Old Editing and the Development of Skills

Basic Early Editing Film Techniques

Film Editing techniques that we take for granted today were formed in the early years of cinema as it transitioned from filming life or theatre to a form all of its own.

• 30 Degree Rule
• 180 Degree Rule
• Cross Cutting
• Kuleshov Effect
• Match on Action
• Shot Reverse Shot
• Temporal Overlap
• Montage

The 30 degree rule

This rule is a minimum amount of camera movement around the action that should happen. When followed it gives a movement that feels natural and progressive. With an angled move of less than this recommended rule you get a jarring feeling conveyed to the audience. This is because the change is noticeable yet too small of a movement to seem logical and we see it as a twitch or a jump cut.

180 degree rule

Here is the upper end limit of most camera action can follow without confusing the audience. This is mostly followed when following at least two objects or characters in a scene as the audience will position them along a 180 degree line. The camera must also follow line so in a shot reverse shot a character facing left positioned at the right side of the frame continues to do so up until the full 180 degree arc limit is reached. This imaginary line can be crossed but must be shown to be crossed through a take and not by cutting. Any other crosses of the line cause confusion as characters appear to have reversed positions whilst it was the camera that had moved.

Cross cutting

Cross cutting is the editing technique of going from scene that the is the focus to another scene that also will be happening at the same time or has information relating to the original scene and cutting between them. By having two scenes going on at once you can cause tension that will lead to cringing or embarrassment in the audience or a build up of action and fear as two things draw together all by giving the audience both sets of information.

Kuleshov Effect

The effect is named after Russian film maker Lev Kuleshov and is the editing technique that exemplifies the importance of context. It is when a piece of reactionary footage such as a smiling face is placed either side of a another clip, it is this filling clip that informs the audience information. If the middle clip is that of a child petting a dog or a cat then we know this is good the smiling character also has good morals. If the clip is of someone being pushed we see the smile as sinister or vengeful and the smile footage didn't have to change.

Match on action

Is the editing technique when the cuts of the film match the action that is going on. Examples of this were found very literally in the golden age of Hollywood where it was believed the audience needed to see most of the journey a character makes in order to enter new scenes or transitions into a different action.

Shot reverse shot

An editing technique that allows for two perspectives of a conversation to happen with the camera on one side of the 180 degree line showing object A in the left side of the screen pointing towards the right side, then cut to, Object B in the right side of the screen pointing towards the left side. With an example set up like this we could substitute objects for actors and cut from the shot, to its reverse and back again to get a tennis like feeling of looking at who's talking in a conversation. It can be slightly manipulated to show maybe an over the shoulder shot of an actor as long as the reverse is shown we still have a shot reverse shot.

Temporal overlap

The Temporal overlap is an editing technique where the same action is shown again happening at the same time but from different perspectives. This is a technique that messes with time by showing the same instance over and over again and can be utilised in key action moments such as a bomb explosion in an action film to an important handshake. What this gives to the audience is another chance to really see the action and coupled with perhaps slow motion to gain the most information that they can from a spectacle.

Montage

Montage is a series of cuts that shows the footage in a passage of time but the way that it is cut will give a different effect to the audience. Early film maker Eisenstein stated that there were five types of montage:

• Tempo (follows a well paced montage of clips consistently giving a tempo to the audience)
• Rhythmic (follows beats to the music and imagery the video has a pulse)
• Ideological (exemplifies a theme or ideology throughout it such as the sadness of war for example)
• Tonal (these montages have a mood or tone to them and is kind of a blend of Ideologies and Rhythms or half step towards an overtonal montage but more simple and informative than questioning)
• Overtonal (brings all elements of montage together to make a complex and interesting sequence designed to make the audience think)