(33) Editing Planning

How Might Editing Be Used Effectively in Your Short Film?
The importance of editing goes without saying, after all, editing is what brings everything together; it's how the film itself is constructed. However, editing isn't just about putting the shots into a correct sequence, it's about how the shots are placed into sequence. Editing can help to confer meaning onto the audience to help them understand something about the mood/aesthetic or narrative. This can be through pace or rhythm, transitional techniques and so on. Good editing can transform a video from a basic string of sequences into something polished that effectively tells a story through subtlety.

Here is a video explaining how editing can effectively be used as a storytelling technique:

I will value simplicity during the making of my film and this will also apply to the editing stage. This means I will opt out of using any elaborate editing techniques such as flamboyant transitions etc. However, this won't mean that I will neglect editing, I will spend a lot of time carefully editing my project in order to get the most out of it.

Editing Techniques
Learning and understanding some of the effects and techniques used by editors will be important ensuring I get the most out of editing stage. I have researched some of the techniques and compiled definitions for them too:

• Continuity Editing: Visual editing where shots are cut together in a clear and linear flow of uninterrupted action. This type of cutting seeks to maintain a continuous sense of time and space. Here is an example. 
• Cross-Cutting: Technique used to give the illusion that two story lines of action are happening at the same time by rapidly cutting back and forth between them. An example of this is in Inception.
• Cutaway: The interruption of a continuously filmed action with a shot that’s peripherally related to the principal action. 
• Dissolve: When the end of one shot overlaps the start of the next one to create a gradual scene transition - can be used to create a fade in/out.
• Eye-line Match: A technique based on the idea that viewers want to see what on-screen characters are seeing. For example, if a character is looking intently at an off-screen object, the following shot will be of that object.
• Iris: A wipe that takes the shape of a shrinking or growing circle, depending on if the scene is opening or ending. Rarely used today but very common during the silent era, examples of modern use include 'La La Land' or 'Babe'. 
• J-Cut: When the sound of a scene can be heard before cutting to the scene.
• L-Cut: The opposite to a J-Cut, where the audio from one scene continues over onto the next. 
• Jump-cut: An abrupt cut that creates a lack of continuity between shots by leaving out parts of the action.
• Match Cut: A cut from one shot to another where the two shots are matched by the action or subject and subject matter. A very famous example is from '2001: A Space Odyssey'. 
• Montage: A sequence of shots assembled in juxtaposition of one another to create an emotional impact, condense a story,  or convey an idea.
• Shot-Reverse-Shot: The alternating of over-the-shoulder-shots, usually used during a conversation between two characters.
• Wipe: The transition from one shot to another with a visible pattern or element. No longer used in today’s films but very common in early cinema. Modern examples of films that prominently use this technique include the 'Star Wars' franchise.
• Kuleshov Effect: The ability to alter a viewer's perception of what is going on by using different reaction shots. It is the phenomenon in which editing can apply meaning to a film as opposed to just ordering them into a sequence. Here is an example.

Editing in my Script

I have annotated my script using the effects listed above and where and how I'll utilise them. 

Key:

Pink Highlighter: Transitional Techniques/Cuts

Yellow Highlighter: Takes/Pacing

Green Highlighter: Scene changes

Editing and Narrative 

Narrative is often described as the framework for a story: how a story is told. While it is often confused with plot and story, there is a difference. Here is what the three are distinguished by:

• Story: A ‘story’ is, in simplest terms, a sequence of events. So when thinking of a story it is A then B then C then D, the set of relevant events in chronological order.
• Plot: Plot describes a set of events and how they relate to one another in terms of causation - specific moments in the story. According to Freytag, plot breaks down a story into events dealing with exposition, the rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
• Narrative: Narrative is how the story is told. Narrative is the ordering of events into a consumable format.

Narrative is the method and means by which you construct the events of a story into a plot. It concerns itself with the sequence of the events, the medium on which they are told and the way these events are put together into one coherent unit. 

Narratives may involve a reordering of the events of a story. The story’s events can be set out of chronological order; be combined with elements from outside of the story to better tell the consumer what is going on; or to build dramatic effect. Sometimes a narrative may draw attention to things or events the story lacks, because the contrast is interesting. It combines techniques into the story, such as the narrative voice (who's perspective the story is from) or narrative structure.

Here is a video explaining what narrative is:

Non-Linear Narrative

Linear narratives are the most common form of narrative - these involve events being portrayed in chronological order and follow the direct logic of causality. 

Linear Narrative

Non-linear narratives portray events in non-chronological order. Flashback sequences are often confused with a form of nonlinear narratives, however flashbacks are in fact a form of linear narrative, this is because they almost always jump back to the present and tell the story in chronological order from there. An example of nonlinear narrative can be seen in the film Momento, in which the order of events is not only broken up, but entirely reversed.

Narrative Point-of-View
The narrative point-of-view is the perspective from which the story is told. While in literature this may often refer to 1st or 3rd person, in film, it is which character, if any, the film is focalised through. By choosing to place the audience in the perspective of a particular character, the story in the film can be warped and manipulated by that character's perspective to, in turn, manipulate the audience's reading of a film. Using focalisation is a common technique used to humanise characters who would often be seen as morally wrong, however, as we see the film through predominantly their eyes, the audience learns to like and support them and their own narratives. A perfect example of this is the film, 'In Bruges', in which the protagonist has a generally dislikeable character: he's rude, offensive and killed a small child. However, because the audience are told his story, they follow him throughout the film, they learn to love and support him as a character, despite his severe flaws.

Narrative In Terms of Your Film?
I have opted for a linear narrative so that everything is told in order. The reason for this is that the concept behind causality which links heavily with chronology is extremely important in my film in order for the events to have a significant impact on the viewer. If the chronology is messed with, it will null the impact because the audience won't see it as a logical chain of events in which cause and effect can be seen, which is important for my message. Furthermore, as a complicated short film in itself, using a non-linear narrative structure will further complicate the film. This will confuse the audience and distract them with fancy narrative styles. The narrative point of view will be through Egon, as the viewers subtly see the world through mainly his eyes.