Editing in Short Films

There are many different types of editing styles used in short films...

Editing establishes the structure and content of the production, along with the production's overall mood, intensity, and tempo.

The first example of editing is Continuity editing refers to arranging the sequence of shots to suggest a progression of events.

 

Another type of editing is Continuity, which puts scenes and actions in chronological order as they happen. An example of this is Super Fast Samosa. This follows the samosa's journey and tells a story in order.

 

 

 

 

Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions but this is not always the case.
An example of this is Jurassic Park's Opening Scene "Shoot her!"  which uses cross-cutting between the action and the expressions of the men trying to put the dinosaur into the park.

 

 

 

Edward Dmytryk stipulates seven "rules of cutting" that a good editor should follow:

• "Rule 1: Never make a cut without a positive reason."
• "Rule 2: When undecided about the exact frame to cut on, cut long rather than short."
• "Rule 3: Whenever possible cut 'in movement'."
• "Rule 4: The 'fresh' is preferable to the 'stale'."
• "Rule 5: All scenes should begin and end with continuing action."
• "Rule 6: Cut for proper values rather than proper 'matches'."
• "Rule 7: Substance first—then form."

According to Walter Murch, when it comes to film editing, there are six main criteria for evaluating a cut or deciding where to cut. They are (in order of importance, most important first, with notional percentage values.):

• Emotion (51%) — Does the cut reflect what the editor believes the audience should be feeling at that moment?
• Story (23%) — Does the cut advance the story?
• Rhythm (10%) — Does the cut occur "at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and 'right'" (Murch, 18)?
• Eye-trace (7%) — Does the cut pay respect to "the location and movement of the audience's focus of interest within the frame" (Murch, 18)?
• Two-dimensional plane of the screen (5%) — Does the cut respect the 180 degree rule?
• Three-dimensional space of action (4%) — Is the cut true to the physical/spatial relationships within the diegesis?