Editing Techniques Used In Post Production of Films

Introduction:History and Development of Editing:

Before we could edit a video on our computers and special effects, like lasers and flying ships, editors would have to instead have to do it handheld on the footage reel, for instance, now we can easily cut a part of the video we don't want with a simply click of a button, but editors used to have to

physically cut the footage and stick it back together, hence why its called snipping the footage or cutting the footage out. This was all before digital filming and editing existed, when only there was film filming and editing and this is when the footage is captured on a reel and then will have to treated in order to watched and this would take a overnight so the directors wouldn't be able to see if the footage was any good until the next day and would have to rely on the word of the head of photography if the scene they did was any good or not. But in 1969 when two people of the names of Willard Boyle and George E. Smith invented the charged-coupled device which was able to make images based on the light given to the camera's lens and provide the image instantly allowing people to view their footage instantaneously and would not have to wait for it to be treated over night like film had to be. This created fuss over which one was better digital or film and it got even worse when in 1971 when the first ever non linear editing software was introduced meaning that the person was not physically

editing the footage rather than linear footage where they could only cut the footage with scissors and tape it back together, but when the editing software CMX 600 was introduced of being the first digital editing software it allowed more things to be done to the footage like cut and undo mistakes you made and once the editing software started to get more advanced, then transitions started to come up, transitions are different effects on the changing of the shots and also gave them different meaning, these were like cut which is basic shot change, the dissolve which film makers used to see that the next shot, time has either passed or has gone back significantly, the fade have two way the fade in which is most commonly used in the beginning of the film and fade outs and are usually used to conclude the film instead and the last most common transition used in films is the wipe and that is used to , George Lucas used in the most in the Stars Wars films to make it look like that the next shot is in a different location.

Visual Analysis: Continuity

Now with i am going to analysis a clip of a movie that contains all of the techniques that editors use and i shall explain them and give the reasons for using them and how this shot used them and the reasons behind it. As you can see the clip i have chosen is from the film "John Wick" and its the scene right near the end of movie and is when the main protagonist and villain are facing off, but before i describe some of the techniques, i will first describe what continuity is, continuity is a system called the "Continuity System" and it was invented to help the audience understand the relationship between shots and creates a smooth transitions between them and allows he audience to be follow whats happening and not become aware of the edit taking place in shots and i will now describe what it the continuity system contains and how used in the clip i have chosen. The first continuity sequence used in the clip is the establishing shot, the establishing shot is used in films to show the audience of

the location of where the scene is happening and this is no different in this clip as the camera pans out to show the locations and this happens a few times in the clip the earliest being at 0:18 of the clip and

another being at 1:25 and they the reason for them doing it more than once to let the audience know
they are still in the same location and haven't magically teleported to another locations without letting the audience they have. The next continuity sequence that is used in the clip is the eye-line match cut, which is when a character is looking off scene and then the next shot is what the character was looking at, in the clip you see at 0:54 one of the characters is looking of screen and then the shot changes to what he was looking at which was another character in the film. One of the continuity sequence that is used quite a bit in films is match on actions, match on actions is when in one shot a

character is starting to an action and then in the next shot that action is completed and the next shot is usually in a different location and a different angle used as well, for instance in this clip i chose at 1:12 you see one of the character starting to reach behind his back, so starting an action and then the shot changes to him pulling out a knife or "completing the action" and it also changes the location as the first shot was in front of the character and was in a mid shot and then the shot changes to a close up and is behind the character instead, these are mainly scene in most fight scenes as you see the kick or punch about to happen and then the shot changes and then the kick or punch hits the desired target. The next one is the shot reverse shot, and this is when one character is looking at another and then the shot changes to that character looking back at them and this could be over shoulder or them looking off screen making it into a eye line match. One of the biggest rules of the film industry is the 180 degree rule which is when in a scene with two characters and they are having a conversation or fighting then a imaginary circle is drawn with a line splitting and which ever the camera starts on so one character is one the left side the of the screen then the next shot of the other character also has to be on the left and if they are not then the scene looks weird and make it looks like the character have moved, but their is an exception if you show the movement of switches

sides then it fine but if not it looks really like a really bad continuity sequence, so as long as you don't go past the imaginary line then the continuity will still look great, this is shown in my chosen clip as the characters always stay every in the middle of screen in some scenes or  on to the right of the screen this is show mostly throughout the clip and some examples is at 0:32, the only exception is

when the camera goes to an establishing shot but apart from that the characters always stay to the correct side of the screen.

Identification of main protagonist and other characters:

With every film there are certain ways to know who is the main protagonist in the film and they can be subtle as well and they do this for the audience to feel more involved into the film as they are trying to figure who is who. This is no different for the clip i chosen but in my clip you can tell two of the main protagonist, which are the hero and the villain. One of the ways you can tell a character is a main protagonist is by their overall screen time in the film, using my clip as the example you can tell both characters in the scene are the main protagonist as they both a have more or less the same screen time in the clip, this is because its a fight screen so they will most likely share the screen time but if you were to look at the rest of the film you can tell the main hero protagonist is the character called John Wick and you can also tell from the title as well as the title is his name. Another way is the amount of close ups the character gets in the film, with my clip the close ups are almost the same but the main protagonist is shown through

