17
Shooting for editing
Invisible stitching
The nineteenth-century painter Whistler suggested that a work of art can be said to be finished when all traces of its construction are eliminated. Film and television productions are often much more of a craft than an art but editing is one skill where this observation seems most apt.
The skills and craft employed by the film/video editor to stitch together a sequence of separate shots persuades the audience that they are watching a continuous event. They are unaware of the hundreds of subtle decisions that have been made during the course of the production. The action flows from shot to shot and appears natural and obvious. The editing skills and techniques that have achieved this are rendered invisible to the audience, and therefore the unenlightened may ask, ‘but what has the editor done? What is the editor's contribution to the production?’.
This invisible visual manipulation can only be achieved by the director/cameraman providing the appropriate shots for the production. An essential requirement for the editing process is a supply of appropriate visual and audio material. The cameraman, director or journalist need to shoot with editing in mind Unless the necessary shots are available for an item, an editor cannot cut a cohesive and structured story. A random collection of shots is not a story, and although an editor may be able to salvage a usable item from a series of ‘snapshots’, essentially editing is exactly like the well known computer equation which states that ‘garbage in equals garbage out’.
It is part of broadcasting folklore that the best place to start to learn about camerawork is in the edit booth. Here, the shots that have been provided by the cameraman have to be previewed, selected and then knitted together by the editor into a coherent structure to explain the story and fit the designated running time of the item in the programme. Clear storytelling, running time and structure are the key points of editing and a cameraman who simply provides an endless number of unrelated shots will pose problems for the editor. A cameraman returning from a difficult news/magazine shoot may have a different version of the edit process. A vital shot may be missing, but then the editor was not there to see the difficulties encountered by the news cameraman. And how about all the wonderful material that was at the end of the second cassette that was never used? With one hour to transmission there was no time to view or to cut it, claims the editor.
In some areas of news and magazine coverage this perennial exchange is being eliminated by the gradual introduction of portable field editing. It is no longer a case of handing over material for someone else ‘to sort out’. Now the cameraman is the editor or the editor is the cameraman. This focuses under ‘one hat’ the priorities of camerawork and the priorities of editing. The cameraman can keep his favourite shot if he can convince himself, as the editor, that the shot is pertinent and works in the final cut.
Selection and structure
Editing is selecting and coordinating one shot with the next to construct a sequence of shots that form a coherent and logical narrative. There are a number of standard editing conventions and techniques that can be employed to achieve a flow of images that guide the viewer through a visual journey. A programme's aim may be to provide a set of factual arguments that allows the viewer to decide on the competing points of view; it may be dramatic entertainment utilizing editing technique to prompt the viewer to experience a series of highs and lows on the journey from conflict to resolution; or a news item's intention may be to accurately report an event for the audience's information or curiosity.
A crucial aspect of the composition of a shot is to consider how it will relate to the preceding and succeeding shots. If a production allows pre-planning, a camera script or storyboard will have been blocked out and the structure of each sequence and how shots are to be cut together will be roughly known or even precisely planned. Additional cover shots will be composed and devised with the original scripted shots in mind
In factual programming, however, the order of a particular sequence of shots may be unknown at the time of recording. The editor requires from the cameraman maximum flexibility with material supplied and the nucleus of a structure. A ‘ground plan’ of a potential sequence of shots is often mentally sketched out in order to assist in the edit. Edit-point requirements, such as change in angle and shot size, subject movement, camera movement and continuity, have to be considered and provided for to enable the footage to be assembled in a coherent stream of images. Shooting with editing in mind is therefore essential.
Basic editing conventions
A cameraman or director, when setting up a shot, should consider the basic editing conventions to be satisfied if the viewer is to remain unaware of shot transition. It would be visually distracting if the audience's attention was continually interrupted by every change of shot.
Figure 17.1
Moving images in film or television are created by the repetition of individual static frames. It is human perception that combines the separate images into a simulation of movement. One reason this succeeds is that the adjacent images in a shot are very similar. If the shot is changed and new information appears within the frame (e.g., what was an image of a face is now an aeroplane), the eye/brain takes a little time to understand the new image. The greater the visual discrepancy between the two shots the more likely it is that the viewer will consciously notice the change of shot.
A basic editing technique is to find ways of reducing the visual mismatch between two adjacent images. In general, a change of shot will be unobtrusive if:
the individual shots (when intercutting between people) are matched in size, have the same amount of headroom, have the same amount of looking space if in semi-profile, if the lens angle is similar (i.e., internal perspective is similar) and if the lens height is the same;
the intercut pictures are colour matched (e.g., skin tones, background brightness, etc.) and if in succeeding shots the same subject has a consistent colour (e.g., grass in a stadium);
there is continuity in action (e.g., body posture, attitude) and the flow of movement in the frame is carried over into the succeeding shot;
there is a significant change in shot size or camera angle when intercutting on the same subject or if there is a significant change in content;
there is continuity in lighting, in sound, props and setting, and continuity in performance or presentation.
The basis of all invisible technique employed in programme production and specifically in continuity editing is to ensure that:
shots are structured to allow the audience to understand the space, time and logic of the action so each shot follows the line of action to maintain consistent screen direction to make the geography of the action completely intelligible;
unobtrusive camera movement and shot change directs the audience to the content of the production rather than the mechanics of production;
continuity editing creates the illusion that distinct, separate shots (possibly recorded out of sequence and at different times), form part of a continuous event being witnessed by the audience.
Summary of perennial technique
These editing techniques form the basics of an invisible craft that has been developed over nearly 100 years of film and video productions. There is innovation and variation on these basic tenets, but the majority of television programme productions use these standard editing conventions to keep the viewer's attention on the content of the programme rather than its method of production. These standard conventions are a response to the need to provide a variety of ways of presenting visual information coupled with the need for them to be unobtrusive in their transition from shot to shot. Expertly used, they are invisible and yet provide the narrative with pace, excitement, and variety.
An alternative editing technique, such as, for example, used in music videos, uses hundreds of cuts, disrupted continuity, ambiguous imagery, etc., to deliberately visually tease the audience and to avoid clear visual communication. The aim is often to recreate the ‘rave’ experience of a club or concert. The production intention is to be interpretative rather than informative.
Selection and editing
The primary aim of editing is to provide the right structure and selection of shots to communicate to the audience the programme maker's motives for making the programme and, secondly, to hold their attention so that they listen and remain watching.
Editing, in a literal sense, is the activity of selecting from all the available material and choosing what is relevant. Film and video editing require the additional consideration that selected shots spliced together must meet the requirements of the standard conventions of continuity editing.
A clear idea of the aims of the piece that is being cut must be understood by the director or cameraman. Choosing what is relevant is the first set of decisions to be faced. Sometimes this is completely controlled by what it is possible to shoot. This is why a clear understanding of the function of a shot in a sequence must be understood and the appropriate composition supplied at the moment of recording.
In the golden age of the Hollywood studio production system, most studios did not allow their directors to supervise the editing. It is said that John Ford circumvented this restriction by simply making one take of each shot whenever possible, and making certain that there was very little overlap of action from shot to shot. This virtually forced the editor to cut the film as planned by the director. Alfred Hitchcock storyboarded each shot and rarely looked through the camera viewfinder. The film was already ‘cut’ in his head before the shooting started.
Providing the editor with only the bare essential footage may work with film craftsmen of the quality of Ford and Hitchcock, but in the everyday activity of news and magazine items it is simply not possible. News, by definition, is often an unplanned, impromptu shoot with a series of information shots that can only be structured and pulled together in the edit suite. Selecting what is relevant is therefore one of the first priorities when recording/filming.
