Film Editing Techniques

Film making is a complex process involving coordination between many artists,

technicians, scriptwriter, cinematographer, director, singers, choreographer, sound
recordist, editor, and many more. Broadly we can categorise the process as involving three
stages: Pre-production, Production and Post production stages. One of the interesting
aspects of the art of film is that during the course of its creation it goes through many
phases such as scripting, shooting, sound recording, editing etc. Once the film is scripted,
scenes are shot, sound recording is done- it is the editor’s job to organize the entire film
into a unity. By the process of editing, an editor gives a shape and a sense of completeness
and ensures narrative continuity. It is an important stage of post-production. We have to
keep in mind how editing is not just a mechanical process but is an element of composition
that creates meaning. It is the process of editing that creates continuity and unity using
fragments of image and sound. The initial stage in film production involves one to choose a
scenario and a script that will be developed into a film. Once this is done, the scenario is
broken down into units of action or sequences. These units are further divided into smaller
units to obtain the storyboard; these units show shots that are to be filmed. While filming,
these shots generate a number of takes- either identical or different. The collection of these
takes constitutes the rushes or ‘film positives’ and the editing work begins on these rushes.
Editing includes selecting useful footage from the rushes, assembling the chosen footage in
a certain order, cutting and splicing together of the shots by deciding on the exact length of
each shot that will be used in the film.

Thus, during the course of film making there are many phases such as scripting,
shooting, sound recording, editing etc. Once the film is scripted, scenes are shot, sound
recording is done- it is the editor’s job to organize the entire film into a unity. By the
process of editing, an editor gives a shape and a sense of completeness and ensures
narrative continuity. It is an important stage of post-production and is the combination and
arrangement of elements like images, sounds and graphic inscriptions. And the mechanical
process of editing starts with the selection of OK takes of each shot, synchronizing the
sound track with the help of clap and identifying each shot by means of scene number, shot

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number and take number. While joining two shots, it is important to answer questions like
where to make the first cut, which one of the second shot would match the first cut etc. The
corresponding work on the sound track may be carried out simultaneously or afterwards.

In simple terms, editing refers to the join between the shots and the creation of a
scene. It concerns the content of the two shots and how this content relates each to the
other. It is a primary means of constructing a film and involves three major operations:
selection, assembly, and final cutting.

Editing is done through many transition devices such as the following:

 Cut: it is an immediate change where there is no temporal break between the shots.
For the viewer it comes as the instant replacement of one shot by the next shot. They
work at three levels: emotional, intellectual and narrative. A cut can guide the
emotional response of the audience or it can lead the audience to infer meaning. A
cut can also work to take the story further- thus working at a narrative level. The
following shots in Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai are joined together through a series of
cuts; cuts that join shots of different samurai running help us perceive the ‘action’ in
the scene. Dissolve- a gradual transition between two shots in which the first image
slowly disappears while the second image gradually appears and the transition may
vary in speed. Both the outgoing and incoming pictures mix for a short while and
usually its use denotes a passage of time from one event to another. A dissolve is also
used for flashbacks. The following frame from Goddard’s 1959 film, About De Souffle
(Breathless) shows a dissolve where shot with a close-up of Patricia slowly dissolves
into the street with Micheal driving a car coming to pick Patricia. Wipe- one shot is
drawn, like a curtain, over another shot. A wipe can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal.
A very dynamic and noticeable transition, it is usually employed in action or
adventure films. It became fashionable in the 1950’s; however, we rarely see wipes in
the present-day films. In the following example from the film Seven Samurai (1954
by Kurosawa, a line passes across the screen wiping the first shot of the old man and
drawing the dynamic action of the samurai coming into town.

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 Fade-out/fade-in: a gradual change of the image wherein the image gradually
emerges from black or vice versa. A fade-in is a transition from black to the image
whereas fade-out is a transition from the image to black. A fade-in usually denotes
commencement of a scene while a fade out means the end of a scene.

