Term: Editing

Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and arrangement of shots and scenes. Editing can condense space and time, emphasize separate elements and bring them together, and organize material in such a way that patterns of meaning become apparent. In addition, editing can determine how a film is perceived: for instance, quick, rapid cuts can create a feeling of tension, while a long take can create a more dramatic effect.

The first photoplays generally had no cutting, owing to the fact that they were single-reel films; once filming began, you could not stop until the film ran out.

Parallel Action and Montage

Some of the earliest forays into basic editing occurs in the work of Edwin Porter, in particular, The Life of the American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). Both of these films make some use of cross-cutting between parallel actions or single actions. The director most often credited with making significant use of the basic concepts of film editing was D. W. Griffith.

In the 1920s, the Soviets, who looked to Griffith as a model, went even further with editing, seeing the single shot as part of a greater whole. The Battleship Potemkin (1925), directed by Sergei Eisenstein, is an example of the theory and practice of montage.

Alfred Hitchcock often used montage in his work to create dramatic effect. In this sequence from Sabotage (1936), we see how Hitchcock creates suspense through montage.

Continuity Editing

The style of editing that would become pervasive in Hollywood during the 1930s and ‘40s is known as invisible cutting, or continuity editing. With continuity editing, the narrative is dominant and the audience is not meant to be aware of the changing shots.

Carol Reed’s The Third Man offers an excellent example of continuity editing, and specifically of eye-line match.

Post-War Development

Since the Second World War, individual movements and new technical innovations have led to new changes in editing styles–for instance, the use of long takes in the films of the Italian Neorealists. With the rise of modernist filmmakers such of those of the French New Wave, editing–among other techniques–was no longer meant to be invisible to the audience. Here, in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1959), is an example of the jump cut, a technique that is meant to call attention to the process of filmmaking.

Beginning in the 1970s, many directors in Hollywood, such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Hal Ashby, started experimenting with dynamic editing that would be formally innovative and create continuity.

Today, there are many examples of the creation of dramatic effect through the use of different editing techniques, from music videos to sports television.

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