Task 8 - Transitions and effects

Different transitions and effects can be used to manipulate the diegetic time and space in a film. There are many transitions you can use. For example; Straight cut, dissolves, fades, wipes etc. 

Straight cuts are the most common and 'invisible' form on transition. One shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audience's attention.

Straight cut helps retain reality. They do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief. Dissolves are what fades one shot off the screen while another is fading in. The audience will be able to see both shots on the screen at the mid point of the dissolve. It is used if the film maker wants to show a connection between two characters, places or objects.

Fades are a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until it becomes black or white. One shot will fade until only a black or white screen can be seen. It is used to indicate the end of a particular section of time within the narrative. It can show the passing of time. 

Wipes are when one image is pushed off the screen by another. Images can be pushed left or right. It is more common for the image to be pushed off the left hand side as this movement is more consistent with the sense of time moving forward. It is used to signal a movement between different locations that are experiencing the same time. For example; it was used extensively in the Star Wars films. 

Graphic match is when they will match similar things together and use a transition in the middle, for example; Psycho - matches the circular image of the plug hole with the next image of Marion's eye. 

Following the action is when there is movement, or in an actions scene, the camera would follow the event that is taking place. In the extract from Mr & Mrs, the camera rotates around the gun battle to show more of the action instead of staying at one angle. 

Multiple points of view is where the actors are showing each side of a particular point of view. It is where one character will show what he/she is seeing and then it will change to the secondary character and do the same.



Shot variation is when a shot is uninterrupted by editing and the shot distance changes. The shot can be either static or mobile, but it must be a continuous motion. For example; the shot begins as a long or wide shot and ends in a close up. In 'The Matrix' it begins in long shot, the camera moves in a circular motion and ends in a mid shot.

Manipulation of Diegetic Time and Space is when a film uses effects to show an age or time change. It can be something as simple as using a colour filter, or the desaturation of an image to show a different point in time. There are many films which uses this technique but an example is 'The Time Machine'. The time traveller enters the time machine and the environment changes as he travels through time. A more modern version of this effect is in the third of the Harry Potter films, Harry potter Time Turner. 

In the video that my piers and I created, I edited a few transitions and effects in to show the manipulation of diegetic time and space. This is shown when I used a transition called a fade after the  anonymous eye witness is talking about the weekend before. This shows that she is talking about the past, and it seems as if you are going back in time. I then used a fade out which led us back to the news reporter and the eye witness. This shows that we are back to the present. I also used an effect which blurred the edges, so it seemed as if we were back in time and it is a blur, but not completely. The effects and transitions used really helped the audience to be able to tell they were in the eye witnesses mind, as if they were going back in time.

Task 7 - Engaging the Viewer/Creating Pace

Engaging the viewer/ creating pace

In a film, each scene may last a matter of seconds, or it could continue for minutes, but the length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action along. The speed of editing will help to determine the mood of what is taking place on screen. Nether the less, a film need not have any editing. the Russian arch was filmed using one whole shot, no cuts. A trailer for a film needs to pack in detail from throughout the film, therefore, the editing will be very fast. For example; The Hunger Games has 37 edits in 29 seconds. Scenes at the beginning of a film- as it begins to tell it's story- must be long enough for us to be able to understand where we are and what is going on.

To cross cut is to edit together two sequences that the audience need to know are connected in the same way. Something is happening at the same time in different locations. Like when a character reliving a memory. Cross cutting can be used to very effectively develop a sense of humour. Casey on the opening scene of scream is made more dramatic by her parents approaching Casey dying.

If the audience is to feel anxiety and suspense, the editing will be quick and the scenes/shots will be changing frequently. For example; In an action sequence. This is creating pace.

A cutaway is used to reveal details to the audience without detracting from the narrative or the action.