 Cut in/ cut away: it is an instantaneous shift from a distant framing to a closer
view of some portion of the same space or vice versa. A cut away may use to allow
the time to pass or fill special gaps. In the following shots from the film One Flew
over the Cuckoo’s Nest, first two shots work as cut-away shots. It may be pointed
out that he subjects of the second shot, quite interestingly, does not play any role in
the world of the story. In the film Kanchanchunga, Satyajit Ray uses the shot of this
young boy as a cut away shot. However, such shots are repeated and hence the
presence of the boy, though not a part of the main action of the film, gains a
significance of a ‘motif’. It is only towards end of the film that we realize the boy is a
significant structural element in the film. Even the sound track that runs in the
beginning and the end of the film comprising of a folk song is sung by this character.
Iris- common in silent films, now used in pastiche (pastiche refers to a work of art
that combines themes and styles from various sources in such a way as to appear
obviously derivative). In this type of editing, the image is either revealed or
obscured from or to a small circle of the frame. In Goddard’s 1959 film, About De
Souffle (Breathless), iris type of editing is used in the following two shots from this
film; in the first shot, the image is obscured to a small circle while in the second shot,
the image is revealed from a small circle of the frame. There are various ways to
organise edits and here we shall discuss them briefly. Eye line match- this is done
for point of view shots. In this, the first shot shows a character looking and in the
second shot we see what the character is looking at. If the person looks left, the
following shot should imply that the looker is offscreen right. This method is
extensively used in A Short Story about Love by Roman Polanski. Notice this in
Akira Kurosawa’s Roshomon.

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 Point-of view cutting: it is a variant of the eye line match. In this a character
looks off screen-cut- the object the character is looking at. The object is shown from
the character’s vantage point. What we see is seen through the character’s eyes. The
following two shots from the film Stand by Me by Rob Reiner have been joined by a
point-of-view cut.

 Frame cutting: A character moves out of frame right-cut to- enters frame left as
seen in the following two shots from the Italian neo-realist film Bicycle Thieves by
Vittorio Di Sica. Match on action- in this, a character’s gesture starts in one shot and
is completed in the next; the edit cuts nothing out of the gesture. Shot/reverse shot-
to show two people in a conversation, often this method is used. First shot shows
one of them speaking and the next shot shows the second one in conversation.
These shots from the film Bicycle Thieves are put together through shot/reverse
shot editing method.

 Establishing/ Re-establishing shot: An establishing shot is a shot that

usually involves a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations among the
important figures, objects, and setting in a scene. Often the first few shots in a film
or a scene are establishing shots; they introduce the viewer to a location and the
space relationships inside it. Establishing shots are followed usually by a series of
closeups to give the viewer an insider’s view. This may be followed by a final
establishing shot called as a reestablishing shot, as it shows us once again the
spatial relationships introduced with the establishing shots. The following shots
from the film Shawshank Redemption forma a series of establishing shots. Cross
cutting (parallel editing) - Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action
occurring in different places, usually simultaneously. The two actions are therefore
linked, associating the characters from both lines of action. In Fritz Lang’s film M,
cross cutting is used at various places. Initial part of the film has shots of Elsie’s
mother preparing lunch, setting up the table and waiting for her daughter; these
shots are cross cut with shots of school children walking through the streets on their
way home, Elsie in the company of a stranger who buys hr balloons etc. In the

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 following illustration shot i & shot iii show the action at Elsie’s home and shot ii &
shot iv show action outside. These two lines of action are cross cut here. Also, this
type of editing is used for chases where-in we see the pursuer and then the pursued
in turn. Often, cross cutting is used to create and build suspense.

 Jump cuts: Jump cut is an elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a

single shot that eliminates or contracts time. Often the narrative feels jerky when
there are jump cuts. In the film Breathless by Godard, jump cuts give the film a
teasing quality and make it look very young. Either the figures seem to change
instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while
the figures remain constant. As against the classical Hollywood style of continuity
editing, jump cuts feature prominently in avant-garde films of the 1960s to make the
film look playful, energetic and young. Ex. The following shots from the film
Breathless are put together through a jump cut. The following shots from the film
Breathless are put together through a jump cut.

Styles of Editing: Editing has evolved a long way since the time of pioneer films of
editing The Life of an American Fireman (1902) and The Great Train Robbery (1903) made
by Edwin S. Porter. Film makers have evolved different cinematic styles of editing. A
patterned use of transitions, matches and duration can be identified as a cinematic style.
Usually editing styles are associated with historical moments, technological developments,
or national schools. The Hollywood style of continuity editing, Soviet montage style of
editing and elliptical editing are the major editing styles that have been used by film
makers.

 Continuity Editing: Continuity editing refers to a series of techniques that

attempt to create a synthetic unity of space and time from fragments. The basic
purpose of this type of editing is to have a smooth flow from one shot to another and
maintain coherence and orientation. If a filmmaker randomly stuck together a series
of shots, the spectator would soon become disoriented. The separate spaces in each
shot would not add up because the spectator would not be able to relate them to one

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another. The way shots are edited together must be controlled and regulated such
that the spectator can fit them together to create a coherent picture. One of the
methods to achieve this is to follow the ‘180 ◦ axis of action line’ and not cross this
imaginary line, also known as, the ‘line of action’. The 180° rule, shown in the
diagram below, dictates that the camera should stay in one of the areas on either
side of the axis of action (an imaginary line drawn between the two major dramatic
elements A and B in a scene). By obeying this 180 ◦ rule, the screen direction is
maintained in a cut. The effect is that shots are filmed and cut together so as to
position the spectator always on the same side of the story action. When there is a
change in shot, there is always a shift in vantage point. In the following shots from
the film Bicycle Thieves, we can see how continuity of editing is maintained by
obeying 180◦ rule.

