
Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the
post-production
Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...
process of
filmmaking
Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...
. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
which increasingly involves the use
of digital technology. When putting together some sort of video composition, typically, one would need a collection of shots and footages that vary from one another. The act of adjusting the shots someone has already taken, and turning them into something new is known as film editing.
The film editor works with raw
footage
In filmmaking and video production, footage is raw, unedited material as originally filmed by a movie camera or recorded by a digital video camera, which typically must be film editing, edited to create a motion picture, digital video, video cli ...
, selecting
shots and combining them into
sequences
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is call ...
which create a finished
motion picture
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...
. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms such as poetry and novel writing. Film editing is an extremely important tool when attempting to intrigue a viewer. When done properly, a film's editing can captivate a viewer and fly completely under the radar. Because of this, film editing has been given the name "the invisible art."
On its most fundamental level, film editing is the
art
Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...
, technique and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor is not simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film
slates or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film. An editor must select only the most quality shots, removing all unnecessary frames to ensure the shot is clean. Sometimes, auteurist
film director
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
s edit their own films, for example,
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...
,
Bahram Beyzai
Bahrām Beyzāêi (also spelt Beizāi, Beyzāêi, Beyzāee, ; born 26 December 1938) is an Iranian playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, film editor, and '' ostād'' ("master") of Persian letters, arts and Iranian studies.
Beyzaie is the ...
,
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh ( ; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. A pioneer of modern Independent film, independent cinema, Soderbergh later drew acclaim for formally inventiv ...
, and the
Coen brothers
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, together known as the Coen brothers (), are an American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Among their most acclaimed works are '' Blood Simple'' (198 ...
.
According to "Film Art, An Introduction", by Bordwell and Thompson, there are four basic areas of film editing that the editor has full control over. The first dimension is the graphic relations between a shot A and shot B. The shots are analyzed in terms of their graphic configurations, including light and dark, lines and shapes, volumes and depths, movement and stasis. The director makes deliberate choices regarding the composition, lighting, color, and movement within each shot, as well as the transitions between them. There are several techniques used by editors to establish graphic relations between shots. These include maintaining overall brightness consistency, keeping important elements in the center of the frame, playing with color differences, and creating visual matches or continuities between shots.
The second dimension is the rhythmic relationship between shot A and shot B. The duration of each shot, determined by the number of frames or length of film, contributes to the overall rhythm of the film. The filmmaker has control over the editing rhythm by adjusting the length of shots in relation to each other. Shot duration can be used to create specific effects and emphasize moments in the film. For example, a brief flash of white frames can convey a sudden impact or a violent moment. On the other hand, lengthening or adding seconds to a shot can allow for audience reaction or to accentuate an action. The length of shots can also be used to establish a rhythmic pattern, such as creating a steady beat or gradually slowing down or accelerating the tempo.
The third dimension is the spatial relationship between shot A and shot B. Editing allows the filmmaker to construct film space and imply a relationship between different points in space. The filmmaker can juxtapose shots to establish spatial holes or construct a whole space out of component parts. For example, the filmmaker can start with a shot that establishes a spatial hole and then follow it with a shot of a part of that space, creating an analytical breakdown.
The final dimension that an editor has control over is the temporal relation between shot A and shot B. Editing plays a crucial role in manipulating the time of action in a film. It allows filmmakers to control the order, duration, and frequency of events, thus shaping the narrative and influencing the audience's perception of time. Through editing, shots can be rearranged, flashbacks and flash-forwards can be employed, and the duration of actions can be compressed or expanded. The main point is that editing gives filmmakers the power to control and manipulate the temporal aspects of storytelling in film.
Between graphic, rhythmic, spatial, and temporal relationships between two shots, an editor has various ways to add a creative element to the film, and enhance the overall viewing experience.
With the advent of digital editing in
non-linear editing system
Non-linear editing (NLE) is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by speciali ...
s, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just that—picture. Sound, music, and (more recently) visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the editor to sometimes cut in temporary music, mock up visual effects and add temporary sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements produced by the sound, music and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture. The importance of an editor has become increasingly pivotal to the quality and success of a film due to the multiple roles that have been added to their job.
History
Early films were short films that were one long, static, and locked-down shot. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse an audience, so the first films simply showed activity such as traffic moving along a city street. There was no story and no editing. Each film ran as long as there was film in the camera.
The use of film editing to establish continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, is attributed to British film pioneer
Robert W. Paul
Robert William Paul (3 October 1869 – 28 March 1943) was an English pioneer of film and scientific instrument maker.
He made narrative films as early as April 1895, which were shown first in Edison Kinetoscope knockoffs. In 1896 he showe ...
's ''
Come Along, Do!
''Come Along, Do!'' is an 1898 British short silent comedy film, produced and directed by Robert W. Paul. The film was of 1 minute duration, but only 38 seconds has survived. The whole of the second shot is only available as film stills.
T ...