This is my edited version of our clips. This theme is 007, I created pace by cutting through the clips onto another shot. When it was calm, i did longer clips, and to create pace, i made it quicker. I used cross cutting skill by cutting in between two clips so the audience knows that they are related. I used a cutaway skill to show details to the audience without detracting from the action and narrative. Lastly. i used an effect called sepia, which draws the audience in a lot more as it looks much more effective.

Task 6 - Non Continuity Editing

Non continuity editing

Non continuity editing is a style editing that requires the director to try to make the film reality as much like the audience's reality as possible. This means the film is trying to recreate what the world around us is and trying to make it easier on the audience to comprehend and understand the action happening on screen.

Jump cut

French new wave film makers such as Jean Luc Godard and Francais Truffaut pushed the limits of editing technique during the late 1950's and throughout the 1960's. French new wave films and the non-narrative films of the 1960's use a care-free editing style and did not conform to the traditional editing etiquette of Hollywood films. French new wave editing often drew attention to itself by it's lack of continuity, it;s self reflexive nature (reminding the audience that they were watching a film), and by the overt use of jump cuts or the insertion of material not often related to any narrative.

This is an example of a jump cut because it cuts between two shots and in one shot, she is not holding anything, then in the second, she is holding a mirror in her hand.

Breaking the 180 degree rule

During filming, the camera should always stay on one side of the characters. It must not cross the 180 degree line otherwise the characters will switch sides and it will look odd. This will break the rule. For example; in one scene of the the shining, the two men are talking and then the camera breaks the 180 rule and the two men look as if they have swapped places. This broke the rule and also looked odd.

This is an example of breaking the 180 degree rule because the characters seem as if they have switched sides when they haven't, only the camera has turned round and crossed the 180 degree line and broke the rule.

 

Task 5 - Continuity Editing

Task Five

Continuity editing is the popular "classical Hollywood" style of editing. It was developed by early European and American directors, in particular, D.W Griffin in his films, such as "In Tolerance" and "The birth of a nation". The classical style ensures temporal and spatial continuity as a way of advancing narrative, using such techniques as the 180 degree rule, match on action, and shot, reverse shot. it helps retain a sense of chronology , and helps the film feel like time is moving forwards. It doesn't mean you can't use a flash back or flash forward, as long as the narrative will still be seen progressing forward in a realistic way.

Key Techniques

Eye line match links two shots together. We see them looking at someting, then we cut to a shot of what they are looking at. This allows us to experience what the character is experiencing in the film.

180 degree rule is a basic guidline that states that two characters in the same scene should stay in the same place and not swap places when the camera moves. Do not cross the line or go over the 180 degree line.

Match on action is linking two scenes together. Start action shot one, finishes in shot two. It is a natural movement, and there are no pauses.

Shot reverse shot links two shots together. The first shot is one character, the second shot shows a second characters face. It allows audience to realise these two people are interacting with eachother.

In our film, we had three techniques. These are match on action, eye line match and shot, reverse shot.  We did each technique at certain points in the film. The eye line match was filmed when i am looking at the computer, then you see the computer from where i was sitting, as if you could see through my eyes. The match on action shot was when Kayley walks through the door and it runs through smoothly. Finally, shot reverse shot is when me and Kayley are talking.

Task 4 - Montage

Montage

There are three types of Montage; these are;

- French film

- Soviet film making of the 1920's

- Hollywood cinema

The french film meaning of Montage is to assemble, and it is used to talk about simply editing.

The Soviet film making of the 1920's method of Juxtaposing shots to create meaning that did not exist in either shot alone.

Hollywood cinema meaning is a sequence, a short segment in a film in which narrative information is presented in a condensed fashion. For example; Rocky Balboa.

The 

Lev Kuleshov was among the very first to theorise about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920's. He argued that editing a film was like constructing a building. Brick by brick (shot by shot), a building (film) is erected. He did an experiment to prove his point. he took an old film clip of a headshot of a Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with different images. Audiences praised him for his film. When he showed the film, the audience was able to make meaning in what they were looking at. The audience inferred the meaning from looking at two shots. 

