Ladies & Gentlemen

"Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does."

Walter Murch.
My new favourite editor

Might have to invest in some Final Cut Pro after hearing this.

Wicked wee teaser

First attempt at a teaser for the film, Too Much Love.  It's a very basic edit, but it's exactly what I wanted.  There is a mystery that surrounds the teaser and that's exactly what it oughta' be like.

More on action editing, sequence from "Naked City"

I'm becoming really interested in action editing and the principles that go into that/  I'm becoming more interested in editing in general and I'm so glad I chose it as a craft.  I've learned so much from researching it and I feel it's going to be so valuable to me in the future.

There's a great clip from the 1940's noir film, Naked City, here.

And here's a few things to bear in mind while watching.

Continuity of action, people are moving in the same fashion, generally from left to right across the screen.
Match cutting, from the man who is being chased to the man who is chasing him, we follow this scene well because there is great cutting between the two, which links into the next point.
Thematic pacing, of the cuts, we are not left dwelling on one shot for too long.
Cutting on the action, when there is a big action moment, a cut will happen on, or just slightly after this, possibly also before.

Enjoy the clip!  Watch the full movie actually, it's awesome.

Editing action scenes

Exactly as the title said, here's a neat little video which tells you all you need to know about the basics of editing an action scene.

Oh and one more thing...

I am currently working on a bunch of edits as well.  We've filmed a lot of the movie now and I'm putting together bits and pieces as I go along.  I feel like I could come up with a million and one cuts and trailers but I'm obviously going to limit myself.

I'll be doing a couple of teasers soon though.

What's the difference?

So what's the difference between cuts and transitions I hear you asking?

The most basic transition is a simple cut from one scene to another, whilst there are other more obvious transitions like fading and wiping.

More transitions

I've been reading a lot about transitions lately and have come to the conclusion that they must be used very effectively and be in keeping with the rest of the tone of the movie.  Wipes and the like worked in Star Wars because it was that kind of kids adventure story and wipes were a neat way to signfy a shift between one scene and the next.

Fading scenes in and out was a hugely common theme in early movies.  If you think back, these transitions are particularly common in black and white movies from the 40s and 50s.

Of course every movie is different and edited in a different way.  Yet certain films follow certain guidlines when it comes to editing.  Stay tuned.

Battleship Potemkin

Wow, truly amazing sequence from Sergei Eisenstein's timeless classic, Battleship Potemkin.

Obviously this is the Odessa steps part and watching it all the wya through it is pretty phenomenal piece of film making.

The wide angle shots of the crowds combined with close up reaction shots of the horror unfolding makes for a great scene.  The cutting is quite fast and it's probably one of the earliest examples of action cutting.  The baby rolling down the steps is a perfect example of keeping the line of action continuous and also cutting on the action is evident throughout.

Errrrr transitions

Movie transistions, hmm, not quite sure what to make of these.

To me they seem such a tool for the complete novice/amateur/11 year old.  It's something I used to do as a kid with windows movie maker, editing videos of me and my friends riding bikes.  Star wipe has become a bad phrase to use.  See here for some yellow comedy.

You don't really see many glaring transitions in films these days, unless it's for an obvious effect.  Star Wars for example is known for having various wipe effects throughout the series.

I'm going to look more into it but the more I think about it, the less real transitions effects are used in today's cinema.  Like I said, unless they are going for an obvious effect, the most commonly used transition between scenes is a simple dip to black...

Wicked match cutting!

Opening scene from Orson's "Citizen Kane".

It's overrated for me, I never really saw the appeal, but here it is anyway: Click

The matching cut is the window which is in the same place for each cut and eventually we see into it and go through it and into Kane's bedroom.

Hairy arm

Just a quicky.
Discovered a new editing term today: Hairy arm

This is when an editor deliberately leaves in a glaring mistake when previewing a movie to distract the audience away from any subtle mistakes.

That's it!

Editors at the top of their game

To give some scope and recognition to my project I have decided to do some research into famous and successful editors and their particular work.

Dede Allen
Worked on such films as Dog Day Afternoon, Bonnie and Clyde and Serpico.
Here is a clip of her excellent work from the film, Bonnie and Clyde.

http://www.the-top-tens.com/lists/best-film-editors.asp

http://www.filmsite.org/bestfilmediting2.html

Walter Murch

A rather interesting character, Murch does all his editing standing up, comparing it to a conductor guiding an orchestra.  Murch also specialises in sound, winning the Sound Mixing Oscar in 1979 for his work on Apocalypse Now, which he also edited.  Murch has used a number of editing systems throughout the years, earning Oscar nominations for four films, using four different systems.

Here he is discussing the Rule of Six.

And here is some of his work from The English Patient

 

Thelma Schoonmaker

One of my personal favourite directors as her work is so recognisable and she collaborates with Martin Scorsese so often, Thelma has won 3 Academy Awards for editing.  Thelma often employs a change of speed in her editing.  This is perhaps most noticeable in Raging Bull.  Along with Scorsese's directing style, Thelma also employs a technique of long cutting, letting shots runs for perhaps longer than average without cutting.  As I've stated though, this is a case of the director and editor working in tandem to achieve this.  Here it is in Gangs of New York.