'', made in 1898 and one of the first films to feature more than one shot.
In the first shot, an elderly couple is outside an
art exhibition
An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is occasionally true, it is stated to be a "permanen ...
having lunch and then follow other people inside through the door. The second shot shows what they do inside. Paul's 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' of 1896 was the first camera to feature reverse-cranking, which allowed the same film footage to be exposed several times and thereby to create super-positions and
multiple exposure
In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...
s. One of the first films to use this technique,
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( , ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magic (illusion), magician, toymaker, actor, and filmmaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of film, cinema, primarily in th ...
's ''
The Four Troublesome Heads
''The Four Troublesome Heads'' (, literally "A Man of Heads"), also known as ''Four Heads Are Better Than One'', is an 1898 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès.
Plot
A magician enters the frame and stands between two tables. ...
'' from 1898, was produced with Paul's camera.
The further development of action continuity in multi-shot films continued in 1899–1900 at the
Brighton School in England, where it was definitively established by
George Albert Smith and
James Williamson. In that year, Smith made ''
As Seen Through a Telescope
''As Seen Through a Telescope'' (AKA: ''The Professor and His Field Glass'') is a 1900 in film, 1900 British Short subject, short silent film, silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith (inventor), George Albert Smith, featuring an eld ...
'', in which the main shot shows street scene with a young man tying the shoelace and then caressing the foot of his girlfriend, while an old man observes this through a telescope. There is then a cut to close shot of the hands on the girl's foot shown inside a black circular mask, and then a cut back to the continuation of the original scene.
Even more remarkable was
James Williamson's ''Attack on a China Mission Station'', made around the same time in 1900. The first shot shows the gate to the mission station from the outside being attacked and broken open by Chinese
Boxer rebels, then there is a cut to the garden of the
mission station
A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...
where a pitched battle ensues. An armed party of British sailors arrived to defeat the Boxers and rescue the missionary's family. The film used the first "
reverse angle
In filmmaking, the 180-degree rule is a guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. The rule states that the camera should be kept on one side of an imaginary axis be ...
" cut in film history.
James Williamson concentrated on making films taking action from one place shown in one shot to the next shown in another shot in films like ''Stop Thief!'' and ''Fire!'', made in 1901, and many others. He also experimented with the close-up, and made perhaps the most extreme one of all in ''
The Big Swallow
''The Big Swallow'' (AKA: ''A Photographic Contortion'') is a 1901 British silent comic trick film, directed by James Williamson, featuring a man, irritated by the presence of a photographer, who solves his dilemma by swallowing him and hi ...
'', when his character approaches the camera and appears to swallow it. These two filmmakers of the Brighton School also pioneered the editing of the film; they tinted their work with color and used trick photography to enhance the narrative. By 1900, their films were extended scenes of up to five minutes long.

Other filmmakers then took up all these ideas including the American
Edwin S. Porter, who started making films for the Edison Company in 1901. Porter worked on a number of minor films before making ''
Life of an American Fireman'' in 1903. The film was the first American film with a plot, featuring action, and even a closeup of a hand pulling a fire alarm. The film comprised a continuous narrative over seven scenes, rendered in a total of nine shots.
[Originally in ''Edison Films'' catalog, February 1903, 2–3; reproduced in Charles Musser, ''Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 216–18.] He put a dissolve between every shot, just as
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( , ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magic (illusion), magician, toymaker, actor, and filmmaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of film, cinema, primarily in th ...
was already doing, and he frequently had the same action repeated across the dissolves. His film, ''
The Great Train Robbery'' (1903), had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. He used
cross-cutting
Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time, and often in the same place. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simulta ...
editing method to show simultaneous action in different places.
These early film directors discovered important aspects of motion picture language: that the screen image does not need to show a complete person from head to toe and that splicing together two shots creates in the viewer's mind a contextual relationship. These were the key discoveries that made all non-live or non live-on-videotape narrative motion pictures and television possible—that shots (in this case, whole scenes since each shot is a complete scene) can be photographed at widely different locations over a period of time (hours, days or even months) and combined into a narrative whole. That is, ''
The Great Train Robbery'' contains scenes shot on sets of a telegraph station, a railroad car interior, and a dance hall, with outdoor scenes at a railroad water tower, on the train itself, at a point along the track, and in the woods. But when the robbers leave the telegraph station interior (set) and emerge at the water tower, the audience believes they went immediately from one to the other. Or that when they climb on the train in one shot and enter the baggage car (a set) in the next, the audience believes they are on the same train.
Sometime around 1918,
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
director
Lev Kuleshov
Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov (; – 29 March 1970) was a Russian and Soviet filmmaker and Film theory, film theorist, one of the founders of the world's first film school, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, Moscow Film School. He was g ...
did an experiment that proves this point. (See
Kuleshov Experiment) He took an old film clip of a headshot of a noted Russian actor and intercut the shot with a shot of a bowl of soup, then with a child playing with a teddy bear, then with a shot an elderly woman in a casket. When he showed the film to people they praised the actor's acting—the hunger in his face when he saw the soup, the delight in the child, and the grief when looking at the dead woman. Of course, the shot of the actor was years before the other shots and he never "saw" any of the items. The simple act of juxtaposing the shots in a sequence made the relationship.
