Losing%20the%20edit:%20shots%20in%20sequence

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Losing the edit shots in sequence

• Emma Bull
• Secondary Education Adviser,
• Film Education

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• Overview and outcomes
• Defining the process what is editing?
• Exploring techniques mechanics and aesthetics
• Editing in-camera what is it? Why use it?
• Modelling the process
• Case study, Parkside Community College
  examining in-camera editing in context
• Further applications

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What does editing mean in the context of your
subject or classroom?What are students learning
when they engage in this process?
Editing as Process
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Controlling content
Collaborative process
Creative re-invention
Grammatical exercise
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• Editing is the process of preparing language,
  images, or sound through correction,
  condensation, organization, and other
  modifications in various media... Editing is,
  therefore, also a practice that includes creative
  skills, human relations, and a precise set of
  methods.

Wikipedia
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Early film 1895-1903

• Short length, single shots
• Early tripods very simplistic
• Camera movement static camera on moving
  platform or vehicle
• Experimental tricks and techniques
• Narrative and continuity editing, multi-shot
  films - 1902 onwards

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Editing film

• In filmmaking, the task of selecting and joining
  camera takes.
• In the finished film, the set of techniques that
  governs the relation among shots.
• (Bordwell and Thompson)

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Juxtaposition and meaning

• Edwin S. Porter, The Great Train Robbery, 1903
  Shots in sequence create meaning for audiences
• From exterior shots to set, audience is
  encouraged to believe the events they see are
  immediately sequential

Interior train carriage
Exterior, roof of train
Exterior, train pulls away
Cut to
Cut to
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• The Kuleshov Effect
• Lev Kuleshov, circa 1920 intercut an actors
  face with unrelated footage taken later
• Audiences interpreted emotional responses on the
  actors face based on the juxtaposition of images
  
• Whilst much of the moving image we see uses this
  effect, it does not usually draw attention to it

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• An authentically new language did not emerge
  until filmmakers started to break up the film
  into successive scenes, until the birth of
  montage, of editing. It was here, in the
  invisible relationship of one scene to the next,
  that cinema truly sired a new language...
• this seemingly simple technique generated a
  vocabulary and grammar of unbelievable diversity.
  No other medium boasts such a process

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The language of filmWhat conventions are used
to show-time passing-characters thoughts,
memories or dreams-simultaneous events in
different locations?
Film language and grammar evolve quickly
inventive techniques can quickly become clichéd
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Great Expectations, 1946
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Hamlet, 1948
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Romeo Juliet, 1996
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Industrial practice

• Film/TV usually shot out-of-sequence using
  multiple cameras
• Commonly use continuity editing for realism
• Hollywood productions1000-2000 shots, action
  movies 3000
• Post-production editing essential for creating
  meaning

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In-camera editing (Burn and Durran) constructing
a film by taking shots in sequence, with no
subsequent editing

• Four main functions of film editing
• make sure that the production is the required
  length or time
• to remove unwanted material or mistakes
• to alter if necessary the way or the sequence in
  which events will be portrayed
• to establish the particular style and character
  of a production (OSullivan, Dutton and Rayner)

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In-camera edit exampleTea
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• Why edit in-camera?
• Disciplined approach to filmmaking
• Economical with time and resources
• Careful planning enhances decision-making and
  organisational skills
• Understanding of the filming process and the
  process filmed
• PLTS and beyond

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• Technical requirements
• Basic DV camera, tape, tripod
• Super-budget webcam or mobile device
• Optional extra separate microphone
• Essential paper, pens and brains for careful
  and detailed planning
• Controlled environment to ensure continuity of
  sound, lighting and action

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Modeling the process projector as shared
viewfinder
Demonstrate shot types and visual grammar using

• Camera
• Tripod
• Firewire
• Projector

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Possible applications

• Economical approach for cross-curricular projects
  or filming live events
• Creating short filmed texts poems, myths
• Demonstrating technique or process
• Exploring genre
• Creating atmosphere
• Understanding continuity editing
• Revision activity

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They are revising basic shot types, distances
and angles, but the main emphasis is on how shots
work in sequence to create the illusion of
contiguous action over time James Durran,
Parkside Federation
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Case study Parkside School

• Media taught in discreet sessions from Year 8
• Genre taught through Hospital Dramas scheme
• Production element uses in-camera technique

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James Durran, AST - The Parkside Federation
Cambridge
it promotes imaginative ownership of editing
decisions. Each one has to be fully realised
mentally before the record button is pressed
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Storyboard examples

• Arrange shots in logical sequence
• Add shots, aid meaning
• Arrange shots to disrupt narrative continuity?

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(No Transcript)
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Electrical Accident
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Storyboards created from still shots, after
filming
These can be made more detailed duration notes
on camera movement audio etc.
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View the QuickTime movies Stage Fall and Roof
Dare

• Narrative
• Shot choices
• Continuity
• Understanding of conventions
• Impact of sequence
• Follow-up activities?

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Stage Fall
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Roof Dare
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Edit in-camera to recreate

• Title/credits sequence
• Fade in/out transition using auto focus
• Black shot using lens cap
• Colour transition
• Appear/disappear

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In-camera the end of the process?

• Improving quality of filmed outcomes makes
  editing easier
• In-camera edited films as a starting point
• Possibilities for adding sound, transitions,
  intertitles

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References

• - Film Art an introduction Bordwell and
  Thompson, (Eighth Edition, 2008)
• - Media Literacy in Schools Practise,
  production and progression, Burn and Durran,
  2007
• Parkside Community Colleges Media page
  http//www.parksidefederation.org.uk/parkside_medi
  a/
• The Secret Language of Film, Jean-Claude
  Carriere, 1994
• Studying the Media an Introduction, O
  Sullivan, Dutton and Rayner, 1998
• - Great Expectations, David Lean, 1946
• - Hamlet, Laurence Olivier, 1948
• - Romeo and Juliet, Baz Luhrmann, 1996
• - Versions of the Kuleshov experiment and scenes
  from The Great Train Robbery can be viewed by
  searching online video sources
• - Examples of in-camera edited films from
  YouTube
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vEIiaP9g0G-g
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vcHa-zc2DsR4
• - Still and moving images from Teachers TV film
  Teaching Media Media Production in the
  Classroom http//www.teachers.tv/video/2553