The editor's role is to coordinate shots and eliminate unwanted footage to craft a coherent narrative. They select usable takes, trim extra frames before and after each take, and decide how to transition between shots. The editor works closely with the director to ensure scenes edit together smoothly. Different editing styles, like realism versus formalism, determine how obtrusive the edits are and how much meaning is derived from the editing itself versus performance. Transitions like cuts, dissolves and jump cuts signal relationships between shots.

1. Week 8 Lecture
Editing

2. The Role of the Editor
• The basic role of the editor is the
coordination of one shot to the next
• They also eliminate unwanted footage,
selecting only those takes that are usable
• Eliminate superfluous frames: Those before
the direction says “action” and after he say
“cut”
• Decide the best way to transition from one
shot to the next
• The editor’s job is closely tied to the
director’s. The director has to be mindful of
the way they choose to shoot certain
scenes so that they will edit together
smoothly

3. What makes a good editor?

4. The Psychology of Editing
• In Walter Murch’s book “In the Blink
of an Eye”, he discusses the
psychology behind film editing:
• "There are places in a conversation where it
seems we almost physically cannot blink or
turn our heads (since we are still receiving
important information), and there are other
places where we must blink or turn away in
order to make better sense of what we have
received. And I would suggest that there
are similar points in every scene where the
cut cannot or must occur, and for the same
reasons."

5. Editing Transitions
• The term “cut” is derived from the way in which film
editors would have to literally cut the film and piece them
together with either tape or cement
• Editors use transitions to signal a relationship between
different shots
• Cuts: A transition between two shots that share the same physical
and temporal space
• Dissolve: a gradual transition between two shots that show a
change in space/time
• Any time that they audience feels that there is abrupt shift
in space/time between two shots in a film, this is referred
to as a “jump cut”
• Jump cuts can sometime be used for stylistic effect

6. A Bit of Editing History

7. Stylistic Decisions in Editing
Realism Classicism FormalismRealism Classicism Formalism
Spectrum taken from Gianetti’s “Understanding Movies”
Sequence Shots
The Arrival of a
Train
Cutting to
Continuity
A Trip to the Moon
Classical Cutting
The Birth of a Nation
Thematic
Montage
Thirty-two Short
Films about
Glenn Gould
Abstract Cutting
Rhythmus 21
• Like directing styles, editing styles can be classified by the ways in which the
editing is obtrusive upon the creation of meaning in the audience
• Films that are edited with more realism, use less editing and allow
audiences decipher spatial and psychological relations for themselves,
while more formal films are more particular about the images that they
place in front of the audience

8. Editing: Sequence Shots
• The most realistic style of
editing has little editing at all.
Films in this category tend to
only edit to place sequences
together
• Film theorist Andre Bazin was
a proponent of this style. He
felt that it allowed more power
to the audience in the process
of discovery
• Example: Children of Men
• A film that I worked on:
Milton Glaser Draws and Lectures

9. Editing: Cutting to Continuity
• Cutting to Continuity: The process by which unneeded
information in the telling of a story is removed. This illustrates
the ability of editing to condense time
• Example: In your movie you need to convey that a woman
leaves work and drives home. Using either Realism or Cutting
to continuity, here is how your project would turn out
• Realism: Show every part of the process – Her leaving work,
getting in her car, driving, arriving home, going in the door
• Cutting to continuity: Showing only the essential parts – leaving
work, driving in her car, arriving home. Only the necessary parts
are shown to us in order for us to understand the sequence
• Cutting to continuity produces the assumption that everything
we see in the story has a specific purpose in telling the story
later on

10. Classical Cutting
• This style was developed early by DW Griffith to draw
viewers into the emotional content of the scene. There
is still continuity in the edited image and additionally
the editor uses different shots to draw the viewer into
the scene.
• This is typically done through coverage – the process
in which a scene is filmed using a variety of angles
• The Master Shot: a Wide shot of everything that is
happening in the scene, used to establish relationships
between the actors
• Close Ups: Used to draw the audience psychologically
closer to the characters in the scene
• Eye line match: If we see an actor refer to something off
screen, or see something off screen, the shot that follows
is typically what that object is
• Cutaways: Coverage of specific items or actions used
within the scene
• Matched action: Cuts happen during a major action – The
emphasis on the action, will deemphasize the fact that
there is a cut

11. Classical Cutting: The 180 Degree Rule
• The 180 degree rule is one of the most
important rules in both directing and
editing
• The rule is made so that screen direction
and eye lines are always continuous and
therefore not confusing for the audience
• The diagram on the left shows a scene
between two men. The scene is divided by
an axis of action (the dotted line). The
camera, when covering the scene, must
remain on the same side of this line.
Otherwise the actors position on screen
and screen direction would be inconsistent
from shot to shot
• The line can be reestablished by cutting to
a wider shot and having the actors move to
new positions
• The only reason that you should violate the
rule is if you want to disorientate the
audience

12. Editing: Thematic Montage
• Thematic Montage is a more formalistic editing technique. It involves
editing a narrative together not because they share the same space,
but because the editor wants to create a juxtaposition between the
two actions
• Films like 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould use a variety of techniques to explore
the life of a famous Canadian Composer. Sequences aren’t cut together because
they share the same narrative space, but because they share similar themes
• This was a technique that was espoused by Early Russian
Filmmakers such as Kuleshov, Pudovkin and Eisenstein. They
believed that acting wasn’t necessary, as all meaning could be
derived by the process of editing itself
• Kuleshov did an experiment where he placed different images after a shot of a man,
the shot of the man was identical each time. However, depending upon the
juxtaposition, the audience perceived his feeling to be different in each sequence

13. The Kuleshov Experiment
What creates
meaning?
Editing or
Performance?

14. Editing: Abstract Cutting
• As with Avant Garde film, abstract cutting draws attention
to the act of editing itself.
• Films of these nature don’t use editing to set up temporal
relationships between objects, but instead cutting is used to create
juxtapositions and meaning, evoking certain emotions in the
audience
• Work is mostly non-narrative
• Example: Ballet Mechanique (1924)
• The Legacy of this can be seen in montages today.