Film editing technology
Before the widespread use of digital
non-linear editing system
Non-linear editing (NLE) is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by speciali ...
s, the initial editing of all films was done with a positive copy of the film negative called a film
workprint
A workprint is a rough version of a motion picture or television program, used by the film editors during the editing process. Such copies generally contain original recorded sound that will later be re-dubbed, stock footage as placeholders for ...
(cutting copy in UK) by physically cutting and splicing together pieces of film. Strips of footage would be hand cut and attached together with tape and then later in time, glue. Editors were very precise; if they made a wrong cut or needed a fresh positive print, it cost the production money and time for the lab to reprint the footage. Additionally, each reprint put the negative at risk of damage. With the invention of a splicer and threading the machine with a viewer such as a
Moviola
A Moviola () is a device that allows a Film editing, film editor to view a film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924.
History
Iwan Serrurier's original 1917 concept f ...
, or
"flatbed" machine such as a K.-E.-M. or
Steenbeck
Steenbeck was a company that manufactured flatbed editors. Steenbeck is a brand name that has become synonymous with a type of flatbed film editing suite which is usable with both 16 mm and 35 mm optical sound and magnetic sound film.
The ...
, the editing process sped up a little bit and cuts came out cleaner and more precise. The Moviola editing practice is non-linear, allowing the editor to make choices faster, a great advantage to editing episodic films for television which have very short timelines to complete the work. All film studios and production companies who produced films for television provided this tool for their editors. Flatbed editing machines were used for playback and refinement of cuts, particularly in feature films and films made for television because they were less noisy and cleaner to work with.
They were used extensively for documentary and drama production within the BBC's Film Department. Operated by a team of two, an editor and assistant editor, this tactile process required significant skill but allowed for editors to work extremely efficiently.
Modern film editing has evolved significantly since it was first introduced to the film and entertainment industry. Some other new aspects of editing have been introduced such as color grading and digital workflows. As mentioned earlier, over the course of time, new technology has exponentially enhanced the quality of pictures in films. One of the most important steps in this process was transitioning from analog to digital filmmaking. By doing this, it gives the ability editors to immediately playback scenes, duplication and much more. Additionally digital has simplified and reduced the cost of filmmaking. Digital film is not only cheaper, but lasts longer, is safer, and is overall more efficient. Color grading is a post production process, where the editor manipulates or enhances the color of images, or environments in order to create a color tone. Doing this can alter the setting, tone, and mood of the entirety of scenes, and can enhance reactions that would otherwise have the possibility of being dull or out of place. Color grading is vital to the film editing process, and is technology that allows editors to enhance a story.
Today, most films are edited digitally (on systems such as
Media Composer,
Final Cut Pro X
Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...
or
Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing application developed by Adobe Inc. and is distributed as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. It is primarily used for producing high-quality videos across various industries.
History Original Ado ...
) and bypass the film positive workprint altogether. In the past, the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do as much experimenting as he or she wished, without the risk of damaging the original. With digital editing, editors can experiment just as much as before except with the footage completely transferred to a computer hard drive.
When the film workprint had been cut to a satisfactory state, it was then used to make an edit decision list (EDL). The negative cutter referred to this list while processing the negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which were then contact printed to produce the final film print or
answer print An answer print is the first version of a given motion picture that is printed to film after color correction on an interpositive. It is also the first version of the movie printed to film with the sound properly synced to the picture.
Answer print ...
. Today, production companies have the option of bypassing negative cutting altogether. With the advent of digital intermediate ("DI"), the physical negative does not necessarily need to be physically cut and hot spliced together; rather the negative is optically scanned into the computer(s) and a cut list is confirmed by a DI editor.
Women in film editing
In the early years of film, editing was considered a technical job; editors were expected to "cut out the bad bits" and string the film together. Indeed, when the
Motion Picture Editors Guild
The Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG; IATSE Local 700) is the guild that represents freelance and staff motion picture and television editors and other post-production professionals and story analysts throughout the United States. The Motion Pi ...
was formed, they chose to be "below the line", that is, not a creative guild, but a technical one. Women were not usually able to break into the "creative" positions; directors, cinematographers, producers, and executives were almost always men. Editing afforded creative women a place to assert their mark on the filmmaking process. The
history of film
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art, visual art form created using history of film technology, film technologies that began in the late 19th century.
The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. Th ...
has included many women editors such as
Dede Allen,
Anne Bauchens
Anne Bauchens, born Roseanne Bauchens, (February 2, 1882 – May 7, 1967) was an American film editor who is remembered for her collaboration over 40 years with the director Cecil B. DeMille. In 1940, she won the Academy Award for film editi ...
