The first film to include editing. The Great Train Robbery, E. Porter, 1903
READING & WRITING
Continuing from last week’s post on creating visually appealing shots, editing is the next step. You have all of these stunning shots, but how do you put them together? Tom Schroeppel describes some basics in The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video.
It’s impossible to have an excellent film with just each shot strung together one after another. Editing the piece requires careful consideration of what you want viewers to see and feel. The scenes must mimic how the human eye perceives reality or you will confuse viewers. It’s also critical to consider how the brain processes what it sees and how certain elements of a shot can set up the new world you are introducing.
It’s typical that the very first thing a viewer sees is an establishing shot, which is usually a wide shot of the setting. From here, the mind can piece together the environment through visuals, sound effects, and ambiance. If the scene goes from a wide shot of a café to a medium shot of two people sitting at a table, the viewer understands that the duo sitting at the table is in the café.
One way to change the emotion of a scene is through its pacing. The faster shots cut from one to the next, the more suspenseful, anxious, and visually jarring it is for the viewer. Rapid cuts are often seen in horror films, action movies, or TV shows that are about to drop a major cliffhanger for a season finale.
Sound and music can greatly influence the effect a scene has on the viewer. If the goal is to intensify the adrenaline, rapid cinematic music can do that. If the scene is sad, slow music may accompany it. In some cases, a scene may have no music or ambiance at all, stripping the viewer of “noise” and focusing only on the sound effects.
RESEARCH TO INFORM
Knowing this information, you can watch scenes completely differently now. I myself find that I’m paying more attention to the types of shots, the sound effects, the music, and the pacing much more than before. Once you learn about it you can never go back.
Below are some examples from a few of my favorite television shows (I’m sticking with the TV theme because why not). Spoilers for Major Crimes season 5, Downton Abbey season 3, and Chernobyl episode 4.
Major Crimes, a spin-off series of The Closer, follows Captain Sharon Raydor as she evolves from one of the most hated police officers in the LAPD to one of the most loved. In this episode, she and her team are investigating a serial bomber, trying to find him before setting off another bomb. Here, the team gets a tip that leads them to the cemetery where a funeral for the father of a suspect is occurring.
I would say this is pretty run-of-the-mill suspense and action editing. Intense music, quicker cuts as the scene escalates, and then a loud explosion. What this scene also has that is interesting is the snapshots that the bomber is taking of the members of the team, which I’m sure required precise timing in editing to sync the sound with the image.
You’ve probably heard of Downton Abbey even if you never watched it, and if you have watched it, this is going to bring up old emotions. This sequence is a great example of L-cuts in audio editing. You can hear the dialogue from the previous scene with the visual of the next scene. It jumps back and forth between Matthew driving and Mary’s family discussing the new addition to the family.
An additional layer of fantastic editing is how the dialogue has a double meaning. We as the viewer know that the family is discussing the joy of a grandson, while also knowing that something horrible is about to happen to Matthew. Seeing both ends of the story at the same time makes the end that much more heart-wrenching. And then the Dowager says “But we don’t always get our just desserts” and cutting to Matthew dead on the ground? Ouch, my heart.
This limited series is incredible on so many levels. Chernobyl, based heavily on the events of the 1986 nuclear disaster near Pripyat, Ukraine, unfolds the details of that day, why it happened, and how they tried to lie to the world. It’s won over a dozen awards for editing, directing, and acting.
In this scene, a group of men volunteer to help clear the graphite at one of the reactors. The men can only be on the roof for 90 seconds before suffering severe radiation poisoning. Unlike what we often experience in cinema, this scene actually lasts the full 90 seconds, and the viewer feels like they are on the rooftop with them. The ominous background sound, the buzzing of the radiation detectors, and the heavy breathing tie into the shaky footage and create a very uneasy feeling.
CREATE
Taking all of this into consideration, I created a visual montage of Colt State Park (as described in my last post). I found myself spending hours rearranging clips, assessing the “feel,” syncing sound effects and timing the imagery to certain beats in the music. Enjoy!
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