Sergei Eisenstein was briefly a student of Kuleshov's. The two of them parted ways because they had different ideas. By contrasting unrelated shots, Eisenstein tried to provoke associations in the viewer, which were induced by shocks. Workers were treated like animals, as if they are worthless.

In Hollywood cinema, a 'montage sequence' is a short segment in a film in which narrative information is presented in a film condensed fashion, for example; Rocky Balboa.

This is our Soviet montage video. The meaning we tried to give out for this film was the boy being related to the two girls dying at the end of the video. The video also had a flashback, this part was when it kept switching from the boy to the two girls being dead. At first, there is two girls sitting down talking and messing about, then you see the boy taking things out of his bag and planning something. This is when you see the slight connection between the two. At the end of the film, you see the boy wiping the scissors because there is blood on them. You also see a shot of the scissors on the table.



This is our Hollywood montage video. The video was about the average school day. We squeezed a whole day into a very short video. This video went from them walking in the school gates, to form, then lesson 1,2, then break, lesson 3,4, then lunch, lesson 5,6, then walking out of school at the end of the day. This video shows how they had fun in Science, but were bored in the other classes. This video was all squeezed into one, and it was short, quick clips in one video.

Task 3 - From Analogue to Digital Editing

From Analogue to Digital Editing

Analogue editing is the cutting together of pieces of celluloid film. Films are made up images printed on to acetate negatives. These are "spliced" together to form a reel of film. These are then fed through a projector at a constant speed of 24 frames which makes the pictures appear to be moving. This is known as analogue.

The first Moviola; before wide-spread use of non-linear editing systems, the initial editing of all film was done with a positive copy of the film negative called a film work print. (Cutting and copy in the UK) by physically cutting and pasting pieces of film, using a splicer and threading the film on a machine with a viewer such as a Moviola.

Before digital technologies became available, magnetic tapes were used to store information. These are known as video tapes. Most video editing has been superseded by digital
editing which is faster and cheaper.

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital, as apposed to analogue, form. Digital editing is the use of computers to order and manipulate this digital data.

Digital cinema uses bits and bytes (strings of 1's and 0's) to record, transmit, and reply images, instead of chemicals on a film. The whole process is electronic so there is no printing or 'splicing' involved.

Non-linear editing is a method that allows you to access any frame in a digital video clip regardless of the sequence in the clip. The freedom to access any frame and use a cut and paste method similar to the ease of cutting and pasting text in a word processor, and allows you to easily include fades, transitions, and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing.

Task 2 - Developing Editing Techniques

In-camera editing

In-camera editing is a technique where instead of editing the shots in a film into sequence after shooting the scenes, the cinematographer shoots the sequences in certain order and does not edit it after shooting.

George Melies made "The Vanishing Lady" in 1886, using a technique known as in-camera setting. This means that he cut and stuck scenes together to show an effect as if the lady in the video has vanished. At this point in time, the audience would be very shocked because they had never seen anything like this before. There were queries that the film maker turned his camera off and switched it back on after.

Firstly, I had to decide what we were going to do in the video. In this case, we did two girls walking down the stairs, then I got tripped over and fell against the wall. Then my pier, Jade, was evil and laughed. At the end I died and Jade and my other pier, Kayley, started laughing and left me on the floor. The first thing I thought about was where we were going to film it and what angles we were going to use to film it. As well as acting in this film, I had to help to direct it too. What i did well was the acting, I was able to over react because it was an exaggerated film, and it was quite funny too. Also, i was able to help out with where the camera was set when filming. Personally, i didn't find anything in this task difficult. It was quite straight forward. There were a few mistakes in this video, for example; the camera jolting at some points. Other than this, the video ran smoothly. The effects used was the black and white effect. This was very effective as it showed that the film was old fashioned.

Pros and cons of In Camera editing;
The pros of In Camera editing is that it is quick and easy because you just film it, pause it, then carry on filming in one go. The cons of In Camera editing is that you only have one shot at doing it, and if you go wrong then you have to start all over again.