Good editing technique structures the material and identifies the main ‘teaching’ points the audience should understand. A crucial role of the editor is to be audience ‘number one’. The editor will start fresh to the material and he/she must understand the story in order for the audience to understand the story. The editor needs to be objective and bring a dispassionate eye to the material. The director/cameraman/reporter may have been very close to the story for hours/days/weeks – the audience comes to it new and may not pick up the relevance of the setting or set-up if this is spelt out rapidly in the first opening sentence. It is surprising how often, with professional communicators, that what is obvious to them about the background detail of a story is unknown or its importance unappreciated by their potential audience. Beware of the ‘I think that is so obvious we needn't shoot it’ statement.
The edited package needs to hold the audience's attention by its method of presentation (e.g., method of storytelling – what happens next, camera technique, editing technique, etc.). Pace and brevity (e.g., no redundant footage) are often the key factors in raising the viewer's involvement in the item. Be aware that visuals can fight voice-over narration. Arresting images capture the attention first. The viewer would probably prefer to ‘see it’ rather than ‘hear it’. A successful visual demonstration is always more convincing than a verbal argument – as every successful salesman knows.
The strongest way of engaging the audience's attention is to tell them a story. In fact, because film and television images are displayed in a linear way, shot follows shot, it is almost impossible for the audience not to construct connections between succeeding images whatever the real or perceived relationships between them. Image follows image in an endless flow over time and inevitably the viewer will construct a story out of each succeeding piece of information.
Telling a story – fact and fiction
The editing techniques used for cutting fiction and factual material are almost the same. When switching on a television programme mid-way, it is sometimes impossible to assess from the editing alone if the programme is fact or fiction. Documentary makers use storytelling techniques learned by audiences from a lifetime of watching drama. Usually, the indicator of what genre the production falls into is gained from the participants. Even the most realistic acting appears stilted or stylized when placed alongside people talking in their own environment. Another visual convention is to allow ‘factual’ presenters to address the lens and the viewer directly, whereas actors and the ‘public’ are usually instructed not to look at camera.
The task of the director, journalist, cameraman and editor is to determine what the audience needs to know, and at what point in the ‘story’ they are told. This is the structure of the item or feature and usually takes the form of question and answer or cause and effect. Seeking answers to questions posed, for example, ‘what are the authorities going to do about traffic jams?’ or ‘what causes traffic jams?’, involves the viewer and draws them into the ‘story’ that is unfolding. Many items can still be cut following the classical structure of exposition, tension, climax and release.
The storytelling of factual items is probably better served by the presentation of detail rather than broad generalizations. Which details are chosen to explain a topic is crucial both in explanation and engagement. Many issues dealt with by factual programmes are often of an abstract nature, which at first thought have little or no obvious visual representation. Images to illustrate topics such as inflation can be difficult to find when searching for precise representations of the diminishing value of money. Newsreels of the 1920s showing Berliners going shopping pushing prams filled with bank notes, graphically demonstrated inflation, but this was a rare and extreme visual example. The camera must provide an image of something, and whatever it may be, that something will be invested by the viewer with significance. That significance may not match the main thrust of the item and may lead the viewer away from the topic. Significant detail requires careful observation at location and a clear idea of the shape of the item when it is being shot. The editor then has to find ways of cutting together a series of shots so the transitions are seamless and the images logically advance the story. Remember that the viewer will not necessarily have the same impression or meaning from an image that you have invested in it.
Because the story is told over time, there is a need for a central motif or thread that is easily followed and guides the viewer through the item. A report, for example, on traffic congestion may have a car driver on a journey through rush-hour traffic. Each point about the causes of traffic congestion can be illustrated and picked up as they occur such as out-of-town shoppers, the school run, commuters, traffic black spots, road layout, etc. The frustrations of the journey throughout the topic will naturally link the ‘teaching’ points, and the viewer can easily identify and speculate about the story's outcome.
Time
With the above example, as the story progresses over time, the attitude of the driver will probably change. He/she may display bad-temper, irritation with other road users, etc. There will be a difference over time and without time there is no story. Finding ways of registering change over time is one of the key activities of director, cameraman or editor. Shots that register the temperament of the driver by using small observational details reveal the story to the viewer. The main topic of the item is traffic congestion and its wear and tear on everyday life. It can be effectively revealed by focusing on one drive through a narrated journey rather than generalizations by a presenter standing alongside a traffic queue.
Real time and compressed time
The editor can shape and manipulate time by the editing methods we have discussed, but any action continuously shown within a shot will run its actual time. Apart from slightly speeding up or slowing down the replay of the image, there is no way to reorganize the actual time of an action shown in full. Slightly adjusting the speed of the replay machine can sometimes allow an over-long action to fit the required time slot, but the time adjusted must be small otherwise the wrong tempo of a shot will become obvious to the viewer. Another method of extending the length of a shot is to freeze the last frame of the shot. This technique again is dependent on shot content.
Structuring a sequence
The chosen structure of a section or sequence will usually have a beginning, a development and a conclusion. Editing patterns and the narrative context do not necessarily lay out the events of a story in simple chronological order. For example, there can be a ‘tease’ sequence, which seeks to engage the audience's attention with a question or a mystery. It may be some time into the material before the solution is revealed and the audience's curiosity is satisfied.
Whatever the shape of the structure, it usually contains one or more of the following methods of sequence construction.
A narrative sequence is a record of an event such as a child's first day at school, an Olympic athlete training in the early morning, etc. Narrative sequences tell a strong story and are used to engage the audience's interest.
A descriptive sequence simply sets the atmosphere or provides background information. For example, an item featuring the retirement of a watchmaker may have an introductory sequence of shots featuring the watches and clocks in his workshop before the participant is introduced or interviewed. Essentially, a descriptive sequence is a scene setter, an overture to the main point of the story, although sometimes it may be used as an interlude to break up the texture of the story, or act as a transitional visual bridge to a new topic.
An explanatory sequence is, as the name implies, a sequence that explains either the context of the story, facts about the participants or event, or explains an idea. As mentioned before, abstract concepts such as inflation, land erosion or a rise in unemployment usually need a verbal explanatory section backed by ‘visual wallpaper’ – images that are not specific or important in themselves, but are needed to accompany the important narration. Explanatory sequences are likely to lose the viewer's interest and need to be supported by narrative and description. Explanatory exposition is often essential when winding-up an item in order to draw conclusions or make explicit the relevance of the events depicted.
The shape of a sequence
The tempo and shape of a sequence, and of a number of sequences that may make up a longer item, will depend on how these methods of structuring are cut and arranged. Whether shooting news or documentaries, the transmitted item will be shaped by the editor to connect a sequence of shots either visually, by voice-over, atmosphere, music or by a combination of any of them. Essentially the cameraman or director must organize the shooting of separate shots with some structure in mind Any activity must be filmed to provide a sufficient variety of shots that are able to be cut together following standard editing conventions (e.g., avoidance of jump cuts, not crossing the line, etc.), and that there is enough variety of shot to allow some flexibility in editing. Just as no shot can be considered in isolation (what precedes, what follows, always have an effect), every sequence must be considered in context with the overall aims of the production.
The available material that arrives in the edit suite has to be structured to achieve the clearest exposition of the subject. Also the edited material has to be arranged to find ways of involving the viewer in order to hold their interest and attention. Structure is arranging the building blocks – the individual unconnected shots, into a stream of small visual messages that combine into a coherent whole. For example, a government report on traffic pollution is published which claims that chest ailments have increased, many work hours are lost though traffic delay and urges car owners to only use their vehicles for essential journeys.
