Style Of Editing

Style Of Editing
We have recently learnt about many forms of editing, and looked at films and film directors who have interpreted different ways to edit films.
(This is useful for my group for when we film, because we can edit it afterwards and add some of these effects in to make it even better.)
First of all, the movement from one shot to the next is called a transition. There are many forms of these which are used throughout films of all sorts of genres.

Straight Cut: This is probably the most common form of video transition, and isn't as noticeable as others which is probably why it is known as "invisible". It happens when one shot moves instantaneously to the next one without attracting the audience's attention. They help to retain reality.

Dissolves: This transition involves fading one shot off the screen while another shot is fading in. The audience will be able to see both shots on the screen at the mid-point of the dissolve. It is used if the film maker wants to show a connection between two characters places or objects.

Fades: This is a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until it becomes black or white. One shot will fade until only a black or white screen can be seen. It is used to indicate the end of a particular section of time within the narrative. Fading transitions can also be used to show the passing of time in a film.

Wipes: One image is pushed off the screen by another. It isn't a very popular video transition, but is effective when it is rarely used in a film because audiences can recognize it quicker than they can with other transitions. Images can be pushed left of right, and it is more common for the image to be pushed off the left-hand side as this movement is more consistent with the sense of time moving forward. It is used to signal a movement between different locations that are experiencing the same time,

Jump Cut: A jump cut is probably the most effective way to grab an audience's attention because of how quick and sudden it is - it draws them in within the space of a second. This occurs by breaking the continuity editing. This is known as discontinuity. It appears as if a section of the sequence has been removed.

Graphic Match: The film maker can choose to place shots in a certain order so as to create a smooth, visual transfer from one frame to the next. When two consecutive shots are matched in terms of the way they look, this is called a graphic match.

Montage Theory 

Lev Kuleshov was among the very first to theorize about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920s. He argued that editing a film is like constructing a building. Brick by brick (shot by shot) the building (film) is erected. Sometime around 1918, Russian director Lev Kuleshov conducted an experiment that proved this point. He took an old film clip of a head shot of a noted Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with different images.

Montage editing contains many different images quickly edited together.

Continuity Editing: Retains a sense of realistic chronology and generates the feeling that time is moving forward. It may use flash backs or flash forwards but the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way.

Eye-Line Match: We see a character looking at something off screen and then we cut to a shot of what they are looking at.

Match-On Action: We see a character start an action in one shot and then see them continue it in the end.