it as John Wick had more making him the main protagonist. The reason why the main protagonist gets the most close ups is because it makes the audience feel for them for if they can see the emotion of the character and feel more close with him, this is shown in my clip as in one shot you see a close up of him and you can see the determination on his face and that makes the audience wanting him to succeed, some example of the close up of John Wick are at 0:57 and 2:15. Another way of telling when a character is the main protagonists is by them having a point of view shots and the reason for this is because the audience can feel more involved in the characters life when they see what he sees and see what is happening to him and the will feel for him more as they will feel like they are in his shoes instead of him and that is the same with the clip i chose as you see the slight point of view shots with the main protagonist John Wick and not hardly for any other in the film and example of the point of view shot is at 0:50. The last main way you tell who is the main protagonist in the film is by the reaction shots and the reason that apply to it are the same as the close ups and so it is so the audience can the see the emotion the character is going through and that is shown in the clip i choose as in one shot in the clip the main protagonist is stabbed with a knife and you can see the emotion on his face when it happens and you a little bit later on you can see him pull it out and you also see the emotion on his face and when the audience see the pain and the emotion on his face they will feel bad for him and hope he doesn't die and makes it through it okay and when he does make it through the audience feel a relieved, you can see the reaction shots at 1:35 and 1:43 .

Conclusion of generating appropriate involvement in film: 

Mainly in films the audience are really only concerned over the main protagonist but that is only if interesting things happen to them that could be from the story line of them the creation of suspense or excitement for them and the editing techniques that are used for the character and here are some more examples of the techniques used in the clip i chose from the movie "John Wick". One of the examples is shot variation and that is using different types of shots in a scene and this is shown in my clip and it varies from medium shot that is mainly used in the scene and then there is the establishing shot with some wide shots mixed in and also close ups and point of views and with some rarity shots as well like the worm's eye used when the main protagonist John Wick is stabbed and also when he pulls out the knife and you are able to see his reaction from this as well and the other rare shot type is the bird's eye view used at the end of the fight to show them both in their present state, which you can see at 1:49 in the clip. Another example of editing technique so the audience keep being invested into the main protagonist is by editing rhythm of the scene and in the case of the clip i chose you can tell its a fast rhythm and cuts on when ever a character is talking or when a blow is landing on one

of the characters and linking this to another technique which is cutting it to the sound track and this is a little different as the clip isn't really cut to the soundtrack as the music is background is very subtle and you can only just ear it,but once the fight properly starts you start to hear it more clearly and when something happens to the main protagonist the music starts to pick it up and you can hear this from 1:28 and this is when John Wick gets stabbed in order to get the knife of the main villain and this is done so when the music rises and gets tense then hopefully it carries over to the audience. Linking back to the point of views, they are a great techniques to keep the interest on the main protagonist especially if they have more and more point of views as the audience become more affiliated with him and feel for him more as they are out into his shows for a short while and makes them feel what he is feeling. The construction of the story line in this film "John Wick has all developed to the final point of the clip i chose in which the main protagonist John Wick fights the man who has caused him all his pain and you this pain develop at the start

of the film with John Wick's wife dying then his car being stolen and his dog, which is late wife got him, is killed by the thieves of his car and this kick starts the film to which links to another technique used and that is cross cutting, which is when two things are happening at different places and the camera switches between them and this mainly used during phone conversation, but in John Wick they use it in a very creative way as they the main villain describes the skills that John Wicks and helps the audience understand John Wick more, this clip i'm talking about isn't the main one I've used to describe most of the techniques in this but due to the limitation of the clip i couldn't use it as it didn't use cross cutting or some other i will explain later. But the cross cutting in the clip is set between the main villain talking about John Wick and John Wick smashing the floor with a sledgehammer and pulling out a suitcase and this goes on to the next technique called providing or withholding information and this when a film puts an something in a screen and is then later used later on in it, this is show in the cross cutting clip i chose as when John Wick opens the door to his basement you see a sledge

hammer with him at 0:22 in the new cross cutting clip and that provides the audience with information that he is going to smash something and to find out later it was the floor, later on you see him open a briefcase that he smash the floor to get and we get to see its content and in it we see to the right that there are some gold coins and that information is not shared for what they are for, so with holding information from the audience and its not till later that you see him pay the clean up crew after the gun fight he has that the coins are a type of currency used in the criminal world. The last technique i will talk about with the cross cutting clip and also the film "John Wick" due to limitation of the film not using the last two techniques, but the last technique is jump cutting which is when a shot originally is quite long but is cut up in short clips to make the seem the character is in a rush or a period of time has passed like the transition dissolve, but in the cross cutting scene you jump cutting slightly when John Wick is smashing the floor and when his is moving the rubble from over the briefcase and this is done to show that time has passed and he has being hitting the floor for a time and also that he rushing to clear the rubble as well. For the last techniques i have to used clips from two different films

as they have the best examples i could find for this and the first technique is montage which is used to save time of a series of events of shots or to relay information to the audience about a character and a good example of it that i could find is the opening sequence of the film "Hot Fuzz" in it you get to know the main protagonist of the film and learn about his life in a short period of time in the film. The last technique is called a cutaway in which when one action is happening the camera switches shots to something different and then returns to the same shot again. The film i got the clip from is from the classic film "Back to the Future" film and the clip is near the start when Doc Brown is introducing his time machine to Marty and when the car through then leaving flame they turn around and then the camera switches to the number plate spinning and it then goes back to them, this is a great example of the cutaway and can be seen at 4:07 and this have all been great examples of the editing techniques used in films to make them the very best they can be.







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