A possible treatment for this kind of report would be to outline the main points as a voice-over or text graphic, interviews with health experts, motorist pressure-group spokesman, a piece to camera by the reporter and possibly comments from motorists. The cameraman would provide shots of traffic jams, close-ups of car exhausts, pedestrians, interviews, etc. The journalist would decide the order of the material while writing his/her voice-over script, whilst the editor would need to cut bridging sequences that could be used on the more ‘abstract’ statistics (e.g., increase in asthma in children, etc.). Essentially these montages help to hold the viewer's attention and provide visual interest on what would otherwise be a dry delivery of facts. A close-up of a baby's face in a pram followed by a cut to a shot of a lorry exhaust belching diesel fumes makes a strong, quick, visual point that requires no additional narrative to explain. The juxtaposition of shots, the context and how the viewer reads the connections is what structures the item, and allows the report to have impact. The production team in the field must provide appropriate material, but the editor can find new relationships and impose an order to fit the running time.
News – unscripted shot structure
There are a number of editing requirements that will have a bearing on the composition of a shot if a camera script has not been prepared (e.g., news and some documentaries). Most of the ‘magazine’ type item location work will not be scripted. There may be a rough treatment outlined by the presenter or a written brief on what the item should cover but an interview may open up new aspects of the story. Without pre-planning or a shot list, camera technique will often revert to tried and trusted formulas. Telling a story in pictures is as old as the first efforts in film making.
A standard convention in building up a sequence of shots is to move from the general to the particular. A wide general view (GV) to show relationships and show the individual elements in the scene. The closer shots of the individual subjects provide more information and involvement of the audience. The old Hollywood cliché of ‘it's the close-up that tells the story, it's the wide shot that sells the picture (show them where the money is)’ may have structured thousands of popular, conventional films but it does form the basis of an obvious truth. Unless the film maker wishes to deliberately deceive or confuse the audience, there is inevitably going to be a mixture of wide and close shots to explain, interpret and depict the narrative. The rhythm and arrangement of size of shot independent of content (which it never is) is a three-way creative arrangement between director, cameramen and editor. Creating the right framing, viewpoint, size of shot and visual style will often be the cameraman's contribution.
A close-up will give more information than the same subject in long shot. But the close-up is also a heavy accent – an emphasis that strongly draws the attention of the audience to a specific subject –either a face or even more strongly to an object. The emotional significance of a close shot of a pistol on a table is stronger than a throw-away shot of a car arriving in front of a house.
The narrative ‘weight’ of a shot is dependent on the size of the shot and also on the composition. Emphasis can be strengthened or lightened depending on the reason for the shot. Visual communication in this sense is similar to language where a shot can be loaded with strong colourful ‘adjectives’ underlining its significance or can be casually thrown away in neutral tones and left to the audience to judge its significance or make predictions and guess as to its role in the narrative.
The context of the shot will control the composition. The ‘weight’ of its impact has to be carefully considered and the detail and treatment tailored to its role in the production.
Figure 17.2 ‘Kuleshov and I made an interesting experiment. We took from some film or other several close-ups of the well-known Russian actor Mosjukbin. We chose close-ups which were static and which did not express any feeling at all – quiet close-ups. We joined these close-ups, which were all similar, with other bits of film in three different combinations. In the first combination the close-up of Mosjukbin was looking at the soup. In the second combination the face of Mosjukbin was joined in shots showing a coffin in which lay a dead woman. In the third the close-up was followed by a shot of a little girl playing with a funny toy bear. When we showed the three combinations to an audience which had not been let into the secret the result was terrific. The public raved about the acting of the artist. They pointed out the heavy pensiveness of his mood over the forgotten soup, were touched and moved by the deep sorrow which looked on the dead woman, and admired the light, happy smile with which he surveyed the girl at play. But we knew that in all three cases the face was exactly the same.’ Pudovkin (1939)
Note: Apparently this ‘test’ film has never been discovered and some film historians express doubt that it was ever actually shot, although the concept expressed has been subsequently replicated
Information and decorative shots
Most TV news/magazine location items will have a mixture of informative and decorative shots. It is part of the cameraman's craft to provide the editor/presenter with a variety of options but to keep the shooting ratio in proportion to the editing time available. Information shots are usually straightforward records of the incident or object. If it is technically competent, the information shot requires no more than variety in size and reasonable framing. Decorative shots require a knowledge of television technique and the ability to exploit video and lens characteristics.
Information shots are specific. They refer to a unique event – the wreckage of a car crash, someone scoring a goal, a political speech. They are often non-repeatable. The crashed car is towed away, the politician moves on. The topicality of an event means that the camera technique must be precise and reliable, responding to the event with quick reflexes. There is often no opportunity for retakes.
Decorative shots are non-specific. They are often shot simply to give visual padding to the story. A typical example is a shot of an interviewee walking in a location before an interview. This shot allows the dubbed voice-over to identify who the interviewee is and possibly their attitude to the subject. The duration of the shot needs to be sufficiently long to allow information that is not featured in the interview to be added as a voice-over. The interviewee leaves the frame at the end of the shot to provide a cutting point to the interview.
Solving continuity problems is one reason why the location production unit need to provide additional material to help in the edit. It is a developed professional skill to find the happy medium between too much material that cannot be previewed in the editing time available, and too little material that gives the edit no flexibility if structure, running time or story development changes between shooting and editing the material.
News values and objectivity
Hard news is by its nature seldom, if ever, pre-scripted, and therefore material is recorded without a written plan. The editor, sometimes with a journalist, needs to shape and structure the raw material supplied as a sequence of unconnected shots.
It is essential for the news unit to shoot with editing in mind A series of shots have to be meaningfully edited together and this relies on the cameraman anticipating edit points. As we have emphasized before, nothing is more time-consuming than an attempt to edit a pile of cassettes of ill-considered footage into some intelligent and intelligible form. To avoid this, the editor requires from the cameraman maximum flexibility with the material supplied, and the nucleus of a structure.
News reportage attempts to emphasize fact rather than opinion, but journalistic values cannot escape subjective judgements. What is newsworthy? What are news values? These questions are answered and shaped by the prevailing custom and practices of broadcasting organizations. Magazine items can use fact, feeling, atmosphere, argument, opinion, dramatic reconstruction and subjective impressions. These editing techniques differ very little from feature film storytelling. For a more detailed account of objective and subjective reporting see Chapter 11, ‘News and documentary’.
News values are usually related to the intended audience. People are more interested in news that affects either their lives, emotions or income. They give a higher priority to news that is local, immediate (i.e., it is ‘new’ to them), has dramatic content (crime, rescues, real-life crisis), involves well-known personalities and is entertaining or humorous.
Even news editing tries to avoid reminding the audience that they are watching an edited version. For example, a typical news item where a politician steps off a plane is followed by a cutaway shot of cameramen, followed by the politician in the airport being interviewed. The news item ostensibly deals with fact, while the technique is derived from film fiction. Screen time and space has been manipulated and the technique employed is invisible to the audience. Whenever selection of material is exercised, objectivity is compromised. In news coverage a number of choices have to be made in subject, choice of location, choice of camera treatment, and selection and arrangement of shots in editing.
