Editing

Editing refers to how shots are put together into sequences to make up media text

Three Areas

When analyzing editing you must break it down into three areas to help the quality of the analysis

• Transition- how one shot Moves to the other 
• Continuity- how one shot Merges into another
• Shot Duration- how Long a shot is

Transition

Different transitions can create slightly different meanings for the audience

• The Cut- The point where two shots come together
• Dissolve- The blending of two shots to communicate a passage of time and /or location
• Wipes- When shots change across the screen
• Cross Zooms- When it starts small and gets bigger on screen
• Flash Frames
• Jump Shots- Normally to do with props or objects.

When Creating  a short film The Cut and Dissolve are the best to use.

• Fade down ( of sound)- Gradual diminution of sound level
• Fade in (of Pictures)- Gradual appearance of the image
• Fade to black- gradual disappearance of image into black screen

Shot Duration

The duration of a shot will usually reflect the narrative context

• Short shot duration- conveys urgency
• Long shot duration- conveys detail and intimacy with narrative 

Continuity 

• 180 Degree rule- A rule which maintains that the line of action should not be crossed in the interest of fluid continuity. You can cross the 180 degree line, but you must show that you have moved. you can not just cut to the other side as you will confuse your audience
• Cross Cutting- Also known as parallel editing. alternation between two or more different  scene which are (usually) developed simultaneously
• Cut Away- a brief shot that momentarily interrupts continuity action by briefly inserting another related shot.
• Eye Line Match- a common convention to maintain continuity is a character looks at something and in the next shot we see what they are looking at.

Cinematic time-  The time a sequence takes to play on screen as opposed to 'real time'. In film time can be expanded and shrunk.

•  When you see Match on action in a film this is cinematic time and therefore real time.

During editing you can:

• Shrink time- Through a series of fast paced cuts we can see things that would take a long time in just a few seconds on the screen. Instead of watching a character get in a car and drive for 20 minutes we see then get in and get out, letting us assume that the journey has taken place.
• Expand time- The editor can expand time by adding additional details. For example, someone is sitting in a chair waiting for the phone to ring. in real time this might only last half a minute, but the editor can build up tension by including shots of the person's eyes, tapping fingers (to show impatience) etc, drawing the scene out to a minute or more. here we are looking at Film time not 'Real Time'.
• Finding Rhythm- Editing sets the rhythm or pace of a scene. this could be dictated by either the music used behind a scene or the mood that the editor is trying to create and the pace that you edit. To build up tension in a scene you might cut from one shot to another very quickly. however, in a relaxed scene the editing will progress at a much slower pace, dwelling longer on each shot.

Sound

We started the lesson by listening to 5 different theme tunes to well known TV programs and then had to answer two questions on them. the questions asked were how does it make you feel? and what type of TV program are you expecting to watch?

The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air:






How does it make you feel ?

• Happy
• Up Beat

What type of program are you expecting to watch?

• Family program
• younger audience 
• Young character - rapping 
• West Philadelphia 
• Bel Air - posh place
• America 

The A Team:

How does it make you feel?

• Up Beat
• Happy

What type of program are you expecting to watch?

• Dramatic
• Action
• Army/Military 

Doctor Who:

How does it make you feel?

• excited
• Happy

What type of program are you expecting to watch?

• Science -Fiction
• Alien's

Eastenders

How does it make you feel?

• Excited
• relaxed

What Type of program are you expecting to watch?

• Family show
• Drama

Hollyoaks

How does  it make you feel?

• Happy
• Up Beat

What type of program are you expecting to watch?

• Family Show
• Drama

Technical Vocabulary 

Diagetic sounds

• Ambient Sounds
• Dialogue 
• Sound Effects

Non- Diagetic Sounds

• Sound Track
• Theme music/ tune
• Sound Bridge
• Parallel Sounds
• Contrapuntal Sounds

Depends

• Direct Address

Why is Sound used in Television Programs?

Sound is used in TV programs to communicate feelings/emotions through the use of voice overs, music etc. It can create tension/ happiness for the audience and sometimes characters.

Depth and Focus

Depth

How far the camera is away from the background and the subject

Focus

How Sharp or soft (blurry) the focus is, which allows the audience interpret the scene.