,
Margaret Booth
Margaret Booth (January 16, 1898 – October 28, 2002) was an American film editor. In a career lasting seven decades, Booth was most associated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Born in Los Angeles, Margaret was the younger sister of actor E ...
,
Barbara McLean,
Anne V. Coates,
Adrienne Fazan
Adrienne Fazan (May 9, 1906 – August 23, 1986) was an American film editor who first started cutting films in 1933. She worked on many MGM films, including '' The Tell-Tale Heart'' (1941), '' Anchors Aweigh'' (1945), '' Singin' in the Rain'' (1 ...
,
Verna Fields
Verna Fields (née Hellman; March 21, 1918 – November 30, 1982) was an American film editor, film and television sound editor, educator, and entertainment industry executive. In the first phase of her career, from 1954 through to about 1970, F ...
,
Blanche Sewell
Blanche Irene Sewell (October 27, 1898 – February 2, 1949) was an American film editor. She was best known mainly for her work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios from 1925 until her death in 1949.
Early life
Sewell was born on October 27, 1898, ...
and
Eda Warren.
Post-production
Post-production editing may be summarized by three distinct phases commonly referred to as the
editor's cut, the
director's cut, and the
final cut.
There are several editing stages and the editor's cut is the first. An editor's cut (sometimes referred to as the "Assembly edit" or "Rough cut") is normally the first pass of what the final film will be when it reaches
picture lock
Picture lock is a stage in editing a film or editing a television production. It is the stage prior to online editing when all changes to the film or television program cut have been done and approved. It is then sent to subsequent stages in the ...
. The film editor usually starts working while principal photography starts. Sometimes, prior to cutting, the editor and director will have seen and discussed "
dailies
In filmmaking, dailies or rushes are the raw, film editing, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term "dailies" comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was dev ...
" (raw footage shot each day) as shooting progresses. As production schedules have shortened over the years, this co-viewing happens less often. Screening dailies gives the editor a general idea of the director's intentions. Because it is the first pass, the editor's cut might be longer than the final film. The editor continues to refine the cut while shooting continues, and often the entire editing process goes on for many months and sometimes more than a year, depending on the film. The editor's cut is an opportunity for the editor to shape the story and present their vision of how the film should unfold. It provides a solid foundation for further collaboration with the director, allowing them to assess the initial assembly and provide feedback or guidance on the creative direction.
When shooting is finished, the
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
can then turn his or her full attention to collaborating with the editor and further refining the cut of the film. This is the time that is set aside where the film editor's first cut is molded to fit the director's vision. In the United States, under the rules of the
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...
, directors receive a minimum of ten weeks after completion of principal photography to prepare their first cut. While collaborating on what is referred to as the "director's cut", the director and the editor go over the entire movie in great detail; scenes and shots are re-ordered, removed, shortened and otherwise tweaked. Often it is discovered that there are
plot hole
In fiction, a plot hole, plothole, or plot error is an inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot.
Plot holes are usually created unintentionally, often as a result of editing or the writers ...
s, missing shots or even missing segments which might require that new scenes be filmed. Because of this time working closely and collaborating – a period that is normally far longer and more intricately detailed than the entire preceding film production – many directors and editors form a unique artistic bond. The goal is to align the film with the director's artistic vision and narrative objectives. The director's cut typically involves multiple iterations and discussions until both the director and editor are satisfied with the overall direction of the film.
Often after the director has had their chance to oversee a cut, the subsequent cuts are supervised by one or more producers, who represent the production company or
film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...
. There have been several conflicts in the past between the director and the studio, sometimes leading to the use of the "
Alan Smithee" credit signifying when a director no longer wants to be associated with the final release. The final cut is the last stage of post-production editing and represents the definitive version of the film. It is the result of the collaborative efforts between the director, editor, and other key stakeholders. The final cut reflects the agreed-upon creative decisions and serves as the basis for distribution and exhibition.
Mise en Scene vs Editing
Mise en scene is the term used to describe all of the lighting, music, placement, costume design, and other elements of a shot. Film editing and Mise en scene go hand in hand with one another. Film editing contributes to the mise en scene of a given shot. When shooting a film, one typically get shots from multiple angles. The angles at which one shoots from are all part of the film's mise en scene.
Methods of montage
In
motion picture terminology
The film industry is built upon many technologies and techniques, drawing upon photography, stagecraft, music, and many other disciplines. Following is an index of specific terminology applicable thereto.
0-9
180 degree rule
- 30 degree rule
A
...
, a
montage (from the French for "putting together" or "assembly") is a film editing technique.
There are at least three senses of the term:
# In
French film
The cinema of France comprises the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe, with prima ...
practice, "montage" has its literal French meaning (assembly, installation) and simply identifies editing.
# In
Soviet filmmaking of the 1920s, "montage" was a method of juxtaposing shots to derive new meaning that did not exist in either shot alone.
