EDITING TECHNIQUES

What is editing? And why is it important. So let me tell you guys a fun fact, listen carefully: No matter how good your camera techniques are, how good your stage production is, how precise your costume design is, if you mess up the editing, none of it matters at all.

                .Discontinuous Editing 

Firstly, we have discontinuous editing. So basically it means that there are breaks in the shots. One shot might show travelling, and the next shot will show reaching the destination, and the next might show sone drama in the destination. All of these shots are disconnected, but they convey the meaning and the intent very clearly, which is the purpose behind this form of editing.

     

                 .Continuous Editing

Continuous editing makes sure that everything is happening seamlessly in a shot-to-shot fashion. It involves cutting sequences and stringing them together and making them appear as if they’re connected and continuous. You see this in all daily life shows and movies that you see, and you’ll definitely see it in our final product as well.

   

                  .Montage

Then we have montage. A montage is a collection of shots shown in a single sequence. It is most commonly used to show a person training for his fight or sone sort of competition.

                    .Cross Cutting

Then we have cross cutting. Cross cutting refers to the form of editing where you show two shots next to each other and convey that they are happening simultaneously. An example of cross cutting is shown in the movie the godfather.

                     .Cut Away

The cutaway technique is a type of technique which includes the abrupt ending of one shot and brings the attention to something else, most probably something unrelated to the main character. An example of a cut away is that we see two people talking to each other in a shot but then we see a shot in which something very unrelated to the characters is shown.

                    .Dissolve 

Dissolve is pretty basic and understood. So to end a shot, it dissolves into nothingness while the next scene fades in to the screen. It can be used to stimulate the viewers mind to think on the dissolving scene, or to create a comparison with the incoming scene. Overall, it’s quite simple, and let’s talk about more complex ones.

                  .J and L Cuts

A J cut is when the audio of the next scene enters the visuals of the preceding scene, before the next scene starts. While an L cut is the opposite, it’s when the visuals of a scene enter the screen, but the audio is still of the preceding scene. It’s used in conversation sequences to show continuity and make the scene easy to digest.

 

                   .Jump Cuts

Jump Cuts is when there is no continuity in shots it’s used to eliminate unnecessary seconds from the movie, and it serves its purpose faithfully.

                   .Match Cut

What is a match cut?. So listen match cuts are basically when an element of the previous scene acts as a transition to the next scene. An example of a match cut is first we show a shot of a person looking at something then we show the shot of what the person is looking at:

                   .Shot/Reverse Shot

So shot/reverse shots are usually used in conversation, but not exclusively. Includes reaction shots, using 180 degree rule. An example of this is showing the face of one character when he is talking then showing the face of another character when he is talking.