Continuity Editing

What is Continuity editing?

We have now learnt that the frame is a the predominant organizational feature. Also that the shot is a basic unit of information that when proceeded by a different shot, it creates a meaning. This is called editing.

Editing

It is when one shot replaces another. It gets good when the shots relate to each other in a sequence. Borges says, "Continuity [in film] is a series of discontinuous images (fractal / partial.)

It all seems relatively simple, but it can be extraordinarily complex and abstract (as I was to find out.)

The frame organizes material in every shot. Continuity editing is needed to create flow and sense of the film.

"Rope" by Alfred Hitchcock (link at the bottom of the page) suggests that there was no edit at all in the film. There were about seven but done so cleverly that they are almost invisible. Boiling it down though, the reason there are some edits in the film is that there was not a large enough reel of celluloid that could last the length of film. This style of filming is very rare though.

Like a musical melody or language, that which has form and flow, Continuity Editing is just as imbedded into our psyche at the age when we cannot even talk. We learn language these days a lot from the television.  Television is not only made out of language and ideas, it also has Continuity Editing holding the foundation.

This style of editing can be good or bad though. When it is good it effaces the transition from one shot to the next. If there wasn't a flow the audience would feel distant, alienated and confused.

Ever since we were children we could make connections between shots because of this editing style, for example, imagine one shot of a torso, then another after of someone's arm. We would make the connection between the two and come to the conclusion that they belong to the same person. Of course this is just a convention, a strategy for editing, it is easily broken.

A couple of sub categories in Continuity Editing are

1. Cross Cutting
2. Analytical Editing

Cross Cutting - Is the cutting back and forth between actions. It occurs at the same time. D.W. Griffith was a pioneer in this form of editing. Cross Cutting is no immutable rule though, it is still a flexible strategy. 

Analytical Editing - This is a series of Continuity Editing transitions that follow rules and conventions. It is widely used all over the place and I bet you'll see it everywhere after i've explained what it is. However, it does not have to be simple. Some directors have perfected this form of editing to make seamless perfections in this form of editing.

First, there is an establishing shot to show the audience where they are and what time they are in. From here we go to Medium Close Ups (MCUs) of our characters greeting or just having conversations. The we proceed to Close Ups (CUs.) After we reverse. This follows dramatic logic. The most ridiculous example of milking this form of editing is Star Wars Episode 3. Not only does this film use this editing to death but it also milks it with a unique transition between space and time. A classic example is L.A. Confidential where it is done to complete perfection.

Motivation

Saying this is all fine, but the cuts need motivation. An example is a conversion, a question then an answer. You would see a character ask a question and then  cut would occur to give you the answer.

Another motivation is to contract information. Imagine a character going on a plain journey. Would you want to watch him/her/it go through customs and queue up for everything? Of course not, unless that was what the film was all about. Editing comes to the rescue to contract the information.

Editing Perfections

Match on action: the action is carried out to the next shot. The 2nd shot is always slightly advanced in time allowing the action to flow and narrative to keep constant. Better still, to say that the action is a 24th of a second in front of the last shot (PAL.)

Jump Cuts: This is when time is skipped and the action carries on. A good example is "About A Boy." Hugh Grant closes up the car, we jump cut to all the vital bits so instead of being a long experience, it actually just a couple of seconds long and about 4 cuts. This keeps the flow of the film still. French New Wave film makers were pioneers in this editing style in the 70s and also Hong Kong action films have a lot of jump cuts.

Invisible Editing: Also known as Shot Reverse Shot. It came around in the 1920s as an easy and invisible way of editing a conversation between characters. It is action, then reaction. It saves time and money. A classic film that obeys this convention is "Casablanca." Throughout this film, we keep on cutting to the characters who have the most important lines or facial expressions.

Offscreen Space: Is anything offscreen. Directors always use the offscreen space as a good source for sound. Does a tree make a sound if nobody is there? Of course dammit, you must think down to earth. Everything outside the frame is still there, in horror films especially.

Diegesis: This is where the movie exists, diegetically. It means inside the screen.

The Long Take: This was developed by the incredible showman / magician Orson Wells. A man who made "Citizen Kane" and "A Touch of Evil." both of these films have Long Takes in them. This is a technique that Robert Altman uses in his film "The Player." There is a very long sequence where there are no cuts at the beginning. This is an alternative to your usual shot reverse shot.

Separation Shot: Where one person is in the shot. If it between two people having a conversation, the other person can speak off screen.

Tomb Raider:

Beginning sequence. How does this film articulate action?

Everything about is slightly advanced. Match on action cuts happen all over the place. As the action increases the cuts become faster and faster. it is all based around the convention of Continuity Editing (which I'm sure you're getting sick of now.) There is always slight movement followed by the second shot that finishes the action that is stated in the previous shot (this is called match on action btw.)

Eye Line Match - First shot - Eyes look at something --- Second shot - The thing we've just been told to look at. We obviously make the connection. What's cool though is that we do not need to have a first person point of view to know what we're looking at. This happens most of the time, however, there are examples of where this fails. One is in "The Deer Hunter" where we see Robert DeNiro look at someone, we just don't know who he's looking at until we get a confusing close up of two women one after the other.

Nosferatu 

In a scene where our heroin Nina makes a psychological connection to Orlok as he prepares to devour Hutter.

We see Nina cry out to stage left for Hutter (I think.) Orlok looks back. It seems as if they are communicating but they are hundreds of miles away. We, the audience, seem to understand that the two have a connection though even though they communicate across miles of land.

Graphic Match - What graphics is really; line, shape, colour, graphics, space, style, figures, etc. There are obviously examples from literature, one being from "Wuthering Heights." but we now look to "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock.

Psycho

The beginning titles were designed by Soul Bass (the legend in graphic design.) the main them is horizontal and vertical lines that are evenly spaced and also circles. The shower scene contains many horizontals, verticals and of course circles that is, the plug hole, the shower head and the eye. It also contains a lot of diagonals. You can see these from the shower head and the wall behind. As the killer attacks with a knife diagonally, you could say that we could possibly predict that our lady in the shower is going to get stabbed. The diagonals are anti-graphic matches, they predict things, like a palm reader only real. A really good graphical match in this scene though is the whirling plug hole to the whirling eye. Both are spherical and whirling. A totally amazing graphic match and a match on action shot. Hmm, combinations work too.

That's all for today, see you next time

http://66stage.com/moviesplay.php?url=1333994 : Rope URL

http://tv-links.co.uk/video/4/7538/12200/74244/104216  :   Tomb Raider URL