I. Montage: Montage, a French word that literally translates to ‘put together’ has
come to mean an approach to editing developed by the Soviet filmmakers of the
1920s such as Pudovkin, Vertov and Eisenstein. It emphasizes dynamic, often
discontinuous, relationships between shots and the juxtaposition of images to create
ideas not present in either shot by itself. In contrast to the continuity editing we just
discussed, it is a collection of shots that shows discrete stages in an event that takes
a relatively large amount of time, such as a journey or the construction of a house. It
dispenses with continuity in favour of conveying narrative information such as a
journey, concisely. A montage attempts to create symbolic meanings and not to
construct a coherent scenic space. This construction of symbolic meaning is done by
juxtaposing shots together to create associations. Russian director and film theorist
Sergei Eisenstein conceived montage as “an idea that arises from the collision of
independent shots" wherein "each sequential element is perceived not next to the
other, but on top of the other". Soviet Montage thus used the power of editing to
manipulate the emotions of the spectator. Montage is constructivist tradition in
which we find the power of cinema to create a new reality out of disparate
fragments. In formal terms, this style of editing offers discontinuity in graphic
qualities, violations of the 180 degree rule, and the creation of impossible spatial

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matches. It is not concerned with the depiction of a comprehensible spatial or
temporal continuity as is found in the classical Hollywood continuity system. It
draws attention to temporal ellipses because changes between shots are obvious,
less fluid, and non-seamless. Eisenstein describes five methods of montage in his
introductory essay "Word and Image". These varieties of montage build one upon
the other so the "higher" forms also include the approaches of the "simpler"
varieties. The "lower" types of montage are limited to the complexity of meaning
which they can communicate; as the montage rises in complexity, the meaning it is
able to communicate increases-be it primal emotions or intellectual ideals. It is
easier to understand these as part of a spectrum where, at one end, the image
content matters very little, while at the other it determines everything about the
choices and combinations of the edited film. Eisenstein's montage theories are
based on the idea that montage originates in the "collision" between different shots
in an illustration of the idea of thesis and antithesis. The basic idea is that editing
should not be fluid but shocking and it should abandon the spatial and narrative
continuity between shots. This basis allowed him to argue that montage is
inherently dialectical and by combining two disparate shots (one thesis and its
antithesis), a film could create a new concept that was not present in either shot. His
collisions of shots were based on conflicts of scale, volume, rhythm, motion (speed,
as well as direction of movement within the frame), as well as more conceptual
values such as class.

Methods of montage:
a) Metric - where the editing follows a specific number of frames (based purely on
the physical nature of time), cutting to the next shot no matter what is
happening within the image. This montage is used to elicit the most basal and
emotional reactions in the audience. Examples for metric montage are seen in
Eisenstein’s film October.

b) Rhythmic: it includes cutting based on time, but using the visual composition of
the shots -- along with a change in the speed of the metric cuts -- to induce more

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 complex meanings than what is possible with metric montage. Once sound was
introduced, rhythmic montage also included audio elements (music, dialogue,
sounds). Example: odessa step sequence in Eisenstein’s film Battleship
Potemkin. All the following shots are cut at a rhythmic pace and are rich in
music of ‘poetry’ of visuals. During our film watching session, pay attention to
the cutting based on time as well.

c) Tonal: a tonal montage uses the emotional meaning of the shots -- not just
manipulating the temporal length of the cuts or its rhythmical characteristics --
to elicit a reaction from the audience even more complex than from the metric or
rhythmic montage. For example, a sleeping baby would emote calmness and
relaxation. In the following shots from the sequence that follows the death of
revolutionary sailor Vakulinchuk in the film Battleship Potemkin, there is
pathetic fallacy. After the death the calm sea and the overcast sky evoke a
gloomy atmosphere and this is an example for tonal montage.

d) Overtonal/associational: the overtonal montage has the cumulative effect of

metric, rhythmic, and tonal montage to synthesize its affect on the audience for
an even more abstract and complicated effect. Eg: from Pudovkin’s mother-
men/workers walking towards a confrontation at their factory, and later in the
movie, the protagonist using ice as an escape.

e) Intellectual: It uses shots which elicit an intellectual meaning, when combined.

