camera cutting to each different position. Since the angle remains the same, the only thing we see are the people suddenly changing positions, looking increasingly bored - another reference to the passing of time, and a nod to them waiting for someone to arrive or for something to happen.

The lack of different camera angles is an interesting one. Normally a single angle in a scene gives cause for a dull atmosphere, but with the quick jumps in the scene, and the changing of character positions, it still keeps the audience's attention and shows the passage of time really subtly, but very smartly.

Above is a small showcase on what the power of editing can really accomplish. It can turn even the most beloved childhood classic into something, well, terrifying. Mary Poppins is a fantasy/musical film about two children faced with the prospect of a new nanny. They are surprised when they meet Mary Poppins, a magical nanny with a sunny attitude, whom they go on fantastic adventures with. There isn't any real antagonist or evil in the film, it really all boils down to the children trying to pass on some of their nanny's sunny attitude to their parents. There isn't any malevolent forces in the movie, and as such you'd think being able to turn it to something scary without adding new footage would be nearly impossible, but using editing and the right skills, it can be done.

Scenes in which Mary Poppins seems evil or the children look terrified have been specifically placed to portray Mary as a villain. Scenes with a creepy or horror-esque ambience have also been used, to give off a more menacing vibe. The usage of scenes with characters using certain facial expressions really does show how big an impact the usage of emotion has on a film, with only certain expressions used to make the movie seem scarier than it actually is. Another technique used is lighting, with many scenes used having a darker undertone, i.e. the fog at the beginning. However, as it progresses, lighter colouring is used, but not to portray happiness or another positive emotion. Rather, it is used to show a sort of madhouse crazy, as if a circus and an insane asylum have merged (who's to say that's not a circus anyway?)

To conclude, this trailer is a perfect showcase of how, with editing along, you can create anything. Changing a childhood classic, one without a villain but rather a moral, into something more menacing, is an impressive feat. Applying certain techniques used for different genres on different films applies a dramatic change in how the entire set comes across. Instead of the happy kids film, you get a sinister horror, all done by correctly applying the right techniques.

I decided to add in some black and white tints to a few scenes, in order to give off a flashback sort of vibe, while also leaving their meaning a mystery for the viewers. The washed out feel the lack of colour gives is perfect for representing that whatever is happening in that scene has already happened - as in, it's a past event being shown. Paired with some coloured scenes that could link to those past events, the trailer becomes slightly more intriguing, as we are shown that the timeline may not be as straightforward as we thought.

The segment lengths for the start and finish of my trailer (respectively) differ quite a bit. For the start, there are fewer shots, and they are quite a bit longer then the shots at the end of the trailer. I did this to create a build up of tension, with the beginning of the trailer starting off at a slow, quiet pace, also marked by the audio being much quieter, and then it finally escalating as it continues. The end of the trailer has more, shorter shots, to give a faster pace. The audio is also much louder and fast paced, paired nicely with the greater speed the end of the trailer should have.