Shot movement

Pan: When the camera moves side to side on a fixed point/ axis Tilt :When the camera moves up and down from a fixed point/axis Zoom: When the camera lens moves in and out from a fixed point Track: When the camera follows a subject and is unattached from a fixed point

Framing/ Shot aspects and Composition

Framing 

Framing is what you want in your frame. You can chose what you want to include inside it and can edit out anything you don't want / need .

Composition

Composition is everything you need in your scene, anything that is is important that you need in your scene to make sure it makes sense.



Task :

once we had learnt the shot types and the different camera movements we were told that we had a task . Our task was to re-create still images from 4 different films making sure we got the right camera angles, the right depth and shot type,as these were still images no camera movement was needed.
The four films included: Indiana Jones,Shawshank Redemption, Taxi Driver and Pulp Fiction.
Here are our attempts at the four stills:

Indiana Jones :

Taxi Driver :

Pulp Fiction:

Shawshank Redemption:

The best aspect's of our recreation was our focus on each still and how we made sure that it matched the real still. To improve we need to look close at the depth of the subject toward the camera, especially with our Indiana Jones still, it wasn't quiet there with the depth of the camera and the subject.

overall this task helped me improve my understanding of the different aspects of focus, depth and shot types as a whole

Shot Types

EWS- extra/extreme wide shot : landscape- can see the landscape (100% zoomed out)

VWS-  very wide shot - can see character in landscape but not as much as WS/LS/FS  (90% zoomed out)

WS/LS/FS- wide shot/ Long shot/ full shot- can see the whole character in the setting (50% zoomed out)

MS- Mid shot- can see half the character's body (40% zoomed out)

MCU- Medium/ mid close up- can see neck and head of character (30% zoomed out)

CU- close up- can see head of of character (20% zoomed out)

ECU- extreme clsoe up- can only see eyes and nose of character 

CI- Cut in- can see a different body part of subject/character (10% zoomed out)

CA- Cut away- can see a shot of something other than character/subject e.g. children playing 

2 Shot- can see 2 people in the shot

OSS- over the shoulder shot- can see shoulder of one character/subject to see other character/subject's face

Noddy shot- this is an interviewers point of view, can hear the character speaking but cant see them only see the the subject answering the question.

Point of view shot- shows a view from the subject/character prospective 

Weather Shot- the subject is the weather. can be used for other purpose e.g. background for graphics.

each shot type creates different feeling for the audience. For example you would use close up to show emotion on the character and this would get empathy from the audience.

Preliminary Task

Making The Preliminary Task 

The brief we were given : A character opens a door, crosses a room and sits down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he the exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue

After seeing the brief we were given, my initial thoughts were what genre we want this to be, what is the character going to say and how am I going to show this using the camera . We came up with the idea of a police interview and that someone had been killed,  we first started with our story board and how we were going to portray our ideas onto the paper.After this, we decided to chose our location, we decided to use the drama studio in our school as it is a enclosed space and had black walls to keep our genre dark and thrilling . Next we wrote a script which included stage directions so we each knew what we were doing. we decided to film our task after school as we knew this would give us plenty of time to get ready, set up our camera and  mark each position we decided to have it in, and to read through our scripts  to understand our charters.

When writing our story board we decided to use a range of different camera shots such as close up, wide shots and more. When filming and deciding what costumes to wear, we decided that the main character should wear a red top to show danger and death, the voices were wearing black to show that they are dark and not really there. we didn't use any props except chairs when filming.

once we were in the editing process, our brief was changed slightly. We were told that Match on action should be in our piece, therefore we made extra sure that our film had it throughout, we did this by making sure each footer of a shot matched to the header of the next. After making sure that we had Match on action we finally thought our piece was ready, however, again our brief was changed. This time we had to make sure Shot Reverse Shot was included as well. we found little bits of the shots had this but not enough to flow and make a scene work.

Reflection 
When editing our piece of film we realised that looked like a drama piece that had been filmed form different angles. and once we finished we weren't happy with how it looked.

 Fist preliminary task :





Therefore we decided to change our whole story  and re film the whole thing again keeping it simple with just some friends talking together.

To do this, we story boarded again, making sure that we had a range of different shots, such as over the shoulder and wide shots. We wrote our script again keeping it simple and easy to relate to. Also when filming we made sure we had match on action and shot reverse shot to make it easy in the editing process.

When editing we found it much easier to  put together and because we made sure we had everything the brief included  when filming it made it so much easier to edit together.

Second and Final Preliminary Task :