It is a news cameraman's complaint that when the editor is up against a transmission deadline, he/she will only quickly preview the first part of any cassette, often missing the better shots towards the end of the tape. The cameraman can help the editor, wherever possible, by putting interviews on one tape and cutaways and supporting material on another cassette. This allows the editor to quickly find material without shuttling backwards and forwards on the same tape.
Variety of shot
In order to compress an item to essential information, the editor requires a variety of options. This means a variety of relevant shots in order to restructure a continuous event (e.g., a football match, a conference speech) and to reduce its original timescale to the running order requirement. A continuous 20-minute MCU of a speaker without audience or relevant cutaways will inevitably lead to a jump cut if more than one portion of the speech is required. Take the opportunity during a pause, which may signal a new topic, or on applause to change the size of shot. Only ‘keynote’ sentences will be used and a difference in shot size at these points will avoid irrelevant cutaways to shorten the item. Pans, zooms and tilts can be used in a number of ways if the shot is held for five seconds or more before the start and at the end of the camera movement.
Figure 17.3 Parts (a) to (f) illustrate a news story reporting a collision at sea between a container ship and a cruise ship. Figure (a) shows the container ship on fire. Access is vital in news coverage and the cameraman must attempt to get to a position where the vital shot that summarizes the story can be recorded. Figure (b) is shot on the container ship showing the ‘geography’ of the item of cargo and fire tender. Figure (c) shows the damaged cruise ship in port and (d) the disappointed holidaymakers leaving the ship while it is repaired. Figure (e) is an interview with one of the passengers giving his experience of the collision and (f) is a piece-to-camera by the reporter (with an appropriate background) summarizing the story and posing questions of who/what was to blame
Brevity and significance
The pressure of cutting an item down to a short running time for news will impose its own discipline on shooting and editing in selecting only what is significant and using the shots that best sum up the essence of the story. The length of a shot depends on its function. The value of a shot is its relevance to the story in hand. One single 15-second shot may sum up the item but be superfluous in any other context. Check that the vital shots are provided and at the right length before offering visual decoration to the item. Editing for news means reducing to essentials. Make certain that shot length allows for brevity in editing and the relevant cutaways are provided for interviews. The viewer will require longer on-screen time to assimilate the information in a long shot than to absorb the detail in a close shot. Moving shots require more perceptual effort to understand than static shots. The skill in news shooting/cutting can be summarized as:
each shot must be relevant to the story;
shoot more detail than geography shots or scene setting;
shoot more close, static shots than ones with camera movement;
if possible, use short pans (no more than two seconds long ) to inject pace into a story;
devise a structure that contains pace, shot variety, and dynamic relevant images.
An appropriate shot
Every shot should be recorded for a purpose. That purpose is at its weakest if it simply seemed a good idea at the time to the cameraman or director, etc., to record a shot ‘just in case’ without considering its potential context. No shot can exist in isolation. A shot must have a connection with the aim of the item and its surrounding shots. It must be shot with editing in mind. This purpose could be related to the item's brief, script, outline or decided at the location. It could follow on from an interview comment or reference. It could be shot to help condense time or it could be offered as a ‘safety’ shot to allow flexibility in cutting the material.
There is very little point in providing a number of shots if they are unusable because of wrong exposure or if they are out of focus or the colour temperature is incorrect or if they are shaky and badly framed and important action begins before the recording is sufficiently stable to make an edit.
Continuity
Be aware of possible continuity mismatch between shots in background as well as foreground information. As well as changes over time (weather, light, face tones) watch for changing background action that will prevent intercutting. Avoid staging interviews against significant movement (e.g., a crowd emptying from an arena or a prominent working crane) as background continuity mismatch may prevent the interview being shortened. If possible, have different parts of the background in the singles and two shots if there is significant continuity of movement in the background or choose a static, neutral background. Keep a check on the position of coats, hats, clip-on microphones, attitudes of body and head on singles so that they can be matched on two shots.
The style and structure of the composition of a shot also requires a measure of continuity. It was mentioned earlier that the internal space of the shot created by very wide or a very narrow lens angles must be consistent within a sequence of shots to avoid a mismatch of apparent scene perspective. There is also the need to match shots that have strong line convergencies created by a wide-angle lens and a close camera-to-subject distance.
An individual style of camerawork can be seen as an individual's preference for a certain type of compositional ‘look’. Some cameramen will favour a larger proportion of low-angle shots than average. Others devise complex camera movement or seek ambiguous images that tease the viewer into detecting and unravelling the image. In such instances, there is no problem with the compositional match during a sequence of shots because the individual preferences or style will or should remain consistent throughout the production. Problems only occur where someone is dabbling with a number of different ‘looks’ and a sequence of shots have no visual continuity.
Shot size
Avoid similar sized shots, whether in framing, scale, horizon line, etc., unless you provide a bridging shot. For example, a medium shot of an interviewee will not cut with a tight over-the-shoulder favouring the interviewee in the same medium-size shot. Wide shots of sea and boats need to be intercut with closer shots of boats to avoid the horizon line jumping in frame. Make certain that the all-over geometry of a shot is sufficiently different from a similar sized shot of the same subject (e.g., GVs of landscapes). In general, television is a close-up medium. Big wide-angle shots do not have the same impact they might have on a larger screen.
Crossing the line
To recap about the convention of crossing the line (see Figure 1.3). To intercut between individual shots of two people to create the appearance of a normal conversation between them, three simple rules have to be observed. If the interviewee in a single is looking from left to right in the frame then the single of the interviewer must look right to left. Secondly, the shot size and eye line should match (i.e., they should individually be looking out of the frame at a point where the viewer anticipates the other speaker is standing). Finally, every shot of a sequence should stay the same side of an imaginary line drawn between the speakers unless a cutaway is recorded that allows a reorientation on the opposite side of the old ‘line’ (e.g., either the speakers re-group or the camera moves on shot).
It is easy to forget eye line direction when recording questions or ‘noddies’ after an interview has been recorded, particularly with a three-hander or when equipment is being demonstrated or explained. Make certain that the camera stays on one side only of the imaginary line drawn between the interviewer and interviewee.
Leaving frame
Do not always follow the action, especially on ‘VIP’ items where the temptation is to keep the ‘notable’ in shot at all times. It can some times help in editing if the subject leaves the frame, but hold the empty frame for a few seconds and, on the new shot, hold the empty frame before the subject enters as it enables the editor to choose between cutting or not on a moving subject (see Figure 17.1).
Five-second module
News items tend to be constructed on an approximate five-second module. An example of a running order of a news story might be:
12″ voice-over establishing shots
10″ presenter to camera
10″ voice-over
25″ interview (with cutaways)
7″ voice-over
running time of item: 1 minute 04 seconds.
To allow maximum flexibility for the editor, try to shoot in multiples of five seconds. Keep zooms and pans short. For example:
10″ hold at start of zoom (or pan)
5/10″ zoom (or pan)
5/10″ hold at end of movement.
This allows the editor a choice of three shots.
Length of pan
Avoid long panning or development shots. Although it may be difficult, depending on the circumstances, try to begin and end a camera movement cleanly. It is difficult to cut into a shot that creeps into or out of a movement. Be positive when you change framing. Use a tripod whenever possible as unsteady shots are difficult to cut and a distraction to the viewer.
Cutaway and cut-in
A cutaway literally means to cut away from the main subject or topic, either as a reaction to the event (e.g., cutting to a listener reacting to what a speaker is saying) or to support the point being made (e.g., a speaker discussing slum property is cutaway from to see the type of building they are talking about).
