Editing Techniques

Seamless Editing: Seamless editing is a technique that is used to make the footage have a natural flow without any jumps in the scenes. The cut where this happens is normally hidden in an action scene.
Pro-An advantage of seamless editing, is that the narrative of the footage usually has structure. Which allows the audience to follow more clearly.
Con- A disadvantage of seamless editing is that the process of doing it, can be time consuming.

Continuity Editing: Continuity editing is when shots are arranged in a sequence to show progression of events. These shots can be filmed in any order, but when it comes to be put together, they also can be put in different orders to make different events happen. An example of this is from the scene from The Hangover. Several shots are used throughout, which lead the audience to believe something is going to happen. The use of different shots are showing the progression in scene, as it is leading up to something, due to the quick cuts. This technique is effective as the audience can understand the progression of events, making them feel as if they are in control.

Pro- An advantage of continuity editing is that it can be viewed easily by the audience, because they understand it easily.

Con- A disadvantage of continuity editing is that this skill, can be difficult to produce without the required skills, or technology.

Motivated Editing: Motivated editing is cutting from one scene to another, or cutting from one character to another. Each cut motivates the audience’s emotions and causes, them to have a reaction. The audience is guided by the editor to believe something is happening. A film example of this is 'Silence of the Lambs'. This is a good example of motivated editing, as in this scene shown below, there is two different things happening at the same time. There is the police going to a house, ready to raid the house and then another scene showing the man with his animals in his own house. This example is showing two different scenes, however the audience is lead to believe that they make some link, even though they don't.
Pro- A pro of motivated editing is that intensifies the emotions of the audience.

Con- A con of motivated editing is that it puts too much emphasis on the object of interest.

Montage Editing: Montage editing is film editing in which a series of short shots which are edited, into a sequence to condense space, time and information. Most trailers use this editing technique. An example of this would be the training scene from Rocky. This is because the example is showing Rocky training but in several different scenes and locations. Each of the shots used are quick cuts to him in another location training, this is why this is an example of montage editing. This is effective as it's getting rid of extra time in the movie, and it makes the viewer feel like there watching something quicker.

Pro- A pro of montage editing is that overall it reduces filming time.

Con- A con of montage editing is that some viewers may want to know what happens in-between, the shots they have missed.

From 1 minute 16 seconds.

Jump Cut Editing: This is a cut in a film which jumps from scene to scene, to change time. There is also Spatial editing which is the same thing, but you are changing location. An example of this is 'UP'. UP is an example of this, because it is showing a progression of the two characters growing up together. It starts off where they are children, to teenagers, to young adults, to where they are elderly. Within this progression they are changing locations, such as from the park to their house, which is showing the jump of time. This is effective as it makes the audience feel like they are knowing the background story of the characters, but doing it in a fast way.
Pro- An advantage of using jump cut editing is that it can reduce the amount of time filming, because you’re jumping the scenes.

Con- Whereas a disadvantage of jump cut editing is that it can be, confusing for the audience as the footage is jumping scenes.

Parallel editing: Is also known as cross cutting. This is a technique where two more scenes happen at the same time in different locations. An example of parallel editing is from the film 'Sniper'. The example is showing parallel editing as there are two scenes which are happening at the same time. In one scene there is a group of army men walking along in a street, and in another scene there is two men who are getting ready to shoot a child and a mother. The effect that this has on the audience, is that they believe there is some link between the two scenes, building excitement.
Pro- An advantage of parallel editing is that it can add excitement to the film and scenes.

Con- A con of parallel editing is that it can lead the audience, to be confused by what is happening.

180 Degree Rule Editing: The 180 degree rule is when you have two or more characters, who are usually
having a conversation. Whilst they are having a conversation there is an imaginary line between the camera
and subject, the camera cannot cross the axis of the line as this would be breaking the 180 degree angle. An
example of this would be the bathroom scene from 'The shining'.
Pro- An advantage of using 180 degree rule is that it can be used to make a startling effect on the audience.

Con- Whereas a disadvantage of the 180 degree rule is that it can be very easy to cross or break the line,
which can make it confusing for the audience.

Splicing Editing: This is where you are manually cutting and removing portions of a length of film,

to remove a specific frame or scene or attaching different bits together to make a single row.
Pro- An advantage of using the splicing method, is that anyone can do it.

Con- An disadvantage of this method, is that it's easy to make mistakes also.