The principles of editing

When editing films there are a number of principles that are important and are taken into consideration that really shows the best of what bits have been edited. These principles are basically rules that film editors cannot break as much as possible for editing to work and look good. But if an editor was to break these rules they would have to do it very well for that to work also.

Continuity Editing
Continuity editing is when the editor uses a sequence of shots to make it look like a progession of events. This type of editing is used alot in films and also in television, as it makes the story alot more easier to understand. It also has to be done as if you cannot see the editing. This type of editing was usually used in Hollywood but is now used universally. It is a very smooth style of narrating.


The 180 degree rule

The 180 degree rule is an easy and basic rule as it is when two characters in the film or elements in one scene should always be on the same left or right side to each other. Then if the camera goes across the imaginary axis where the two characters are placed then it would look as if they have flipped round and swapped sides. This could confuse the audience if this rule was broken as it moves the position of them so by stopping this the camera does not cross this line. On the other hand, this rule can be broken if there was a meaning behind it. For example, 

The eye-line match techinque

Another technique used is the eye-line match technique. This is used while continuity editing is being used. In the shot would be a character that is looking away from the camera and off screen. Then in the shot after that it will show us what the character had been looking at in the first shot. Eye-line match is used usually to make cuts less noticable. So this means when the audience are excepting the cut to happen it will be smoother. For example, this video will show us this technique.

Cross-cutting technique

Cross-cutting is where the camera will cut away from one action to another action by doing this it suggest to the audience that both of the actions being shown are happening at the same time. This technique is used to build suspense and as the scenes cut shot to shot the viewer will compare them and gain a set of expectations in which will be fulfilled in the end.

Fade Out
This is when the image on screen fades out to black.

Fade In
This is when the screen fades from black to an image.Fade in and fade out can be used in a number of ways to help add effect to a film it can be used to suggest an amount of time passing and also as a bit of a break for the audience to maybe allow them to adjust for the next scene. Another common way of using this is at the end of a film were it will slowly fade out leaving it more dramatic and a slow transition to the end credits.

Dissolves

Dissolve is where the image will slowly disappear or dissolve so to speak as the other image gradually comes into shot this is generally used to show the end of a shot or the begging of the next scene there is a example below:

Wipes

Wipes is where the screen quite literally wipes over the rest of the screen.  In most films they would never dream of using wipes as it can be seen as looking quite comic-bookish in which would not fit in with a lot of films and television. Star wars uses this effect very well as it fits in with the basic concept star wars came from of comic books I also find it is very effective and helps give the films something different to others.