A cut-in usually means to go tighter on an aspect of the main subject. For example, an antiques expert talking in mid-shot about the manufacturer's mark on a piece of pottery she is holding would require a cut-in close shot of the pottery for the item to make sense to the viewer.
Clichéd visual metaphor
Just as there are stale and worn-out verbal metaphors, so there are visual clichés that have been over-used. These include weak attempts at copying mainstream feature film genres and techniques such as humour, suspense or shock effects. Attempt visual connections that are original and fresh. Rethink first, obvious thoughts and attempt to find fresh visual or audio relationships. Avoid using superimposed text to describe what is visually plainly obvious (e.g., a shot of a village signpost identifying the location has it name superimposed over the signpost).
Recap on basic advice for shooting for editing
There must be a reason in editing to change shot and the cameraman has to provide a diversity of material to provide a cutting point. In general a change of shot will be unobtrusive:
if there is a significant change in shot size or camera angle when intercutting on the same subject;
if there is a significant change in content (e.g., a cut from a tractor to someone opening a farm gate);
when cutting on action – the flow of movement in the frame is carried over into the succeeding shot (e.g., a man in medium shot sitting behind a desk stands up and, on his rise, a longer shot of the man and the desk is cut to, see Figure 17.1);
when intercutting between people, if their individual shots are matched in size, have the same amount of headroom, have the same amount of looking space if in semi-profile, if the lens angle is similar (i.e., internal perspective is similar) and if the lens height is the same;
if the intercut pictures are colour matched (e.g., skin tones, background brightness, etc.) and if in succeeding shots the same subject has a consistent colour (e.g., grass in a stadium);
if there is continuity in action (e.g., body posture, attitude);
if there is continuity in lighting, in sound, props and setting, and continuity in performance or presentation.
On unscripted items such as news and TV magazine items:
provide the editor with a higher proportion of static shots to camera movement. It is difficult to cut between pans and zooms until they steady to a static frame and hold;
try to find relevant but non-specific shots so that voice-over information to set the scene or report can be dubbed on after the script has been prepared.
Interviews
The interview is an essential element of news and magazine reporting. It provides for a factual testimony from an active participant similar to a witness's court statement; that is, direct evidence of their own understanding, not rumour or hearsay. They can speak about what they feel, what they think, what they know, from their own experience. An interviewee can introduce into the report opinion, beliefs and emotion as opposed to the reporter who traditionally sticks to the facts. An interviewee therefore provides colour and emotion into an objective assessment of an event and captures the audience's attention. A first-hand account by people involved in an incident are facts in themselves. It is often spontaneous and vivid in its description and delivery. Because of the nature of some personal testament, its emotional impact can overwhelm other factual comments. The structure of such an item needs careful consideration to avoid distortion when using interviews that contain strong emotional appeals if these are balanced against more low-key reasoned argument.
Use of ‘Vox Pops’, random street interviews, is another method to provide the mood and opinions of the public. Its weakness is that, to some extent, the participants are self-selecting and it favours only those willing to talk to a reporter and a camera on a street corner. These people's opinions may be eccentric and not an accurate representation of the majority view.
Cutting an interview
A standard interview convention is to establish who the interviewee is by superimposing their name and possibly some other identification (e.g., farmer, market street trader, etc.) in text across an MCU of them. The interview is often cut using a combination of basic shots such as:
an MS, MCU or CU of the interviewee;
a matched shot of the interviewer asking questions or reacting to the answers (usually shot after the interview has ended);
a two shot, which establishes location and relationship between the participants or an over-the-shoulder two shot looking from interviewer to interviewee;
the interviewee is often staged so that their background is relevant to their comments.
The interview can follow straightforward intercutting between question and answer of the participants but, more usually, after a few words from the interviewee establishing their presence, a series of cutaways are used to illustrate the points the interviewee are making. A basic interview technique requires the appropriate basic shots:
matched shots in size and lens angle;
over-the-shoulder (o/s) shots;
intercutting on question and answer;
cutaways to referred items in the interview;
’noddies’ and reaction shots (note: reaction shots should be reactions – that is, a response to the main subject);
cutaways to avoid jump cuts when shortening answers.
How long should a shot be held?
The simple answer to this question is as long as the viewer needs to extract the required information, or before the action depicted requires a wider or closer framing to satisfy the viewers curiosity or a different shot (e.g., someone exiting the frame) to follow the action. The onscreen length is also dependent on many more subtle considerations than the specific content of the shot.
As discussed above, the rhythm of the editing produced by rate of shot change, and the shaping of the rate of shot change to produce an appropriate shape to a sequence, will have a bearing on how long a shot is held on screen. Rhythm relies on variation of shot length, but should not be arbitrarily imposed simply to add interest. As always with editing, there is a balance to be struck between clear communication and the need to hold the viewer's interest with visual variety. The aim is to clarify and emphasize the topic, not to confuse the viewer with shots that are snatched off the screen before they are visually understood.
The critical factor controlling on-screen duration is often the shot size. A long shot may have a great deal more information than a close shot. Also, a long shot is often used to introduce a new location or to set the ‘geography’ of the action. These features will be new to the audience, and therefore they will take longer to understand and absorb the information. Shifting visual information produced by moving shots will also need longer screen time.
A closer shot will usually yield its content fairly quickly, particularly if the content has been seen before (e.g., a well known ‘screen’ face). There are other psychological aspects of perception that also have a bearing on how quickly an audience can recognize images that are flashed on to a screen. These factors are exploited in those commercials that have a very high cutting rate, but are not part of standard news/magazine editing technique.
Although news/magazine editing is always paring an item down to essential shots, due consideration should always be given to the subject of the item. For example, a news item about the funeral of a victim of a civil disaster or crime has to have pauses and ‘quiet’ on-screen time to reflect the feelings and emotion of the event. Just as there is a need to have changes of pace and rhythm in editing a piece to give a particularly overall shape, so a news bulletin or magazine running order will have an overall requirement for changes of tempo between hard and soft items to provide balance and variety.
Cutting on movement
A change of shot requires a measurable time for the audience to adjust to the incoming shot. If the shot is part of a series of shots showing an event or action, the viewer will be able to follow the flow of action across the cut if the editor has selected an appropriate point to cut on movement. This will move the viewer into the next part of the action without them consciously realizing a cut has occurred. An edit point in the middle of an action disguises the edit point.
Cutting on movement is the bedrock of editing. It is the preferred option in cutting, compared with most other editing methods, provided the sequence has been shot to include action edit points. When breaking down a sequence of shots depicting a continuous action there are usually five questions faced by the editor:
1. what is visually interesting?
2. what part of a shot is necessary to advance the ‘story’ of the topic?
3. how long can the sequence last?
4. has the activity been adequately covered on camera?
5. is there a sufficient variety of shots to serve the above requirements?
Figure 17.4 Action can be staged to avoid continuous cutting. The shot demonstrating the difficulty of opening the tea caddy can be developed to demonstrate the difficulty of picking up the tea bag (d) and left to form a continuous shot unless there is a need to condense time.
Watch for continuity mismatch. There is milk in the mug in (e) (figure demonstrates difficulty in handling a teaspoon) which may be picked up if the shot showing the problems opening a milk container (f) follows.
For example, a story to be edited concerns the difficulties disabled people have with normal everyday domestic appliances. A sequence was shot where the subject of the report was making a cup of tea (see Figure 17.4) to illustrate these problems. The intention was for the reporter, on a voice-over commentary, to identify each hazard.
