Essay 4.6
Editing has never been really taken into account. Most of the time viewers don’t consider what an important role editors have in the making of a film or TV show. They are the ones ‘creating’ a story by following a script of course, but there is no one there telling them what exactly they are supposed to do. They only get an idea of what the Director wants, but that’s all. So editing is not only about taking out the ‘bad parts’, but it is about creating a story by putting the ‘best parts’ together.
Back at the time, cinema was totally different from nowadays. Directors used to film till they got bored. Auguste Lumiere said that ‘cinema was an invention with no future’.
Later on, Edwin Porter discovered that by putting two or more shots together you could create a story (E.g “The life of American fireman”).
Porter’s second film “The great train robbery” was the one that made people believe that cinema actually did had a future.
Editing is now known as ‘The invisible arts’, why? Because back at the time editors weren’t appreciated at all, they were just hired workers to do the ‘dirty job’, hey weren’t part of the art department.
Directors rarely went into the editing room, they were supervised by the studios.
This job was more likely made by women, because it was such a delicate thing to do (E.g. Sally Menke or Verna Fields who cutted “Jaws”), while sound was a ‘man’s job’.
D.W Griffiths was the first modern editor who understood the importance of editing. He was the first one who used close-up, which was a revolutionary idea. He thought it was important that the viewer could feel exactly what the character was feeling.
“Birth of a Nation” was one of the first films in which different filming techniques were used,such as close-up, flash back and parallel actions.
The principal purposes of editing have always been to create a story, how? Well, not everyone realises this, but editors are if not the most, almost the most important part of a film or TV show production. While Directors shoot around 200 hrs of footage, the editor has to create a story by gathering the best parts of that footage together, transforming that to an easy to follow film of 2 hrs.
The editor’s job seems like an easy job, just putting together all the good footage, it’s not. His job starts with ‘Selectivity’: he chooses the most powerful and significant shot between many of them. Which we, viewers; actually can’t notice while watching a movie or novel. This can be tricky for the editor if the director shoots many of them, which usually happens, but they do this just to have different and more options. This continues with ‘Coherence, continuity and Rhythm’: This is an extremely important part of the process because everything is supposed to make sense and be easy to follow so the viewer doesn’t feel confused or bored, unless is wanted. As well as this is really important ‘Transitions’ are too; whenever the film changes time and space, there must be something that highlights that change, so the viewer doesn't feel disoriented. For this, different techniques are applied, such as *cut, *mix/dissolve/crossfade, *fade, *wipe, and *digital effects. Nowadays traditional traditional transitions are not often used, except for cut, dissolve and digital effects.
“Silence of the Lambs (1991)”
Editing is always really important, but specially when applying techniques to change the viewers emotional responses, and create whichever effect wanted.
For example, in this movie “Silence of the Lambs”, a quantity of different techniques are used to effect suspense, including close-ups, often applied to make the viewer feel as the character, shot-reverse-shot, in this case used to make the viewer feel anxious, and also point of view, which in this case it’s applied to make the viewer feel panicked because they can see what is going on but the character isn’t aware of everything. As you can see this techniques are principally used, as i said before, to cause emotional responses to the viewer.
“Psycho”
In this clip multiple mid shots are used. Marion is the center of attention the whole time, except for when the silhouette appears and kills her. This is a very known scene all over the world, which principally was supposed to be a scary movie. Of course now a days with new technology this is quite bad, and old. But it’s still a classic. Even though the movie is old it becomes interesting how shots are used to show her time in the shower and then how she slowly falls down after being stabbed by the mysterious man, which is shown by using a close up of her face, to determine what happened.
As i already said, the editor’s role in a film or TV show production is incredibly important. But it has its positive and negative things. They are able to express a story written by someone else using their own imagination, which is really good because that means they can use their imagination. Sometimes they can also collaborate with the director and be given notes by him, which can help them because that way the know what to do and how to do it, and while being an editor talking to other editors and directors can help you learn new things.
But besides that they have plenty of work. They are given 40hrs of footage, which is not totally bad because you have more options, but still, you have to choose between all that footage, and have to edit it to a 42 minute TV show, which is every week and they have a very strict deadline, so they can’t sit and think about it. They are also given too many notes, it starts with the Editor’s cut, which is given notes by the director, then that becomes the Director’s cut, which is given notes by the producers, and finally that is the final polished Producer’s cut. They can also get typecast, or not, nevertheless, if you work only in horror or action then directors will think you are only able to do that. And well, of course, they can’t help it, they watch everything with a ‘critical eye’, which actually is not really bad because they can learn new things, but you can’t enjoy everything.
I think in the end editing is the most important part of a film or TV show production. Even if editors aren’t yet considered such an important part of it. As Nancy Forner said “Editing is a craft and art form and it’s not just ‘cutting the bad stuff’. We take all the footage and create a beautifully, understandable, dynamic series.” Basically editing is art too, they don’t choose, they have to use their creativity to transmit something to the viewer, apart from a story, the editing can also control how the viewer feels, it can control their emotional responses, which i think is one of the big purposes of editing.
Moreover i think editing will improve because of the brilliant and creative minds, and because plenty of people are searching new methods for this to happen.
*Cut: It’s an instant change from one shot to another.
*Mix/Dissolve/Crossfade: A gradual fade from one shot to another. (can convey a sense of passing time or changing location.)
*Fade: Fades the shot to black or white. (Usually point out the beginning or end of a scene.)
*Wipe: One shot is progressively replaced by another in a geometric pattern. (Good to show changing location)
*Digital effects: Colour replacement, animated effects, pixelation, focus drops, lighting effects, etc.
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