# In
classical Hollywood cinema
In film criticism, Classical Hollywood cinema is both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking that first developed in the 1910s to 1920s during the later years of the Silent film#Silent film era, silent film era. It then became characteristi ...
, a "
montage sequence" is a short segment in a film in which narrative information is presented in a condensed fashion.
Although film director
D. W. Griffith
David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the n ...
was not part of the montage school, he was one of the early proponents of the power of editing — mastering
cross-cutting
Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time, and often in the same place. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simulta ...
to show parallel action in different locations, and codifying film grammar in other ways as well. Griffith's work in the teens was highly regarded by
Lev Kuleshov
Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov (; – 29 March 1970) was a Russian and Soviet filmmaker and Film theory, film theorist, one of the founders of the world's first film school, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, Moscow Film School. He was g ...
and other Soviet filmmakers and greatly influenced their understanding of editing.
Kuleshov was among the first to
theorize about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920s. For him, the unique essence of the cinema — that which could be duplicated in no other medium — is editing. He argues that editing a film is like constructing a building. Brick-by-brick (shot-by-shot) the building (film) is erected. His often-cited
Kuleshov Experiment established that montage can lead the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film. Montage works because viewers infer meaning based on context.
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...
was briefly a student of Kuleshov's, but the two parted ways because they had different ideas of montage. Eisenstein regarded montage as a
dialectic
Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...
al means of creating meaning. By contrasting unrelated shots he tried to provoke associations in the viewer, which were induced by shocks. But Eisenstein did not always do his own editing, and some of his most important films were edited by Esfir Tobak.
A
montage sequence consists of a series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense narrative. It is usually used to advance the story as a whole (often to suggest the passage of time), rather than to create symbolic meaning. In many cases, a song plays in the background to enhance the mood or reinforce the message being conveyed. One famous example of montage was seen in the 1968 film ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'', depicting the start of man's first development from apes to humans. Another example that is employed in many films is the sports montage. The sports montage shows the star athlete training over a period of time, each shot having more improvement than the last. Classic examples include Rocky and the Karate Kid.
The word's association with Sergei Eisenstein is often condensed—too simply—into the idea of "juxtaposition" or into two words: "collision montage," whereby two adjacent shots that oppose each other on formal parameters or on the content of their images are cut against each other to create a new meaning not contained in the respective shots: Shot a + Shot b = New Meaning c.
The association of collision montage with Eisenstein is not surprising. He consistently maintained that the mind functions dialectically, in the
Hegelian
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and the ...
sense, that the contradiction between opposing ideas (thesis versus antithesis) is resolved by a higher truth, synthesis. He argued that conflict was the basis of ''all'' art, and never failed to see montage in other cultures. For example, he saw montage as a guiding principle in the construction of "
Japanese hieroglyphics in which two independent ideographic characters ('shots') are juxtaposed and ''explode'' into a concept. Thus:
: Eye + Water = Crying
: Door + Ear = Eavesdropping
: Child + Mouth = Screaming
: Mouth + Dog = Barking
: Mouth + Bird = Singing."
[S. M. Eisenstein and Richard Taylor, Selected works, Volume 1 (Bloomington: BFI/Indiana University Press, 1988), 164.]
He also found montage in Japanese
haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
, where short sense perceptions are juxtaposed and synthesized into a new meaning, as in this example:
: A lonely crow
:: On a leafless bough
::: One autumn eve.
(枯朶に烏のとまりけり秋の暮)
—
Matsuo Basho
As Dudley Andrew notes, "The collision of attractions from line to line produces the unified psychological effect which is the hallmark of haiku and montage."
[Dudley Andrew, ''The major film theories: an introduction'' (London: Oxford University Press, 1976), 52.]
Continuity editing and alternatives
Continuity editing, developed in the early 1900s, aimed to create a coherent and smooth storytelling experience in films. It relied on consistent graphic qualities, balanced composition, and controlled editing rhythms to ensure narrative continuity and engage the audience. For example, whether an actor's costume remains the same from one scene to the next, or whether a glass of milk held by a character is full or empty throughout the scene. Because films are typically shot out of sequence, the
script supervisor
A script supervisor (also called continuity supervisor or script) is a member of a film crew who oversees the continuity of the motion picture including dialogue and action during a scene. The script supervisor may also be called upon to ensure wa ...
will keep a record of continuity and provide that to the film editor for reference. The editor may try to maintain continuity of elements, or may intentionally create a discontinuous sequence for stylistic or narrative effect.
The technique of continuity editing, part of the
classical Hollywood style, was developed by early European and American directors, in particular,
D.W. Griffith in his films such as ''
The Birth of a Nation
''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 American Silent film, silent Epic film, epic Drama (film and television), drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and ...
'' and ''
Intolerance
Intolerance may refer to:
* Hypersensitivity or intolerance, undesirable reactions produced by the immune system
* ''Intolerance'' (film), a 1916 film by D. W. Griffith
* ''Intolerance'' (album), the first solo album from Grant Hart, formerly ...
