Film editing

The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences which create a finished motion picture.

The shots are analyzed in terms of their graphic configurations, including light and dark, lines and shapes, volumes and depths, movement and stasis.

These include maintaining overall brightness consistency, keeping important elements in the center of the frame, playing with color differences, and creating visual matches or continuities between shots.

It allows filmmakers to control the order, duration, and frequency of events, thus shaping the narrative and influencing the audience's perception of time.

The main point is that editing gives filmmakers the power to control and manipulate the temporal aspects of storytelling in film.

Between graphic, rhythmic, spatial, and temporal relationships between two shots, an editor has various ways to add a creative element to the film, and enhance the overall viewing experience.

[citation needed] The importance of an editor has become increasingly pivotal to the quality and success of a film due to the multiple roles that have been added to their job.

1' of 1896 was the first camera to feature reverse-cranking, which allowed the same film footage to be exposed several times and thereby to create super-positions and multiple exposures.

These two filmmakers of the Brighton School also pioneered the editing of the film; they tinted their work with color and used trick photography to enhance the narrative.

His film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations.

These early film directors discovered important aspects of motion picture language: that the screen image does not need to show a complete person from head to toe and that splicing together two shots creates in the viewer's mind a contextual relationship.

But when the robbers leave the telegraph station interior (set) and emerge at the water tower, the audience believes they went immediately from one to the other.

When he showed the film to people they praised the actor's acting—the hunger in his face when he saw the soup, the delight in the child, and the grief when looking at the dead woman.

Editors were very precise; if they made a wrong cut or needed a fresh positive print, it cost the production money and time for the lab to reprint the footage.

Sometimes, prior to cutting, the editor and director will have seen and discussed "dailies" (raw footage shot each day) as shooting progresses.

Because of this time working closely and collaborating – a period that is normally far longer and more intricately detailed than the entire preceding film production – many directors and editors form a unique artistic bond.

Mise en scene is the term used to describe all of the lighting, music, placement, costume design, and other elements of a shot.

Griffith's work in the teens was highly regarded by Lev Kuleshov and other Soviet filmmakers and greatly influenced their understanding of editing.

He consistently maintained that the mind functions dialectically, in the Hegelian sense, that the contradiction between opposing ideas (thesis versus antithesis) is resolved by a higher truth, synthesis.

For example, he saw montage as a guiding principle in the construction of "Japanese hieroglyphics in which two independent ideographic characters ('shots') are juxtaposed and explode into a concept.

It relied on consistent graphic qualities, balanced composition, and controlled editing rhythms to ensure narrative continuity and engage the audience.

The technique of continuity editing, part of the classical Hollywood style, was developed by early European and American directors, in particular, D.W. Griffith in his films such as The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.

It also maintains consistent eye-lines and screen direction to avoid disorientation and confusion for the audience, allowing for clear spatial delineation and a smooth narrative experience.

Experimental filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Bruce Conner have used purely graphic elements to join shots, emphasizing light, texture, and shape rather than narrative coherence.

The French New Wave filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut and their American counterparts such as Andy Warhol and John Cassavetes also pushed the limits of editing technique during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s.

Like its Dada and surrealist predecessors, French New Wave editing often drew attention to itself by its lack of continuity, its demystifying 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.

Editors possess a unique creative power to manipulate and arrange shots, allowing them to craft a cinematic experience that engages, entertains, and emotionally connects with the audience.

They ensure that everything is properly labeled, logged, and stored in an organized manner, making it easier for the editor to access and work with the materials efficiently.

They often work closely with the director, editor, visual effects artists, sound designers, and other post-production professionals, relaying information, managing deliverables, and coordinating schedules.

They create lists and instructions that tell the picture and sound finishers how to put the edit back together with the high-quality original elements.