Editing speed

Editing

Editing is the process of looking at all of the footage shot during the making of a film/TV programme and placing it in the desired order and joining it all together.

Before the editing technology was created a long process to string footage together with celluloid would have to be under taken. Celluloid is a role of film that has every frame printed on to it. From this a very talented film editer would cut the frams into sections and piece them together frame by frame in the order that was desired. This was a lengthy process. Celluloid was eventually over thrown by technology editing.

There are 2 key areas to be concentrated on when it comes to editing . These are:

1. Speed of editing: how long does each shot last?
2. Style of editing: How each shot is joined to the next?

 Speed of editing:

In a film each scene may last a matter of seconds or it couls continue for minutes. The length of each sequence helps to establish characters, settings and the pace of the film moving the action along. A fast pace scene helps to convey urgency and action whereas slow scenes helpo to establish characters, emotion and expression. The speed of the editing will help to determine the mood of what is occuring in the movie.

If the audience is to feel anxious and suspense the editing will be quick, the shots and scenes will be strung together to change quickly frequently. The time of each scene will be very short. For example The Bourne Ultimatum:

The shots are not on screen very long and change very frequently even if it is only the angle at which they are shown. This helps to distort the audience and create tension. However if a relaxed mood is desired the scenes last much longer and change less frequently. This often occurs in romances, for example Sleepless In Seattle:

As we can see in this clip the shots last for a lengthier time and do not change as frequent. Tracking shots are used more frequently as it allos us to see the actors move but does not effect the pace whereas cutting from different angles does this. Nevertheless a film does not particularly need edits at all. The film Russian Ark was filme din one take using a steadicam and digital camera. This required a lot of planning, split second timing and organisation. The Russian Ark:

Hitchock tried to accomplish in the film The Rope, however he could not do it. I think there are roughly 6/7 edits within the final movie. This is still a low number of edits.

A trailer for a film needs to be very fast pace as a lot of information and detail is needed to be packed in in a very short time to help promote the movie. Characters need to be established as well as setting and narrative. In the trailer for 'The Man In The Iron Mask' there are countless edits of countless shots. I myself counted 127, have a go for yourself:

Its not that easy is it?

 Scenes at the beginning of a movie must be long as they have to establish character and setting. We need to understand what is going on and where we are. As the film progressrs scenes may become shorter as the editing cuts between telling two or more storylines at the same time. For example in the film Spiderman the opening scene has much longer shots than the action scenes. Within the action scenes more shots are used to create urgency, tension and action. Also within the movie Psycho we can see change in editing speed. Here is a clip:

Watching the sequence I, myslef, counted 13 edits of Marion before the attack. During the attack i counted 27 edits. The amount of edits increases as does the pace and action. It matches the action that is going on. It was also done as so Hitchcock could get away with releasing the film after showing the consensus. Many people claimed they saw a wound, and the knife penetrate the body. However this is not the case, no wound is visable as well as the knife plunging into the skin.However the editing being so fast pace makes the audience disorientated and tense. Resulting in more intense reactions. Without this fast pace editing this scene would not work very well and would not have the profound effect that it does.

Overall it is important to consider how quick the shots appear in a sequence and how long they appear on screen.