Editing Techniques

Editing Techniques

Continuity Editing: The arranging of sequence shots to show progress in events. If they are the same shots, an editor can put forward many different scenarios.

Accelerating time: Alongside expanding time, this editing technique portrays fast paced scenes that will advance the narrative with an entertained audience efficiently.

Expanding Time: When you expand time in a video, you are making the duration of the video sequence longer than in real-time.

Insert Shot: An insert shot is a close-up of something that exists within the basic scene. The latter is typically visible within the establishing or wide shot.

Cutaway: Unlike insert shots that show significant aspects of the overall scene in close up, cutaways cut away from the main scene or action to add related material.

Relational Editing: This form of editing places shots that have no symbolic meaning next to each other possibly for juxtaposition. However, the main use of this is to make a cause-effect scene to advance a narrative.

Thematic Editing: In thematic editing, also referred to as montage editing, images are edited together based only on a central theme. In contrast to most types of editing, thematic editing is not designed to
tell a story by developing an idea in a logical sequence.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

1) At a micro, technical level, how well did you observe the conventions of continuity and the language of editing?

By using a variety of shots and angles, I was able to create the perfect atmosphere in order to intrigue the audience. I believe that on a micro-technical level, we got on quite well. For example, we managed to successfully demonstrate matching on action at the very beginning when the principal (Jordan) is entering the room, there is a close up of the handle followed by a mid-shot of his legs approaching the camera. This was to build up tension and enigma so that the audience wouldn't know what to expect.


2) What were you pleased with? What seems to work well and why?

I was pleased with the camera work as it was shot without a tripod and still turned out quite good. At first, we used an establishing shot in order to set the scene for the audience and to get them engaged into the scene. We also did a close up of a door opening as it allowed us to achieve the effect we aimed for on the audience.

3) What mistakes did you make? What would you have done differently?

Our preliminary task on the whole came out quite well however, we had a small error which we didn't notice until after we had edited it all together. When the principal (Jordan) was yelling at the student (Jamil) we used a point of view shot to show the principal. This should have been followed by another point of view shot showing the student however, we made the mistake of showing a panning shot of the student infuriated and leaving the room.


4) How did you manage the group dynamics, equipment and resources?

We managed the group dynamics by choosing who would play what role through the process of voting. Not only that, but we also assessed each others skills. For example, I was quite good with the camera and knew what I was doing hence the group choosing me to video the piece. We created a brainstorm of multiple ideas for our short film and chose one through the process of elimination according to what type of film we each preferred to produce.


5) What problems did you encounter logistically?

The problem we encountered logistically was that we didn't have a tripod therefore we had to shoot everything with a steady hand. This made it difficult because we had to be very careful about every shot and also had to be wary of time.