Editing At Film School

1: Editing Theory:

The role of an editor physically encompasses taking RAW video and audio footage to combine and distort this in a way which tells a films story. More than this though, a good editor makes an audience feel emotionally connected to a film, portrays a films themes and messages and gives the film a very particular look and feel to corroborate this.

An editor may work on an entire film project, cutting video together, editing dialogue, music, sound effects, colour and any special effects. However some editors will work on a single part of an editing process, for example dialogue editors would solely work on cleaning dialogue, making dialogue audio levels consistent and any ADR/SFX to match the images the picture/assembly editor has produced.

Editors use an array of tools to achieve a desired look. First and foremost, a video editing software is used to compile an assembly and is capable of editing nearly every aspect of the film. Most commonly this would be Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer or Final Cut Pro/X. A software such as Premiere Pro, is a timeline based editing software, allowing a user to import RAW files, cut them together in an assembly, colour correct, colour grade, add effects to video and multiple audio types, add music, distort sound, add transitions, add SFX and more.

Though software’s like Premiere Pro can accomplish most of what an editor would need, there are more specific software’s tailored towards a single part of an editing process. These software’s typically have more features and allow for greater control over a single design aspect that either Premiere Pro can’t achieve or would be too demanding of this software and computer running the software. An example of this is After Effects. After Effects is a tool which solely allows someone to work on segments of footage, graphics, compositing or visual effects. It is very common to have 90% of an edit done within Premiere Pro, but particular footage edited within After Effects and embedded back within Premiere. This would be the case for titles, credits or other graphics or if very particular visual effects are required for a movie. Since this is what After Effects is dedicated to and allows more freedom with, an editor can have more choice using this software as a tool for these requirements. Other example software’s tailored to one part of an editing process which may also be used include Audition to edit audio, Lightroom to edit photographs, Fresco/Illustrator to create digital illustrations and graphics and Media Encoder in order to convert file types.

In relation to the rest of a film crew, the editor will work with many different people and has a relationship with many crew members, including but not limited to:

Editor – Director = Both working to accomplish the film’s vision, accentuating certain aspects to achieve this, making the audiences feel a certain way, inducing certain emotions which encapsulate the directors vision for the film. The director and editor will work closely in post-production assembling a director’s cut and a final cut, approved by producers.

Editor – Producer = Working towards certain time frames for release. Creating teaser material which may need to be marketed to engage audiences and let them know what to expect. Producers must approve the edit which is released.

Editor – Music/Sound department = Working with any composers/foley artists in order to achieve a tone which corroborates the editors and directors vision in sound.

Editor – DOP = May work together during pre-production, particularly during the storyboarding stage to ensure the right footage is captured during production. This can make for a clearer sense of what the director wants from the edit.

In larger teams, an editors role will be distributed between different specialist departments. In which case, the editor will also work with:

Editor – Colourist = An editor may work with a colourist both in pre-production and post. In pre-production, both may work on choosing colours which complement the films palette. In post, like the editor, a colourist may distort colour to attain the look and feel of the film.

Editor – Dialogue editor/ADR = Picture editors will work closely with dialogue/ADR editors as a result of cut scenes, script changes and replacement dialogues with actors.

Some of the earliest examples of editing are at the hands of Edwin Porter, Thomas Edison’s assistant. Porter did this through the introduction of cutting shots and introducing jump cuts of scenes taking place at the same time. He suggested that in doing so, you can have the ability to provoke emotional responses in audiences. He did so in his first film ‘Life of an American Fireman’ in 1903. In this film, Porter demonstrated someone being trapped in a burning building and firemen rushing to the event in a separate scene. This cutting of events helped simulate time passing whilst simultaneously creating emotional responses in the audience.

Later, in the 1910’s and 20’s, a new editing technique surfaced called the Kuleshov effect. The Kuleshov effect was demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov and it involved two sequential shots from which the audience were to derive meaning and connection between the two shots. This as opposed to a single shot in isolation, making for a different kind of viewing experience for audiences.

This then brought about montage. Montage is described as “combining shots that are depictive – single in meaning, neutral in content – into intellectual contexts and series.”. Montage was the combining of neutral images in order to illustrate a third, undetectable thing. There are different kinds of montage detected by Russian film theorist Sergei Eisenstein.