L cuts

I discovered 'L cuts' today.

L cuts are a type of edit in which audio is brought in ahead of video.  This is done for a number of reasons and again is one of those simple types of edits which I've discovered has a proper history and
tecnhique to it.  I've often used an L cut without realising why I've done it, or even knowing that it had a correct name.  It's called an L cut because of the shape it makes on an editing timeline.

Here are some videos explaining L cuts.
Video
Another video

A major reason we do 'L cuts' is because we need to see reactions to people talking.
Another way of L cutting is when switching scenes completely.

Example: 
2 people are in an office discussing the qualities an interviewee. CUT TO: Interviewee walking down the street while the audio of the 2 people discussing him plays over his journey.

I can feel my mind getting bigger

I was unsure at first about choosing editing for a craft to develop.  Now I've been into it for a few months though I'm really starting to enjoy it and I'm getting a much greater knowledge of editing.  This also gives me a better understanding of how a film is put together and how editing can impact a film greater than any other area.  A film is not a film until it is edited and an editor, as well as the director of course, has a huge influence of how the film looks.

Using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

I'm getting to grips with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.
It's relatively easy to use compared to other editing systems I have used.  Avid Media Composer is needlessly complicated while Final Cut is simple to use.
Adobe's editing gear is challenging yet rewarding to use. You get used to the interface after a while and there are plenty of tutorials online and via Aodbe Help Center to get you over any obstacles.

Parallel Editing

Today I discovered the joys of parallel editing.

Parallel editing is basically cross cutting.  It is when action in one place is cut with action in another, purportedly happening at the same time, yet it doesn't always have to be.

I've always known what cross cutting is but parallel editing makes it sound so much better.  AND it gets even more better when you realise the power of parallel editing as a true storytelling device instead of just a way of splicing two scenes together.

Take this scene from Taiwanese film Yi Yi.
The father is on a date with a woman who he has recently met again after a 20 year absence.
His first ever date was with the woman he has just met.
His daughter meanwhile is on her first ever date on the same night.
Both couple are doing practically the same thing and the scene is almost like 2 scenes running side by side.
It's the first 2mins 30s or so of this clip.

Zzzzzzzzz.......

Doing editing as a craft is quite the frustrating process as I actually have nothing to edit at the minute.  When we finally do record some footage however I will be sure to quickly edit something together just to confirm to myself that I actually have some skill at doing this.

In the mean time it is interesting to learn about different editing styles and how different techniques can create certain atmospheres.  

The most important thing I feel I've learned so far is truly the importance of editing and how much you need to take it into consideration when you are shooting it in the first place.

I shall continue my research!

War movies are an editor's dream

Another action/war movie here with Saving Private Ryan.

This is a film where I just feel the editing and directing must have ran completely side by side during its creation.

God Bless America...in The Hurt Locker

This scene from the Hurt Locker employs fast and slow cutting and creates a high tension and fear for a practically unseen enemy.  The shockingly high death count in this scene contrasts with the upbeat nature of its beginning.  I found the scene quite unrealistic and something bothered me about watching it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  In the context of the film, it seemed to come out of nowhere with these British contractors in the desert.  Then they of course all die because this is an American film and we all know America are better than the British.  I feel the scene on a stand alone basis is good, but it really annoyed me when watching it, very long and drawn out, and pointless in a way.

Editor on Fire

A scene from one of my all time favorite movies, Man On Fire.


Excellent use of diegetic and non diegetic sounds, camera angles and what I think is a higher shutter speed for a staccato effect.


It's edited incredibly fast and often displays a rolling shutter lag which emphasizes the confusion that Denzel Washington's character is feeling.  There is a mix of high and low angle shots which emphasise there is a pending struggle for power.
The sharp noise mixes well with the changing edit.  A nice piece of work by Christian Wagner.

City of Chicken

City of God chicken chase opening.

Brilliantly juxtaposition of the humorous chicken race against the backdrop of the slum and the fact its occupants are just as willing to kill each other as they are chicken.

Raging Bulls

Brilliantly edited scene which probably won the Oscar for Thelma Schoonmaker.

"You never got me down, Ray"

Excellent mix of slow and fast cutting coupled with brutal shost of the consequences of Sugar Ray's relentless pounding (blood splatters on the knees and commentators).

How soup changed cinema forever!

The Kuleshov experiment:

Kuleshov edited together a short film in which a shot of the expressionless face of a Tsarist actor was alternated with various other shots: a plate of soup, a girl, a little girl's coffin. 

The film was shown to an audience who believed that the expression on the actor's face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was "looking at" the plate of soup, the girl, or the coffin, showing an expression of hunger, desire or grief respectively. Actually the footage of Mozzhukhin was the same shot repeated over and over again. Vsevolod Pudovkin (who later claimed to have been the co-creator of the experiment) described in 1929 how the audience "raved about the acting.... the heavy pensiveness of his mood over the forgotten soup, were touched and moved by the deep sorrow with which he looked on the dead child, and noted the lust with which he observed the woman. But we knew that in all three cases the face was exactly the same."

The Russians knew the importance of montage and film editing and this is a very early example of how film was edited in such a way to convey emotion.