In Francis Coppala’s celebrated film Godfather, we see an example of intellectual
montage: Michael’s nephew’s baptism, the priest performs the sacrament of
baptism while we see killings ordered by Michael take place elsewhere. There is
a series of juxtapositions of shots that conflict with each other- to create what
Eisenstein referred to as ‘collision of attractions’. To make the point clear let us
take some shots from this intellectual montage where the meaning does not exist
in individual shots; it arises when they are juxtaposed. Martin Scorcece’s 1974
film Raging Bull offers text book illustrations for intellectual montage.

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The following table indicates the important function of different types of montage as
Eisenstein postulated:
Metric Montage Determined by length of shots Rhythmic
Montage Cutting based on time
Tonal Montage Cutting determined by the emotional tone of the shots
Overtonal Montage A combination of metric, rhythmic and tonal montage
Intellectual Montage Determined by the conflict-juxtaposition of
accompanying intellectual effects

 Elliptical Editing
Shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipses in plot and story
duration is known as elliptical editing. It presents an action not in its entirety and
onscreen time used by the action is less than it does in the story. Elliptical editing
need not be confined to a same place and time.

The filmmaker can create an ellipsis in different ways:

i. By using a conventional wipe, fade or a dissolve between the two shots separated
in time. To make it clearer, let us take the example where you have to show a
character walking up a stair. Instead of showing the entire action, you could use a
dissolve from the shot of him/her beginning at the bottom of the stairs to a shot
reaching the top. Similarly, you could go for a wipe or a fade in-fadeout.

ii. By using a cutaway shot; here a shot of another event somewhere is inserted to
make the time elapse between the beginning and the end of the action. In the
example mentioned above, the first shot would show the character beginning his
climb and then cut away to ‘some’ object. The third shot would again cut to the main
action where we see the character somewhere near the end of the action.

iii. by making the subject go out of the frame and then make it enter the empty
frame much further along in the action. Following shots form a part of elliptical
editing done by Godard in his film Le Petit Soldat where shot transitions omit parts
of the event. Godard achieves elliptical editing through jump cuts, wipes, fades or
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 dissolves. We may here note that elliptical editing is a part of Godard’s film syntax as
most of his films use this form editing frequently. Much commonly used song
sequences in Indian Cinema – be it Bollywood Hindi cinema or other regional films-
where a song takes the story forward are examples of elliptical editing. Such use of
songs is very common in the mainstream Indian cinema even today.

In this chapter we have discussed what we mean by film editing, various ways of
transitions and matches in editing, and different styles of editing. We have studied the
Soviet ‘montage’ and its various types. From continuity editing to collision editing- the
possibilities are immense and a viewer needs to be ‘initiated’ to experience and understand
the nuances of editing and its role in constructing the entire film. It is also important to
understand that through the technique of editing, a filmmaker has a great deal of options to
choose from in terms of graphics, space, duration, and rhythm While graphics and space
have an effect of continuity or discontinuity, duration and rhythm have an effect on the
‘pace’ of the film. By controlling the duration, an editor can extend or compress action. One
can make an event shorter or longer by use of inter-cuts, dissolves, fades, and wipes. By
having long takes but fewer cuts, one may bring a feel of tranquility or brooding to one’s
films. The first shot in Satyajit Ray’s Charulata is a beautiful example of a long take which
lasts for about two minutes and 11 seconds. This has a brooding quality to it; it also
conveys the slow-paced life of the protagonist. Through the long takes in the film
Nostalghia, Tarkovsky achieves a ‘meditative’ quality to the entire film. If ‘collision editing’
was a part of Eisenstein film syntax, then long takes form an essential part of Tarkovsky’s
film language. He uses long takes in an exemplary manner in many of his other films too.
The long take that lasts for little more than 8 minutes towards the end of the film
communicates something elusive, impalpable, and meditative. Following snapshots are
from this long take. The act of lighting the candle and crossing the pond, symbolic of the act
of ‘saving the world’ and also finding the ‘inner’ home perhaps cannot be conveyed with
cuts or wipes or any other transitions, however smooth they may be executed. The brilliant
mise-enscene and the absence of frequent cuts of this particular long take challenges the
imagination of the viewer. It may be difficult to understand the effect of this long take

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through snapshots as the tranquility of ‘stillness’ in a moving image cannot be
communicated through snapshots! The other limitation we have here is the absence of
colour. In our discussions in the class, we shall visit these clippings and also listen to the
audio cues as well as ‘silence’ in them.

This chapter discusses various editing techniques, transitions, editing styles

like ‘montage’ as propounded by the Russian film makers of the 1920s. The use of
jump cuts, cut away etc. and the resulting pace of the film are discussed. Also, we
have noted the brooding presence of long takes with less focus on cuts. All these
concepts would help one to understand the nuances of film editing and make a
student of films ‘read’ films better .

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