A film is made out of a varying number of shots that are assembled during the editing process. The editing involves three operations:
1) Selecting from the rushes (i.e. all of the takes filmed during the shooting) the shots to be used.
2) Assembling the shots in a certain order.
3) Deciding on the exact duration of each shot and the "transitions" between these shots or, in other words, the precise ways of sequencing them. The primary function of editing is thus connecting together.
NB: In this session, we will be dealing only with image editing, but you need to remember that any editing in sound films involves both image and sound.
Historically, the invention of editing is inseparable from that of "découpage", which involves breaking down each scene into several shots.
Today, we use the term "shooting script" to denote a document that describes the shot-by-shot breakdown of the film, but a distinction must be made between this script breakdown prepared before the shooting and the cutting continuity script, established after shooting to describe the structure of the finished film.
Download the PDF
There are different ways of joining together two successive shots. The shots can be separated by a straight cut or an optical effect, akin to "punctuation" marks (or transitions). The main effects used are wipes, fades, irises and dissolves.
Classical cinema partly codified the use of these punctuations, but they also produce plastic and semantic effects that vary depending on the editing.
The word "cut" denotes :
1) The point where two shots are joined together.
2) Continuity in terms of the visual consistency of the contents of two shots within the same scene.
3) The editing devices that reinforce the continuity between two successive shots: directional continuity, matching action cut, match on action, axial cut, eye-line match.
The shot/reverse-shot combines the eye-line match and the 180° rule.
Unlike these continuity cuts, mismatches create visual discontinuity.