Metric montage: Cutting according to exact measurement, usually inspired by musical score, regardless of the content of the shot.

Rhythmic montage: Cutting according to the continuity of the visual pattern within the shots. This is continuity based on matching action and screen direction, keeping the pace in both a visual and auditory sense.

Tonal montage: Uses multiple shots which support one another and build a theme. This helps establish a tone of a scene through editing shots which have the same thematic aim.

Overtonal montage: Cutting according to the various “tones” and “overtones” of the shot. This one is even more abstract than tonal montage. In the words of Eisenstein, “from the moment that overtones can be heard parallel with the basic sound, there also can be sensed vibrations, oscillations that cease to impress as tones, but rather as purely physical displacements of the perceived impression.” From this, we can establish that overtonal montage is the intermixing of larger themes (whether political, religious or philosophical) with the emotional tones of the piece through the use of metric and rhythmic montage.

Intellectual montage: Cutting according to the shots relationship to an intellectual concept. This is what Kuleshov’s short film established where a different combination of shots would evoke something different each time. For example:

Man + Food = Hunger

Man + Coffin = Sadness

Man + Woman = Desire

Different genres will have editing conventions used specifically, but not soley, within that genre. Some examples of widely seen genre editing conventions include:

Horror: Fast paced cutting mixed with slow paced cutting for tension build up and release in order to scare audiences.

Action: Fast paced cutting. Jump cuts to simulate time passing whilst illustrating a connection between two scenes.

Comedy: Freeze frames to illustrate comedic aspects in a scene. Commentary or narration usually accompanies this for effect or humorous explanation.

Drama: Slower paced cutting, focusing on actors faces so the viewer can empathise or connect emotionally with a character.

A particularly memorable scene which demonstrates horror editing conventions is the ending scene of Saw.

In the ending of Saw, there is a big reveal of the identity of the infamous Jigsaw killer. The entire movie has been building to this reveal and has been a massive tension build up. To release this tension, Saw makes excellent use of overtonal montage. This specific editing technique engages the audience in many different ways. Saw’s overtonal montage:

·         Demonstrates movie theme explicitly: Saw surrounds the idea of rehabilitation through closeness to death. Saw’s overtonal montage consists of shots of every one of Jigsaw’s known past victims, one of which says “He helped me”. This helps us get into the mind of the killer and help understand his motives better when we find he is dying himself. This mixes the larger social and political messages of Saw in with the themes of violence.

·         Flash transitions help establish genre: Flash transitions in Saw (or dipping to white) almost mimics a camera flash. Most of the time these transitions are used, we are being introduced to a new piece of information or an image which reveals a clue or “joins the dots”. Saw has strong traits of a murder mystery or detective thriller sub-genre, this only helps establish these further through the iconography of a camera flash being synonymous of crime.

·         Emotional tones are aided by Saw’s iconic score ‘Hello Zepp by Charlie Clouser’: “Hello Zepp” by Charlie Clouser has been made to run in parallel to the Saw franchises twist endings. The score comes in as protagonist’s revelations happen, helping consistently establish and amplify the emotional tones, twists and shocks within Saw, the score getting heavier progressively as the character finds out more until the “Game over” where the music dramatically drops. Saw’s “Hello Zepp” complements the montage so well and has been made synonymous with Saw’s iconic ending twists, promoting a real visceral feeling for audience members as they discover with the characters.

 2: Editing my project:

Many problems I have encountered in my edits have surrounded audio.

When it came to editing Cinematic Lighting, the RAW audio I found to be unusable. Unfortunately there had been a mic issue which no one had spotted whilst shooting and nothing was played back until it came to reviewing footage for editing. To solve the immediate issue, ADR will be required. Fortunately this will be simple enough as there is minimal dialogue between only two characters. However, this has certainly taught me the importance of watching footage back to spot any issues such as this and prevent them affecting the whole shoot.

The False Scare has been my most enjoyable and difficult edit in many different ways. The main issue with the False Scare surrounded audio also. Because multiple groups were using shooting locations with a very close proximity to one another, getting any useable audio on the day was near impossible. In the original scene of the False Scare, there was a dialogue exchange between friends. However, immediately as I came to edit I found this to be not worth including.

First of all, the dialogue recorded was unusable but more importantly, it didn’t add anything to the film. With the minute I had I preferred to use my time in the edit to build tension. In my opinion, adding this dialogue in would have taken away from that greatly.