''. The classical style embraces temporal and spatial continuity as a way of advancing the narrative, using such techniques as the
180 degree rule
In filmmaking, the 180-degree rule is a guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. The rule states that the camera should be kept on one side of an imaginary axis be ...
,
Establishing shot
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...
, and
Shot reverse shot
Shot/reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character (a or ). Since the characters ar ...
. The 180-degree system in film editing ensures consistency in shot composition by keeping relative positions of characters or objects in the frame consistent. It also maintains consistent eye-lines and screen direction to avoid disorientation and confusion for the audience, allowing for clear spatial delineation and a smooth narrative experience. Often, continuity editing means finding a balance between literal continuity and perceived continuity. For instance, editors may condense action across cuts in a non-distracting way. A character walking from one place to another may "skip" a section of floor from one side of a cut to the other, but the cut is constructed to appear continuous so as not to distract the viewer.
Early Russian filmmakers such as Lev Kuleshov (already mentioned) further explored and theorized about editing and its ideological nature.
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...
developed a system of editing that was unconcerned with the rules of the continuity system of classical Hollywood that he called
Intellectual montage.
Alternatives to traditional editing were also explored by early
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
and
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
filmmakers such as
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
(director of the 1929 ''Un Chien Andalou'') and
René Clair
René Clair (; 11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette (), was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. H ...
(director of 1924's ''Entr'acte'' which starred famous Dada artists
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...
and
Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...
).
Filmmakers have explored alternatives to continuity editing, focusing on graphic and rhythmic possibilities in their films. Experimental filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Bruce Conner have used purely graphic elements to join shots, emphasizing light, texture, and shape rather than narrative coherence. Non-narrative films have prioritized rhythmic relations among shots, even employing single-frame shots for extreme rhythmic effects. Narrative filmmakers, such as Busby Berkeley and Yasujiro Ow, have occasionally subordinated narrative concerns to graphic or rhythmic patterns, while films influenced by music videos often feature pulsating rhythmic editing that de-emphasizes spatial and temporal dimensions.
The
French New Wave
The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
filmmakers such as
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
and
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...
and their American counterparts such as
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
and
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often self- ...
also pushed the limits of editing technique during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. French New Wave films and the
non-narrative films of the 1960s used a carefree editing style and did not conform to the traditional editing etiquette of Hollywood films. Like its Dada and surrealist predecessors,
French New Wave
The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
editing often drew attention to itself by its lack of continuity, its demystifying self-reflexive nature (reminding the audience that they were watching a film), and by the overt use of
jump cut
A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing that breaks a single continuous sequential shot of a subject into two parts, with a piece of footage removed to create the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positioning on the subjec ...
s or the insertion of material not often related to any narrative. Three of the most influential editors of French New Wave films were the women who (in combination) edited 15 of Godard's films: Francoise Collin, Agnes Guillemot, and Cecile Decugis, and another notable editor is
Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte (5 November 1929 – 17 July 2017) was a French film and television editor and actress. Her extensive editing credits include '' The 400 Blows'', '' Winged Migration'' and '' Microcosmos'', the latter of which garnered Yoyo ...
, the first black woman editor in French cinema and editor of ''
The 400 Blows
''The 400 Blows'' () is a 1959 French Coming-of-age film, coming-of-age Drama (film and television), drama film, and the directorial debut of François Truffaut, who also co-wrote the film. Shot in the anamorphic format List of anamorphic forma ...
''.
[
Since the late 20th century Post-classical editing has seen faster editing styles with nonlinear, discontinuous action.
]
Significance
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin ( rus, Всеволод Илларионович Пудовкин, p=ˈfsʲevələt ɪl(ː)ərʲɪˈonəvʲɪtɕ pʊˈdofkʲɪn; 28 February 1893 – 30 June 1953) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter and acto ...
noted that the editing process is the one phase of production that is truly unique to motion pictures. Every other aspect of filmmaking originated in a different medium than film (photography, art direction, writing, sound recording), but editing is the one process that is unique to film. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...
was quoted as saying: "I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of filmmaking. If I wanted to be frivolous, I might say that everything that precedes editing is merely a way of producing a film to edit."
Film editing is significant because it shapes the narrative structure, visual and aesthetic impact, rhythm and pacing, emotional resonance, and overall storytelling of a film. Editors possess a unique creative power to manipulate and arrange shots, allowing them to craft a cinematic experience that engages, entertains, and emotionally connects with the audience. Film editing is a distinct art form within the filmmaking process, enabling filmmakers to realize their vision and bring stories to life on the screen.
According to writer-director Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
He is credited as being the first screenwriter to find success as a director. Prior to Sturges, other ...
