Editing is when you view parts of the footage which you have filmed and adjust them into the order in which you want them to be in. When you finish editing you then join all the footage together. Editing can be done when you are making a film or a TV program.
There are two specific areas to concentrate on with editing,
Speed of editing and Style of editing. The speed of editing is how long each shot last. The style of editing is how each shot is joined together with the next shot.
Speed Editing
Speed editing will help you determine the mood of the scene. Each scene will last a matter of seconds, or it can continue for minutes. The length of each each sequence tells the mood of the film. If the film maker wanted the audience to feel anxiety and suspense they will make every shot really shot and quick.
Here is a scene from the Bourne ultimatum, in here the editor has used 5 second shots to emphasis that something is going to happen and it gives the scene a big build up because everything is happening so fast.
If a relaxed mood wants to be set, the editor will make scenes last longer and change less. Here is an example from Sleepless in Seattle. In this scene we see two lovers wanting to be together and the slow pace shows the viewer how much they really do like each other.
The film Russian ark has no edits. The film was filmed and was not edited once. This meant that everybody had to be in the right place at the right time.The concept of this was to see if you could produce a film in one shot.This film contain over 200 actors.
Jump Cut- this is when the viewers attention is brought into focus very suddenly. This cut is also known as a discontuity, because you are breaking the continuity editing. It will appear as though part of the film has been cut out. Jump cut is used to startle the viewer or to draw their attention to something.
Eye line match- this where the camera films the actor looking at something off screen and then we cut, then show a shot of what they were looking at.
Match on action- we see a character start an action in one shot and then see them continue it in the next. An example is some walking through a door.
Graphic match- is a cut in film editing between either two different objects or spaces in which an object graphically match this helps to continue the action into another shot this links one scene to another. We see an example of this in Pshyco. When the shot is of a plug hole then it matched with mariams eye.