The editor has a guide to the length of the sequence which equals the running time of the relevant voice-over. Next he has a guide to what is significant – what will advance the story. The voice-over may mention for example, difficulties in turning on a tap, pouring boiling water into a tea pot, pouring out the tea, opening a milk carton, etc. The vital factor, of course, is whether shots covering these activities have been provided by the location crew, and crucially, if they can be cut together.
With this kind of sequence, the editor needs to be economic with the use of screen time using only so much of a specific action (e.g., turning on a tap), to provide the viewer with the necessary visual information whilst advancing the point of the ‘story’. The total running time of the recorded event has to be pared down by selecting only essential parts of necessary shots to fit the voice-over. Cutting on movement, such as hands coming in and out of frame, will allow the whole activity to be collapsed into half-a-dozen close shots, wasting no screen time on irrelevant action (for example – searching the kitchen for the tea pot). Cutting on action such as movement in the frame, will provide the motivation for the cuts and allow compression of the activity without the viewer being aware that the event has been considerably speeded up.
Cutting on exits and entrances
One of the basic principles of perennial editing technique is that each shot follows the line of action to maintain consistent screen direction so that the geography of the action is completely intelligible. A sequence of shots following someone walking down a street can be cut so that they enter and leave frame in suitable changing size of shot or different camera angle, following their walk from one frame into the next frame, always moving across the frame in the same direction until an appropriate shot shows the audience that they have changed direction (e.g., walked around a corner and into a new street ). For the novice editor, the problem is to decide at what point in each shot they should make the cut to the next shot.
Cutting on exits and entrances into a frame is a standard way of reducing the amount of screen time taken to traverse distance. The usual convention is to make the cut when the subject has nearly left the frame. It is natural for the viewer, if the subject is disappearing out of the side of the frame, to wish to be shown where they are going. If the cut comes after they have left the frame then the viewer is left with an empty frame and either their interest switches to whatever is left in the frame or they feel frustrated because the subject of their interest has gone. Conversely, the incoming frame can have the subject just appearing, but the match on action has to be good otherwise there will be an obtrusive jump in their walking rhythm or some other posture mismatch.
Allowing the subject to clear the frame in the outgoing shot and not be present in the incoming shot is usually the lazy way of avoiding continuity mismatches. An empty frame at the end of a shot is already ‘stale’ to the viewer. If it is necessary, because there is no possibility in the shots provided of matching up the action across the cut, try to use the empty frame of the incoming shot (which is new to the viewer) before the action begins to avoid continuity problems. This convention can be applied to any movement across a cut. In general, choose an empty frame on an incoming shot rather than the outgoing shot unless there is the need for a ‘visual’ full stop to end a sequence. Ending on an empty frame is usually followed by a fade-down or mix across to the new scene.
Perception and shot transition
Film and television screens display a series of single images for a very short period of time. Because of the nature of human perception (persistence of vision), if these images are displayed at an effective rate of 48/50 times a second, flicker is reduced and there is the illusion of continuous motion of any subject that changes position in succeeding frames.
It takes time for a change of shot to be registered and, with large discrepancies between shot transitions, it becomes more apparent to the viewer when the composition of both shots is dissimilar. If the programme maker aims to make the transition between shots to be as imperceptible as possible in order to avoid visually distracting the viewer, the amount of eye movement between cuts needs to be at a minimum. If the incoming shot is sufficiently similar in design (e.g., matching the principal subject position and size in both shots), the movement of the eye will be minimized and the change of shot will hardly be noticeable. There is, however, a critical point in matching identical shots to achieve an unobtrusive cut (e.g., cutting together the same size shot of the same individual where possibly there is only the smallest difference in the angle of the head), where the jump between almost identical shots becomes noticeable.
Narrative motivation for changing the shot (e.g., What happens next? What is this person doing? etc.), will also smooth the transition. A large mismatch between two shots, for example, where action on the left of frame is cut to when the previous shot has significant action on extreme right of frame, may take the viewer four or five frames to catch up with the change and may trigger a ‘What happened then?’ response. If a number of these ‘jump’ cuts (i.e., shot transitions that are noticeable to the audience), are strung together, the viewer becomes very aware of the mechanics of the production process and the smooth flow of images is disrupted. This ‘visual’ disruption, of course, may sometimes be a production objective.
Matching visual design between shots
When two shots are cut together, the visual design, that is the composition of each shot, can be matched to achieve smooth continuity. Alternatively, if the production requirement is for the cut to impact on the viewer, the juxtaposition of the two shots can be so arranged to provide an abrupt contrast in their graphic design.
The cut between two shots can be made invisible if the incoming shot has one or more similar compositional elements as the preceding shot. The relationships between the two shots may relate to matching shape, same position of dominant subject in the frame, colours, lighting, setting, overall composition, etc. Any equivalent aspects of visual design that are present in both shots will help the smooth transition from one shot to the next.
With intercut dialogue shots (especially noticeable in widescreen format), often the protagonists are framed in separate shots on either side of the screen to indicate they are spatially linked The empty space on one side of the frame indicating the presence of the other. On each cut the incoming image fills the space left in the outgoing image.
A popular use of this in news/current affairs programmes is the Vox Pop sequence where members of the public are asked their opinion on a subject and their answers intercut with those positive about the subject on one side of the frame, and those negative about the subject are framed in their individual shots on the other side of the frame. Depending on the questions and answers, the cut sequence has the appearance of a dialogue between the participants even though they have never met and conversed amongst themselves.
Matching rhythm relationships between shots
The editor needs to consider two types of rhythm when cutting together shots: the rhythm created by the rate of shot change, and the internal rhythm of the depicted action.
Each shot will have a measurable time on screen. The rate at which shots are cut creates a rhythm that affects the viewer's response to the sequence. For example, in a feature film action sequence, a common way of increasing the excitement and pace of the action is to increase the cutting rate by decreasing the duration of each shot on screen as the action approaches a climax. The rhythms introduced by editing are in addition to the other rhythms created by artiste movement, camera movement and the rhythm of sound. The editor can therefore adjust shot duration and shot rate independent of the need to match continuity of action between shots; this controls an acceleration or deceleration in the pace of the item.
By controlling the editing rhythm, the editor controls the amount of time the viewer has to grasp and understand the selected shots. Many productions exploit this fact in order to create an atmosphere of mystery and confusion by ambiguous framing and rapid cutting that deliberately undermines the viewer's attempt to make sense of the images they are shown.
Another editing consideration is maintaining the rhythm of action carried over into succeeding shots. Most people have a strong sense of rhythm as expressed in walking, marching, dancing, etc. If this rhythm is destroyed as, for example, cutting together a number of shots of a marching band so that their step becomes irregular, viewers will sense the discrepancies and the sequence will appear disjointed and awkward. When cutting from a shot of a person walking, for example, care must be taken that the person's foot hits the ground with the same rhythm as in the preceding shot, and that it is the appropriate foot (i.e., after a left foot comes a right foot). The rhythm of a person's walk may still be detected even if the incoming shot does not include the feet. The beat of the movement must not be disrupted. Sustaining rhythms of action may well override the need for a narrative ‘ideal’ cut at an earlier or later point.