: ere is a law of natural cutting and that this replicates what an audience in a legitimate theater does for itself. The more nearly the film cutter approaches this law of natural interest, the more invisible will be his cutting. If the camera moves from one person to another at the exact moment that one in the legitimate theatre would have turned his head, one will not be conscious of a cut. If the camera misses by a quarter of a second, one will get a jolt. There is one other requirement: the two shots must be approximate of the same tone value. If one cuts from black to white, it is jarring. At any given moment, the camera must point at the exact spot the audience wishes to look at. To find that spot is absurdly easy: one has only to remember where one was looking at the time the scene was made.
Assistant editors
Assistant editors aid the editor and director in collecting and organizing all the elements needed to edit the film. The Motion Picture Editors Guild
The Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG; IATSE Local 700) is the guild that represents freelance and staff motion picture and television editors and other post-production professionals and story analysts throughout the United States. The Motion Pi ...
defines an assistant editor as "a person who is assigned to assist an Editor. His or her duties shall be such as are assigned and performed under the immediate direction, supervision, and responsibility of the editor." When editing is finished, they oversee the various lists and instructions necessary to put the film into its final form. Editors of large budget features will usually have a team of assistants working for them. The first assistant editor is in charge of this team and may do a small bit of picture editing as well, if necessary. Assistant editors are responsible for collecting, organizing, and managing all the elements needed for the editing process. This includes footage, sound files, music tracks, visual effects assets, and other media assets. They ensure that everything is properly labeled, logged, and stored in an organized manner, making it easier for the editor to access and work with the materials efficiently. Assistant editors serve as a bridge between the editing team and other departments, facilitating communication and collaboration. They often work closely with the director, editor, visual effects artists, sound designers, and other post-production professionals, relaying information, managing deliverables, and coordinating schedules. Often assistant editors will perform temporary sound, music, and visual effects work. The other assistants will have set tasks, usually helping each other when necessary to complete the many time-sensitive tasks at hand. In addition, an apprentice editor may be on hand to help the assistants. An apprentice is usually someone who is learning the ropes of assisting.
Television shows typically have one assistant per editor. This assistant is responsible for every task required to bring the show to the final form. Lower budget features and documentaries will also commonly have only one assistant. Higher budget films and shows tend to have more than one assistant editor, and in some cases, there can be a full team of assistants.
The organizational aspects job could best be compared to database management. When a film is shot, every piece of picture or sound is coded with numbers and timecode
A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other applications which require temporal coordinatio ...
. It is the assistant's job to keep track of these numbers in a database, which, in non-linear editing, is linked to the computer program. The editor and director cut the film using digital copies of the original film and sound, commonly referred to as an "offline" edit. When the cut is finished, it is the assistant's job to bring the film or television show "online". They create lists and instructions that tell the picture and sound finishers how to put the edit back together with the high-quality original elements. Assistant editing can be seen as a career path to eventually becoming an editor. Many assistants, however, do not choose to pursue advancement to the editor, and are very happy at the assistant level, working long and rewarding careers on many films and television shows.
See also
* 180-degree rule
In filmmaking, the 180-degree rule is a guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. The rule states that the camera should be kept on one side of an imaginary axis be ...
* 30-degree rule
The 30-degree rule is a basic film editing guideline that states the camera should move at least 30 Degree (angle), degrees relative to the subject between successive shots of the same subject. If the camera moves less than 30 degrees, the trans ...
* Footage
In filmmaking and video production, footage is raw, unedited material as originally filmed by a movie camera or recorded by a digital video camera, which typically must be film editing, edited to create a motion picture, digital video, video cli ...
(A Roll)
* B-roll
In film and television production, B-roll, B roll, B-reel or B reel is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot. The term ''A-roll'', referring to main footage, has fallen out of use to some degree.
Film and video produc ...
* Cinematic techniques
This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described.
Basic definitions of terms
;180-degree rule
:A continuity editorial technique in which sequential shots of two or more actors within ...
*Clapperboard
A clapperboard, also known as a dumb slate, clapboard, film clapper, film slate, bertolo clapz, movie slate, or production slate, is a device used in filmmaking, television production and video production to assist in synchronizing of picture ...
* Compositing
Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live action, Live-action shooting for compositing ...
(keying)
* Cut (transition)
In the post-production process of film editing and video editing, a cut is an abrupt, but usually trivial film transition from one sequence to another. It is synonymous with the term ''edit'', though "edit" can imply any number of transitions or ...
, for the director's call ''Cut!'' or stop
** Axial cut An axial cut is a type of jump cut, where the camera suddenly moves closer to or further away from its subject, along an invisible line drawn straight between the camera and the subject. While a plain jump cut typically involves a temporal discontin ...
** Cross-cutting
Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time, and often in the same place. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simulta ...
** Fast cutting
Fast cutting is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shot (filming), shots of a brief duration (e.g. 3 seconds or less). It can be used to quickly convey much information, or to imply either energy or chaos. Fast cutting i ...
** Jump cut
A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing that breaks a single continuous sequential shot of a subject into two parts, with a piece of footage removed to create the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positioning on the subjec ...
