Media Language - Editing

Micro Elements

- Cinematography

- Sound

- Mise-en-scene

- Editing 
Editing
- Speed of editing 
- Style of editing

- In a film each scene may last a matter of seconds, or it could continue for minutes.
- The length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action alone.
- The speed of editing will help to determine the mood of what is taking place on screen.

If filmmakers want the audience to feel anxiety and suspense, the editing will be quick - the scenes/shots changing frequently.

Psycho
19 cuts before, 48 cuts after the attack.

Speed of Editing
Scenes at the beginning of a film - as it begins to tell its story - must be long enough for us to be able to understand where we are and what is going on. It is also slow to introduce the main character(s).
As the film progresses, scenes may become shorter as the editing cuts between telling two or more storylines at the same time.

Speed of Editing - Cross-cutting
- To cross-cut is to edit together two sequences that the audience need to know are connected in some way.

- Cross cutting can be used to very effectively develop a sense of drama. It can be used to create tension, increase anxiety, direct emotion, make subtle links between characters.

Style of Editing
- How shots are linked together
- The movement from one shot to the next is called a transition.
Basic transitions include:
- Straight Cut
- Fade
- Dissolve
- Wipe 

Straight Cut
- Most common and 'invisible' form of transition.
- One shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audience’s attention.
- Straight cuts help retain reality. They do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

Fade
- A gradual darkening or lightening of an image until the screen becomes completely black or white.
- Used to: indicate the beginning or end of a particular section of time within the narrative and can show the passing of time.
   Fade out






Dissolve
- Dissolving one shot off the screen while another shot is fading in.
- The audience will be able to see both shots on the screen at the mid-point of the dissolve.
Used to:
- If the film maker wants to show a connection between two characters, places or objects.

       Cross Dissolve

Continuity
Eye-line match
- We see a character looking at something off screen and then we cut to a shot of what they are looking at.

Match on action

- We see a character start an action in one shot and then see them continue it in the next.