Development and Principles of Editing
pRINCIPLES OF EDITING
Simultaneity: This is where there are two scenes, which are in two different locations, and the camera will cut from one action to another, which is a way of building suspense. Pudovkin developed this from parallel editing, the difference is in parallel editing the cuts have to be from the same. Whereas simultaneity can be from different times eg. Past and Present. You can use Simultaneity editing in a music video, when you have two ideas that run at the same time, which then switch between these two ideas throughout the music video. An example of this is from the ‘Empire’. This is an example of Simultaneity, as the scene is cutting from two points of time, as it is a flashback of Jamal’s childhood. This technique is effective, as you can have several ideas run at the same time, without it getting confusing for the audience.
Pro- An advantage of using this technique is that it is developing tension. This is because the audience is seeing two different scenes in one part of the episode, or film which can cause the audience to feel tension or excitement, depending on what they are watching.
Con- However a disadvantage is that the audience can feel confused. This is because they are watching two different scenes, which have happened during or in the character life or the film in general. It can be hard for the audience to understand, especially if the scene includes the past and the present.
Leit Motif: A leitmotif is a "short, constantly recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, action or idea. This is usually used to create suspense for the audience, this was first made by Kuleshov who used small short clips to create suspense. Whereas Pudovkin developed this idea and used music to create this effect. Leitmotifs are manipulated to match the action and mood of a scene, this can be done by: changing the rhythm, changing the instrumentation or adding new material. For example Jaws is a Leitmotif because when the shark is coming towards the boat, his music comes in and it is changing the rhythm. Another example of Leitmotif is used in EastEnders when something bad has happened, and the train is used to add that extra tension. This is shown in this scene of EastEnders, as something has happened, so the producers has included the music to add a dramatic effect.
Pro- The audience can associate different characters or place with a piece of music, which means they can judge or expect when something is going to happen.
Con- The music can draw away the audience's attention from the actual dramatic scene.
Contrast Editing: This is where the viewer or audience is forced to compare two opposing scenes. This is because they are watching two scenes that are continuously cut between, but the two scenes have some sort of contrast between them. For example if the audience was watching a film of a rich king in his palace being happy, and then cut to a sad homeless man on the street, this would be contrast editing. This technique was originally made by Kuleshov as he used short clips to achieve this, whereas Pudovkin developed this further by using whole scenes to create this technique. An example of this is from 'The Godfather (1972) when his daughter is being baptized. (From one minute) This is contrast editing as they are in a church being innocent and respective, and then on the flip side, a hit is beginning. The effect that this has on the audience, is that they have the ability and control to see the difference between people and locations.
Pro- An advantage of using contrast editing is that you can have two different scenes, but it allows the audience to notice and compare the differences of each scene.
Con- A disadvantage of this technique is that the scenes message that it's trying to portray, may not be coming across clearly for the audience to understand.
Parallelism: Parallelism is when there are two or more scenes, which are very similar to each other but mean something because they are different. The two scenes will have a slight resemblance between them, an example would be a character's daily routine. An example of this would be 'Shaun Of The Dead.' In this scene this is part of Shaun's daily routine, so this has happened twice in the movie, but each time has had something different with it, making it parallelism.
Pro- By using parallelism you can create a suspense for the audience, and over exceed their expectations by cutting from different scenes.
Cons- By using parallelism you are switching from different scenes, so this can confuse the audience, as they may not understand what scene they are watching.
Symbolism: Symbolism is when you are moving from a scene to something else, which can create symbolic connection for the audience. This is done by cutting from different shots, camera angles and shot types. Pudovkin suggested that by cutting between shots of striking workers being shot by police and scenes of cows being slaughtered, this will cause the audience to associate the slaughter of the cows with the death of the workers. Another example of Symbolism would be the music video 'Roar' by Katy Perry. This is shown through the tiger, and him roaring through the music video.
Pro-An object or symbol can now have a deeper meaning, due to symbolism.
Con- The audience may not understand what someone is trying to portray, if they are trying to use symbolism.