** Long take
In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take, continuous shot, or oner) is Shot (filmmaking), shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera mov ...
** Match cut
In film, a match cut is a cut from one shot to another in which the composition of the two shots are matched by the action or subject and subject matter. For example, in a duel a shot can go from a long shot on both contestants via a cut to a ...
** Slow cutting
Slow cutting is a film editing technique characterized by frequent lengthy shots. Though it depends on context, it is estimated that any shot longer than about fifteen seconds will seem rather slow to many modern-day viewers, especially those wh ...
* Cutaway
* '' The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing''
* Edit decision list
An edit decision list or EDL is used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing. The list contains an ordered list of reel and timecode data representing where each video clip can be obtained in order to conform the final c ...
(EDL)
* Film transition
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
** Dissolve
** L cut
In film editing, an L cut is a variant of a split edit technique in which the audio from the preceding scene overlaps the picture from the following scene, so that the audio cuts after the picture, and continues playing over the beginning of th ...
(split edit)
** Wipe
* Filmmaking
Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...
* Index of articles related to motion pictures
The film industry is built upon many technologies and techniques, drawing upon photography, stagecraft, music, and many other disciplines. Following is an index of specific terminology applicable thereto.
0-9
180 degree rule
- 30 degree rule
A
A ...
* Kuleshov effect
The Kuleshov effect is a film editing ( montage) effect demonstrated by Russian film-maker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from ...
* Motion Picture Editors Guild
The Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG; IATSE Local 700) is the guild that represents freelance and staff motion picture and television editors and other post-production professionals and story analysts throughout the United States. The Motion Pi ...
(MPEG)
* Moviola
A Moviola () is a device that allows a Film editing, film editor to view a film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924.
History
Iwan Serrurier's original 1917 concept f ...
* Negative cutting
Negative cutting (also known as negative matching and negative conforming) is the process of cutting motion picture negative to match precisely the final edit as specified by the film editor. Original camera negative (OCN) is cut with scissors an ...
* Outline of film
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to film:
''Film'' refers to motion pictures as individual projects and to the field in general. The name came from the fact that photographic film (also called filmstock) ...
* Re-edited film A re-edited film is a film, motion picture that has been film editing, modified from the manner in which it was showcased in its original theatrical release. Reasons for this type of editing may range from the distributor's demands to accommodating ...
* Scene
Scene (from Greek ') may refer to:
General
* Scene (performing arts), a part of the story held in a single location
* Scene (perception), a set of information that can flow from a physical environment into a perceptual system via sensory tran ...
* Sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...
* Shot
Shot may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Shot'' (album), by The Jesus Lizard
*''Shot, Illusion, New God'', an EP by Gruntruck
*'' Shot Rev 2.0'', a video album by The Sisters of Mercy
* "Shot" (song), by The Rasmus
* ''Shot'' (2017 ...
** Crane shot
In filmmaking and video production, a crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a moving crane or jib. Filmmaker D. W. Griffith created the first crane for his 1916 epic film ''Intolerance'', with famed special effects pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya ...
** Establishing shot
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...
** Insert
An SQL INSERT statement adds one or more records to any single table in a relational database.
Basic form
Insert statements have the following form:
The number of columns and values must be the same. If a column is not specified, the default va ...
** Master shot
A master shot (or short master) is a film recording of an entire dramatized scene, start to finish, from a camera angle that keeps all the players in view. It is often a long shot and can sometimes perform a double function as an establishing sho ...
** Point-of-view shot
A point-of-view shot (also known as POV shot, first-person shot or subjective camera) is a film scene—usually a short one—that is shot as if through the eyes of a character (the subject). The camera shows what the subject's eyes would see ...
** Shot reverse shot
Shot/reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character (a or ). Since the characters ar ...
* Video editing
Video editing is the post-production and arrangement of video shots. To showcase excellent video editing to the public, video editors must be reasonable and ensure they have a thorough understanding of film, television, and other sorts of videog ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Dmytryk, Edward (1984). ''On Film Editing: An Introduction to the Art of Film Construction''. Focal Press, Boston.
* Translation of Russian language works by Eisenstein, who died in 1948.
* Knight, Arthur (1957). ''The Liveliest Art''. Mentor Books. New American Library.
Further reading
* Morales, Morante, Luis Fernando (2017). 'Editing and Montage in International Film and Video: Theory and Technique, Focal Press, Taylor & Francis
* Murch, Walter (2001). ''In the Blink of an Eye: a Perspective on Film Editing''. Silman-James Press. 2d rev. ed..
External links
Demonstration of Picsync machine by former BBC film editors
Demonstration of editing 16mm film using a Steenbeck editing table
Discussion and demonstration of a 16mm edit suite and the working environment within it
Wikibooks
* Mewa Film User's Guide
* Movie Making Manual
Wikiversity
* Portal:Filmmaking
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Film theory
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Articles containing video clips