Matching spatial relationships between shots
Editing creates spatial relationships between subjects that need never exist in reality. A common example is a passenger getting into a train at a station. The following shot shows a train pulling out of the station. The audience infers that the passenger is on the train when they are more probably on an entirely different train or even no train at all. Cause and effect patterns occur continuously in editing. A shot of an apple falling off a tree followed by a shot of Isaac Newton rubbing his head, must inevitably lead the viewer to conclude that Newton has been hit by the very same apple. This assumption is a combination of what the viewer knows (an apple apocryphally fell on Newton) and what is shown, and then mentally connecting the two shots in a cause/effect relationship. For example, a reporter in medium close-up nods her interest in what the interviewee is saying. The viewer's assumption is that the reporter at that moment is listening to the interviewee when, in fact, the ‘noddies’ were shot some time after the interviewee had left the location.
Any two subjects or events can be linked by a cut if there is an apparent graphic continuity between shots framing them, and if there is an absence of an establishing shot showing their physical relationship. Portions of space can be cut together to create a convincing screen space provided no shot is wide enough to show that the edited relationship is not possible. For example, a shot of a person leaning against a signpost can be cut with a shot of a person sitting on a wall; these shots can be intercut and, to the viewer, hold a believable conversation together provided there is no shot that either reveals that there is no wall by the signpost, or no signpost by the wall.
Matching temporal relationships between shots
The position of a shot in relation to other shots (preceding or following) will control the viewer's understanding of its time relationship to surrounding shots. Usually a factual event is cut in a linear time line unless indicators are built in to signal flashbacks or, very rarely, flash-forwards. The viewer assumes the order of depicted events is linked to the passing of time.
The standard formula for compressing space and time is to allow the main subject to leave frame or to provide appropriate cutaways to shorten the actual time taken to complete the activity. While they are out of shot, the viewer will accept that greater distance has been travelled than is realistically possible. Provided the main subject does not in vision leap from location one immediately to location two, and then to three and four, there will be no jump in continuity between shots. The empty frames and cutaways allow the editing-out of space and time to remain invisible. News editing frequently requires a reduction in screen time of the actual duration of a real event. For example, a 90-minute football match recording will be edited down to 30 seconds to run as a ‘highlights’ report in a news bulletin.
Screen time is seldom made greater than the event time, but there are instances, for example in reconstructions of a crime in a documentary, where time is expanded by editing. This stylistic mannerism is often accompanied by slow-motion sequences.
Matching tone, colour or background
Cutting between shots of speakers with different background tones, colour or texture will sometimes result in an obtrusive cut. A cut between a speaker with a bright background and a speaker with a dark background will result in a ‘jump’ in the flow of images each time it occurs. Colour temperature matching and background brightness relies on the cameraman making the right exposure and artiste positioning decisions. Particular problems can occur, for example, with grass that changes its colour between shots. Face tones of a presenter or interviewee need to be consistent across a range of shots when cut together in a sequence. Also, cutting between shots with in-focus and defocused backgrounds to speakers can produce a mismatch on a cut. Continuity of colour, tone, texture, skin tones and depth-of-field, will improve the seamless flow of images.
Figure 17.5 The duration of an event can be considerably shortened to a fraction of its actual running time by editing if the viewer's concept of time passing is not violated. For example, a politician enters a conference centre and delivers a speech to an audience. This whole event, possibly lasting 30 minutes or more, can be reduced to 15 seconds of screen time by cutting between the appropriate shots.
In the first shot (a), the politician is seen entering the building with a voice-over giving details of the purpose of the visit. A cutaway to an audience shot with a pan to the politician on the platform ((b) to (c)), allows all the intervening time to be collapsed without a jump cut, and also allows the voice-over to paraphrase what the politician is saying. A third, closer, profile shot of the politician (d), followed by a shot of the listening audience (e), continues with the voice-over paraphrase, ending with a MCU of the politician (f), with his actuality sound, delivering the key ‘sound bite’ sentence of his speech. A combination of voice-over and five shots that can be cut together maintaining continuity of time and place allows a 30-minute event to be delivered in 15-20 seconds
Rearranging time and space
When two shots are cut together the audience attempts to make a connection between them. Expanding the example given above, a man on a station platform boards a train. A wide shot shows a train pulling out of a station. The audience makes the connection that the man is on the train. A cut to a close shot of the seated man follows, and it is assumed that he is travelling on the train. We see a wide shot of a train crossing the Forth Bridge, and the audience assumes that the man is travelling in Scotland. Adding a few more shots would allow a shot of the man leaving the train at his destination with the audience experiencing no violent discontinuity in the depiction of time or space. And yet a journey that may take two hours is collapsed to 30 seconds of screen time, and a variety of shots of trains and a man at different locations have been strung together in a manner that convinces the audience they have followed the same train and man throughout a journey.
Figure 17.6
Basic editing principles
This way of arranging shots is fundamental to editing. Space and time are rearranged in the most efficient way to present the information that the viewer requires to follow the argument presented. The transition between shots must not violate the audiences sense of continuity between the actions presented. This can be achieved by:
Continuity of action: action is carried over from one shot to another without an apparent break in speed or direction of movement. In a medium shot, for example, (Figure 17.6(a)), someone places a book on a table out of shot. A cut to a closer shot of the book (Figure 17.6(b)), shows the book just before it is laid on the table. Provided the book's position relative to the table and the speed of the book's movement in both shots is similar, and there is continuity in the table surface, lighting, hand position, etc., then the cut will not be obtrusive. A close shot that crosses the line (Figure 17.6(c)), will not cut.
Screen direction: if the book is travelling left to right in the medium shot, the closer shot of the book will need to roughly follow the same direction. A shot of the book moving right to left will produce a visual ‘jump’ that may be apparent to the viewer.
Eye line match: the eye line of someone looking down at the book should be in the direction the audience believes the book to be. If they look out of frame with their eye line levelled at their own height, the implication is that they are looking at something at that height. Whereas if they were looking down, the assumption would be that they are looking at the book. An interviewer and an interviewee in separate shots must be eye line matched in order to cut between them. Their eye line out of frame must match with the audience's expectation of where the person they are talking to is positioned.
There is a need to cement the spatial relationship between shots: a subject speaking and looking out of the left of frame will be assumed by the viewer to speaking to someone off-camera to the left. A cut to another person looking out of frame to the right will confirm this audience expectation. Eye line matches are decided by position, and there is very little that can be done at the editing stage to correct shooting mismatches except flipping the frame to reverse the eye line, which alters the continuity of the symmetry of the face and other left/right continuity elements in the composition such as hair partings, etc.
Shot size: another essential editing factor is the size of shots that form an intercut sequence of faces. A cut from a medium close-up to another medium close-up of a second person will be unobtrusive provided the eye line match is as above. A number of cuts between a long shot of one person and a medium close-up of another will jump and be obtrusive.
Types of edit
There are a number of standard editing techniques that are used across a wide range of programme making. These include:
Intercutting editing can be applied to locations or people. The technique of intercutting between different actions that are happening simultaneously at different locations was discovered as early as 1906 to inject pace and tension into a story. Intercutting on faces in the same location presents the viewer with changing viewpoints on action and reaction.
Analytical editing breaks a space down into separate framings. The classic sequence begins with a long shot to show relationships and the ‘geography’ of the setting followed by closer shots to show detail, and to focus on important action.
Contiguity editing follows action through different frames of changing locations. The classic pattern of shots in a western chase sequence is where one group of horsemen ride through the frame past a distinctive tree to be followed later, in the same framing, of the pursuers riding through shot past the same distinctive tree. The tree acts as a ‘signpost’ for the audience to establish location, and as a marker of the duration of elapsed time between the pursued and the pursuer.
Point-of-view shot establishes the relationship between different spaces. Someone on-screen looks out of one side of the frame. The following shot reveals what the person is looking at. This can also be applied to anyone moving and looking out of frame, followed by their moving point-of-view shot.
