Assignment 1 Essay: Understanding The Techniques and Applications of editing for

film and television

In the world of Post-Production, Editing is arguably one of the most important parts
that is needed to make a movie great. There are multiple different types of editing that
all are used for a different effect on the film. An example of this would be the
difference between what the effect of a graphic match on the narrative is and what a
split screen does to the narrative. Continuity editing is one of the most common forms
of editing seen in almost all video based media as it is the best way to drive the
narrative forward in a way that all of the audience can easily understand. Examples of
continuity can be seen in almost all conventionally made films.

Jump cutting is used in most films to show the passage of time in a quick series of
shots to show passage of time. We can see a good example of this in the first season
of ‘Luther’ where the titular character is seen in multiple scenes standing over a
criminal and visibly distressed.

Shot-Reverse-Shot is used in almost every modern film for dialogue scenes as it is the
easiest way to show the natural procession of a conversation. We can see examples in
some music videos like the Panic! At The Disco song ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ in
the wedding scene at the start of the music video.

180-degree line rule is a rule stating that in a scene with two subjects talking to each
other, the camera position should never cross the imaginary 180-degree line which is
drawn parallel to the subjects. This rule can sometimes be intentionally broken to
unsettle the audience in films in the thriller and horror genre. A good example of the
180-degree line being broken would be the toilet scene in ‘The Shining’.

The Eye-Line Match technique is another commonly used technique that is used to
show what an actor is looking at using a quick cut, it is normally used for continuity
editing. An example of this being used is in the ‘Captain America: The Winter
Soldier’ Elevator scene where Captain America is shown looking off screen and the
camera cuts to what he is looking at.

Graphic matches are used for a multitude of different effects depending on the
previous context of the scene. However, it is mostly used to show a passage of time
with a graphical relation to the previous scene letting the audience make an
intellectual observation of the scene. An example of a graphic match would be the
train scene in hot fuzz where the character falls asleep on a bench in the day, the shot
then cuts to a graphically similar shot of him sleeping on the same bench at night, and
is woken up the next morning by a passing train.

Match on Action is a form of continuity editing used to show the actions that a
character is doing in a scene so that the audience can follow the narrative easier. An
example of this can be seen in the film Sherlock Holmes where the main characters
are seen running away from a group of soldiers that are firing at them and you can see
close ups of the weapon being reloaded, and a large cannon being loaded and fired.

Sergei Eisenstein was an early Soviet film director known for creating innovative
filming techniques including different types of montage editing. The most important
types of montage editing that he made popular was Intellectual, Metric, Rhythmic and
Tonal.
Assignment 1 Essay: Understanding The Techniques and Applications of editing for
film and television
We can see some of the first examples of Intellectual editing in some of his earliest
pieces of work, we can see this in the slaughter scene in Strike where violent
suppression of a worker’s strike is cross-cut with scenes of cattle being slaughtered. A
similar scene is seen in the 1979 film ‘Apocalypse Now’ where scenes of a buffalo
being slaughtered is cross cut with scenes of a major character being brutally
murdered.

Metric Editing is a type of montage editing where all the shots that you cut between
are the same length regardless of the content of the shots themselves. This is used to
increase tension and create a feeling of chaos. We can see this in the town square
scene in ‘October: Ten Days That Shook The World’ where the soldier is shooting a
machine gun on civilians and the shot rapidly cuts between the soldiers intense facial
expression and the machine gun he is firing and then back to the town square showing
a large crowd of people running away to show how chaotic the situation was to the
audience.

Rhythmic Editing is a similar type of editing to Metric editing however it also

considers the visual aspect of the shot too. An example would be the iconic Odessa
Steps scene where the shot ‘waits’ for the soldiers to reach the end of the steps to
show what their path of destruction is causing.

Tonal Editing is a type of montage is frequently used in most films to set the tone of
the scene being played. An example of this can be seen in one of the final scenes of
‘The Revenant’ where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is shown bleeding out and
being left for dead and the close-up shots of him cut to the flowing river next to him
that is flowing down, which is supposed to be representative of the way that
DiCaprio’s character is feeling as he is fading away due to the injuries that he
sustained throughout the film.

Juxtaposition is a type of editing where two shots of different objects are placed side
by side to create a different meaning than if one of the shots was seen by itself. One of
the first example of this would be the previously mentioned scene in “Strike” by
Sergei Eisenstein where the shot of the workers on strike are running away from
soldiers shooting upon them is juxtaposed with a shot of cattle being slaughtered on a
farm. While the two shots do not have any direct correlation or meaning, the meaning
is created by both of the shots being shown side by side.

Cross-Cutting is an editing technique that is used to show two different actions

happening at different times in two different locations. This is normally used to
increase suspense and tension and we can see a prime example of this in the
Christopher Nolan film ‘The Prestige’ in this scene we can see three of the key
characters all preparing to do a different kind of magic trick and showing them all go
through all of the different ‘acts’ of a magic trick. All of these characters are trying to
do a different magic trick, at different locations and at different times.

Parallel editing is an editing technique where two different actions are shown to be
happening at the same time in two different locations as opposed to cross-cutting
which is two different shots in two locations but it doesn’t have to be happening at the
same time. An example of parallel editing would be the scene in ‘Silence Of The
Lambs’ where the character of Buffalo Bill is shown as being paranoid that someone
Assignment 1 Essay: Understanding The Techniques and Applications of editing for
film and television
is approaching as we can see multiple FBI agents surrounding a house about to raid it.
In the climax of the scene it is revealed that they are raiding the wrong house and the
main character, a female FBI agent has arrived at Buffalo Bills address with no
backup or support, putting her in a dangerous position.

A Freeze frame is an editing technique normally used to take the focus away from
what is being seen on screen and getting the audience to focus on the sound of the
scene as typically when a freeze frame is shown, a narrator is saying something
important to the narrative. We can see this when the key characters of the film
‘Trainspotting’ are introduced with a freeze frame at the opening scene of the film.

A dissolve is a type of transition used to show the natural passage of time between the
two scenes that the dissolve transition is in-between. A dissolve transition creates a
gradual, subtle change between the two scenes which creates a gradual change similar
to the gradual passage of time in real life. An Example can be seen in the ending
scene of the film Saving Private Ryan where the scene has a small transition