By ridding the film of this dialogue, fortunately this only left 1 other piece of dialogue for a phone call, which I fixed by recording this separately with the actress in a quiet room on a non-shooting day. The dialogue sounded crisp and fit the piece well.

In the original False Scare script, there is a demonic voice coming through a phone which tells the protagonist to “turn left”, where the protagonist will find a hanging doll. This sounded great to me in theory, but in practice I found this wasn’t strong enough. In a 5th draft of the edit I decided to change the voice entirely and found some stock footage of a child speaking into a microphone. Using a childs voice instead of a ‘demonic’ voice I found to be far more effective and chilling. As in great horror, something which isn’t scary becoming scary is far more creepy than something scary being “scary”. Utilising this ADR and stock footage, I manipulated the audio in Premiere to sound as if it was coming out of a phone. When we hear the voice again earlier in the film, I added an effect to make it sound as if it is coming from a different room entirely, which explains why the protagonist leaves.

As well as ADR and audio manipulation, I utilised some radio music playing softly in the backround. When the protagonist leaves the room, I have dropped the gain and upon entering, raised the gain to get a greater feel of the place, not just visually.

The sound of my False Scare is much more inclusive now in the final draft, giving an audience a greater feel of depth and another dimension to enjoy the film on.

Colour has been one of the most enjoyable parts of the editing process for me, and I felt I got to explore this lots more with the False Scare. In the False Scare, we had planned shots around motivational and practical lighting. The ‘scare’ shot itself consists of red in contrast to a very bright green, from a fire exit sign but exaggerated with the help of green gels on LED’s.

This scenes lighting gave me an idea to give the film a colour palette surrounding greens. The bathroom we shot in had white walls, so utilising HSL Secondary in Lumetri Colour, I was able to switch out the white wall colour for a pale green. This simple switch out ensures the entire film is enlaced with green, really helping keep that consistency and exaggeration of colour.

After using HSL Secondary to change the whites to green, I used a second Lumetri Colour > HSL Secondary effect in order to correct the skin tones as these were slightly effected in the original grade. The green of the bathroom matches the practical and motivational lighting of the fire exit sign and green gels.

Another reason why I wanted a prominent green in the last shot and another shade of green in the first shot, is that both the first and last frame of my False Scare can be paralleled to show a similar composition and framing, but entirely different expression and situation. In the first shot our protagonist is happy, getting ready, excited. And in our last shot, terrified. I wanted the first and last frame to almost be mirrored in composition just to make this juxtaposition even more apparent and visual. The green is simply another way of establishing a connection between the two shots.

3: Feedback:

I collected various audience feedback from in person screenings in class, uploading my film to social media and sending to tutors for comments.

I found my False Scare edit was very much enjoyed by audiences, however one prominent query was to switch a part of the narrative around. In my false scare, we see an evidently human shadow become a plain shadow as our protagonist looks out of a door, and doesn’t spot anyone. I was told this may be more effective if the protagonist were to first look at a plain shadow, leave and then this shadow morphs into a human. As a result of this feedback I created an alternate edit by copying the sequence into another draft, and upon receiving further feedback, this edit was seen to be more effective.

Everything else in my edit seemed to be clear, but switching this particular part of the narrative around seemed to be a more effective technique.

Audiences have told me the jump scare, creepy child’s voice, colour and motivational/practical lighting all work well in particular. At the beginning, timing was a slight issue, my edits pacing was slower than it should have been, but I have fixed that in the latest draft.

I have noticed my areas for development in particular surround organisation. I believe it will benefit me greatly if I introduce new systems into my editing workflow to make editing more efficient than it is now. Systems such as note taking, colour coding, commenting, marking footage etc, should all be common practice for every edit I do in future.

Next time around, I’ll be sure to utilise a clap board. I didn’t use one for the False Scare as I wouldn’t need to sync up audio however it made for a much trickier process sorting through footage than I found for the Coverage shoot. I will also ensure I play footage back in camera to ensure audio and video is good before proceeding with the shoot.

The most surprising aspect of editing for me has been the options you have. I have almost completely rewritten the False Scare multiple times in my edit and none of those choices were made when shooting. It has surprised me that I could make a completely different story from everything I had already.

 Thank you for reading!