Emphasis, tempo and syntax
Just as a written report of an event will use a structure of sentence, paragraph and chapter, a visual report can structure the elements of the storytelling in a similar way. By adjusting the shot length and fine tuning the rate and rhythm of the cuts and the juxtaposition of the shots, the editor can create emphasis and significance.
A piece can be cut to relate a number of connected ideas. When the report moves on to a new idea there is often a requirement to indicate visually – ‘new topic’. This can be achieved by a very visible cut – a mismatch perhaps or an abrupt change of sound level or content (e.g., quiet interior is followed by a cut to a marching band on parade) to call attention to a transitional moment.
Teasing the audience
A linear, logical progression of the story is not the only way to hold the viewer's attention. Often, a puzzle is set up or a question is posed to draw the audience into the story. Like a mystery novel, clues are given before the denouement at the end. This is obviously a fairly lightweight treatment and would be inappropriate in many hard-news stories.
Be sparing with editing structures that visually tease the audience with sequences that are ambiguous or mystifying. The technique of withholding the connection between succeeding shots until the link shot is shown, risks losing the audience's attention and interest. Too complicated a clue to a crossword puzzle may alienate the salver's interest. However, a montage that puzzles the viewer may also engage his interest.
The viewer will always believe that the programme maker has some reason for putting a shot on the screen – unless a production continually misleads them.
Sort it out in the edit
Lastly, as we have already stressed, a location shoot for a two-minute item that results in ten 20-minute cassettes with no thought to its eventual structure other than a misguided belief that it can all be sorted out in editing, can end in a long and inefficient trawl through inappropriate material. Transcribing the random letters produced by a monkey and a keyboard into meaningful words, then sentences, then an article, is probably easier. TV production requires planning, thought and structure from shooting right through to the master tape.
Sound and picture
The importance of audio may be overlooked in acquisition but any shortcomings will become increasingly obvious in editing. In nearly every type of production, sound and picture interweave and are mutually dependent. It is vital that the range of audio recorded (apart from being technically perfect) matches the visual coverage in providing the editor with flexibility and creative choice.
Multi-camera camerawork
The value of multi-camera technique is its ability to simultaneously observe a continuous event from a number of different camera positions. A continuous actuality event such as sport, music, state and public events, audience discussion, etc., can be transmitted live or continuously recorded to be transmitted later. Traditional multi-camera technique required each camera's picture to be selected through the vision mixing panel and cut to ‘line’ (i.e., transmitted or recorded) in accordance with a pre-rehearsed camera script detailing all agreed shots, or as a mixture of ad lib shots and pre-planned shots.
In order to comprehensively cover a continuous event such as sport, each camera is assigned a role. Covering a football match, for example, one camera will mostly stay wide as a master or safety shot that can be cut to at any time, whilst the other cameras will stay close for ‘personality’ close-ups of individual players. Cameras stick to their assigned role in order to provide the director with a guaranteed appropriate shot at all times, otherwise duplication of the same shot occurs.
With the expansion in the use of ‘iso’ (isolated) feeds, that is an individual camera's output is continuously recorded as well as being available at the mixing panel, a great amount of flexibility is available in post-production to re-edit the recorded material. Iso feeds began as a technique to provide variation of shot for instant ‘slop mo’ playback at live sports events. Now, some non-sport multi-camera productions ‘iso’ each camera and use post-production to complete the edit.
The basis of multi-camera techniques of composition is very similar to single camera operations except that:
cameramen need good communications between producer and crew and, if possible, exposure needs to be centrally controlled to match pictures;
the shots are instantaneously edited and therefore need to be matched in size;
the shots need to be coordinated to avoid duplication and to provide variety and cutting points;
with a live transmission a shot has to be ready and executed at the instant it is required – not when the cameraman is ready to record;
there can be no retakes – camerawork problems are not edited out, they are transmitted.
Working as a team
As we have discussed in the section on the legacy of film technique, the skills and techniques used to make a TV programme should not be apparent to the average television viewer. If the viewer becomes aware of technique it will usually distract from the content of the programme. Camera technique should be invisible and this requires matched and consistent camerawork between all cameras on a multi-camera shoot. Unlike single camerawork where an operator may have his own idiosyncratic ways of framing and personal preferences of shot size, multi-camera work requires cameramen to coordinate their framing and composition to avoid ‘jump cuts’ between shots. The description and the framing of the shot needs to be understood by cameraman and director (see Figure 12.2) but also:
headroom should be consistent and adjusted to suit the size of shot;
the amount of looking room should match for similar sized shots (see Figure 17.7);
each camera should have the same lens perspective and same cam era height when involved in cross-cutting on interviews, etc.;
the pace of camera movement and style of composition should match.
Figure 17.7
As well as matching the style of camerawork there needs to be a technical match between the cameras. A grey-scale line-up before transmission ensures a colour match between cameras – for example, the skin tones of a face on different cameras needs to be the same. Also remote control of exposure and black level ensures a better match when intercutting cameras.
Matched shot size and the position in the frame of the subject can be observed and easily adjusted in a multi-camera shoot to allow smooth and ‘invisible’ cutting. In single camera/single shot coverage there is obviously the need to keep careful records of eye lines, body position, shot-size and other visual indicators in order to achieve visual continuity in post-production.
Dance and composition
As in every type of production, there are many ways of covering dance on film and television. There are tried and trusted basic conventions and there are innovations and visual experiments that reject and oppose the following generalizations about dance composition. As was said in another context, an orgy of self-expression can sometimes be no more productive than the blind obedience of rules. The following observations are offered as a basis for development.
Dance features the whole figure and therefore the majority of shots will include the whole figure. The dance ‘shape’ can be emphasized by keeping the camera low and therefore reducing the amount of floor in shot and emphasizing the figure in relationship to the backing.
Let the dancers move within the frame. Be wide enough for the dancers to make their own shapes within the frame. Avoid constant panning to keep the dancer within the frame. The fidgety background will work against the dancer's movement and keeping the dancer in centre frame while they are moving can work against the intentions of the choreographer.
If the dance movement is interpreted by camera movement, there could be a confusion of choreographic design unless there is collaboration with the choreographer. Spins and twirls can be extended by mixing between shots, which enhances the intended movement of the dancer. If possible, let the dancer choreograph to the frame. Show them the amount of studio floor space in shot and let the choreographer work out how they can best use this space.
Use a low-angled camera if the dancers are moving across frame. Use a high-angled camera if they are moving away or towards camera. Use a wide-angle to enhance speed of movement to and from camera. Use a narrow-angle to collapse space and movement. Use a close-up cut-in to disclose details of movement, to increase or express excitement in the dance. Devise shot-size to allow cuts on movement and music.
Summary
One aspect of the composition of a shot is to consider how it will relate to the preceding and succeeding shots. There must be a reason in editing to change shot and the cameraman has to provide a diversity of material to provide a cutting point. Edit-point requirements such as change in angle and shot size, subject movement, camera movement and continuity have to be considered and provided for to enable the footage to be assembled in a coherent stream of images. Shooting with editing in mind is therefore essential. It is part of the cameraman's craft to provide the editor/presenter with a variety of options but to keep the shooting ratio in proportion to the editing time available.
The narrative ‘weight’ of a shot is dependent on the size of the shot and also on the composition. Emphasis can be strengthened or lightened depending on the reason for the shot.
A good cut needs a change in shot size or significant change in content to be invisible.