Losing the edit: shots in sequence

Emma Bull

Secondary Education Adviser,

Film Education

2

Overview and outcomes

• Defining the process: what is editing?

• Exploring techniques: mechanics and

aesthetics

• Editing in-camera : what is it? Why use it?

• Modelling the process

• Case study, Parkside Community College:

examining in-camera editing in context

• Further applications

What does editing mean in the context of your subject or classroom?

What are students learning when they engage in this process?

Editing as Process

4

Collaborative process

Creative re-invention

Grammatical exercise

Controlling content

5

Editing is the process of preparing language, images, or sound through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media... Editing is, therefore, also a practice that includes creative skills, human relations, and a precise set of methods.

Wikipedia

6

Early film: 1895-1903

• Short length, single shots

• Early tripods very simplistic

• Camera ‘movement’ = static camera on moving platform or vehicle

• Experimental tricks and techniques

• Narrative and continuity editing, multi-shot films - 1902 onwards

7

Editing film

1. In filmmaking, the task of selecting and joining camera takes.

2. In the finished film, the set of techniques that governs the relation among shots.(Bordwell and Thompson)

8

Juxtaposition and meaning• Edwin S. Porter, The Great Train Robbery, 1903 Shots in

sequence create meaning for audiences• From exterior shots to set, audience is encouraged to believe the

events they see are immediately sequential

Interior train carriage

Exterior, roof of trainCut to Cut to

Exterior, train pulls away

9

The Kuleshov Effect• Lev Kuleshov, circa 1920: intercut an actor’s face with unrelated footage taken later

• Audiences interpreted emotional responses on the actor’s face based on the juxtaposition of images

• Whilst much of the moving image we see uses this effect, it does not usually draw attention to it

10

“ An authentically new language did not emerge until filmmakers started to break up the film into successive scenes, until the birth of montage, of editing. It was here, in the invisible relationship of one scene to the next, that cinema truly sired a new language...

…this seemingly simple technique generated a vocabulary and grammar of unbelievable diversity. No other medium boasts such a process”

11

The language of film

What conventions are used to show:

-time passing;-characters’ thoughts, memories or dreams;-simultaneous events in different locations?

Film language and grammar evolve quickly: inventive techniques can quickly become clichéd…

12

Great Expectations, 1946

13

Hamlet, 1948

14

Romeo + Juliet, 1996

15

Industrial practice

• Film/TV usually shot out-of-sequence using multiple cameras

• Commonly use continuity editing for realism• Hollywood productions:1000-2000 shots,

action movies 3000• Post-production editing essential for

creating meaning

16

‘Four main functions’ of film editing:• make sure that the production is the required length or time; • to remove unwanted material or mistakes; • to alter if necessary the way or the sequence in which events will be portrayed; • to establish the particular style and character of a production (O’Sullivan, Dutton and Rayner)

In-camera editing (Burn and Durran):‘constructing a film by taking shots in

sequence, with no subsequent editing’

17

In-camera edit example:Tea

18

Why edit in-camera?

• Disciplined approach to filmmaking• Economical with time and resources• Careful planning enhances decision-

making and organisational skills• Understanding of the filming process and

the process filmed• PLTS and beyond…

19

Technical requirements

• Basic: DV camera, tape, tripod

• Super-budget: webcam or mobile device

• Optional extra: separate microphone

• Essential: paper, pens and brains for careful

and detailed planning

•Controlled environment to ensure continuity

of sound, lighting and action

20

Modeling the process: projector as shared viewfinder

• Camera

• Tripod

• Firewire

• Projector

Demonstrate shot types and visual grammar using:

21

Possible applications

• Economical approach for cross-curricular projects or filming live events

• Creating short filmed texts: poems, myths…• Demonstrating technique or process• Exploring genre• Creating atmosphere• Understanding continuity editing • Revision activity…

22

“They are revising basic shot types, distances and angles, but the main emphasis is on how shots work in sequence to create the illusion of

contiguous action over time”

James Durran, Parkside Federation

23

Case study: Parkside School

• Media taught in discreet sessions from Year 8

• Genre taught through Hospital Dramas scheme

• Production element uses in-camera technique

24

James Durran, AST -

The Parkside Federation Cambridge

‘it promotes imaginative ownership of editing decisions. Each one has to be fully realised

mentally before the record button is pressed…’

25

Storyboard examples

• Arrange shots in logical sequence

• Add shots, aid meaning

• Arrange shots to disrupt narrative

continuity?

26

27

Electrical Accident

28

Storyboards created from still shots, after

filming

These can be made more detailed: duration;

notes on camera movement; audio etc.

29

View the QuickTime movies ‘Stage Fall’ and ‘Roof Dare’

• Narrative

• Shot choices

• Continuity

• Understanding of conventions

• Impact of sequence

• Follow-up activities?

30

Stage Fall

31

Roof Dare

32

Edit in-camera to recreate:

• Title/credits sequence

• Fade in/out transition using auto focus

• Black shot using lens cap

• Colour transition

• Appear/disappear…

33

In-camera: the end of the process?

• Improving quality of filmed outcomes

makes editing easier

• In-camera edited films as a starting point

• Possibilities for adding sound, transitions,

intertitles…

34

References- ‘Film Art: an introduction’ Bordwell and Thompson, (Eighth Edition, 2008)- ‘Media Literacy in Schools: Practise, production and progression’, Burn and Durran, 2007-Parkside Community College’s Media page: http://www.parksidefederation.org.uk/parkside_media/-‘The Secret Language of Film’, Jean-Claude Carriere, 1994- ‘Studying the Media: an Introduction’, O Sullivan, Dutton and Rayner, 1998- Great Expectations, David Lean, 1946- Hamlet, Laurence Olivier, 1948- Romeo and Juliet, Baz Luhrmann, 1996 - Versions of the Kuleshov experiment and scenes from The Great Train Robbery can be viewed by searching online video sources- Examples of in-camera edited films from YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIiaP9g0G-ghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHa-zc2DsR4- Still and moving images from Teachers’ TV film ‘Teaching Media: Media Production in the Classroom’ http://www.teachers.tv/video/2553