Editing Techniques

For our film to be successful and look professional, I researched some editing techniques which we could use throughout our film. As we were producing a horror film, I looked into how we could get these editing techniques to portray horror.

Fade to Black 
Fade transitions are ubiquitous in films and TV, therefore will be used when editing together our film. A fade is when a shot gradually fades into a single colour, usually black or white. In our film, we chose to use black as it fits more with our horror genre. A fade is different however to a crossfade, which is a transition between two shots rather than one shot to a colour. Fades can signify the end or opening to a scene, a passage of time or a change of location. Longer fades = longer/bigger change in the film, shorter fades = time lapse of minutes or hours.

Continuity Editing
Continuity editing consists of match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree line rule. A sense of continuity is shown through match on action as it involves a shot cutting to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This is not graphic match; it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two separate things. Shot reverse shot is used when characters are engaging in conversation/looking at one another or between objects. This shot is shown through a point of view or over the shoulder shot, showing what they're looking at, then a reversed angle shot of the object/character looking back at them, for example. This editing technique is done to not distort the viewers view of the location. The 180 degree rule is a technique that creates a continuous sense of direction. This rule is a filming guideline that characters in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other.














Jump Cuts
A jump cut is an abrupt transition, typically in a sequential clip that makes the subject appear to jump from one spot to another, without continuity. This can happen when two sequential shots of the same subject in the same scene are cut together from camera positions that vary only slightly. Jump cuts also occur when cutting between two sections of footage shot from the same exact camera angle, for example in an interview.



Elliptical Editing
Elliptical editing is a technique used in film editing that allows an events duration on-screen to be shorter than is duration in the story. The simplest type of elliptical edit is a cut between two shots, both of which show part of the same event. The cut between the two shots allows film makers to omit part of that event, thus reducing the time that the event is shown on-screen. A long, tedious event that might take hours in reality, may be elided so that film viewers only sit though a few minutes.