Introduction to Film Editing
Have students watch the “Editing Emotions” video in the student chapter Introduction to Film Editing and answer the questions. (If you want to record their answers for later assessment, you can have them write them by hand or complete them in an online document rather than the text form provided.)
Take up the questions with the class.
Make sure the following points come up:
How did the cake make the woman feel in the first scene? How did it make her feel in the “Change the Order” scene?
The arrangement of the images is the beginning of the editor’s work, communicating just as much as what’s in each shot.
- For example, in the first sequence, the woman was sad, then saw the cake, and then was happy. This is called a reaction shot.
- In the second sequence, the order of the shots was reversed. This made it look as though seeing the cake was making her sad.
In the Tension scene, how does hiding the man’s face in the first shot create tension? How does showing only the woman’s eyes in the second shot create tension? How does showing only the knife in the third shot create tension?
Part of editing is deciding what to show the audience and when. Limiting what the audience sees encourages us to do things like imagine, wonder and worry.
- We don’t know how the man is feeling or thinking about, prompting us to imagine the worst
- Focusing on the woman’s eyes makes us wonder what she’s looking at
- Showing only the knife makes us worry about what’s going to be done with it
How does the order of the shots create tension? How does the length of the shots create tension? How does the length of the different shots work together with the music to shape the rhythm of the scene?
Editing is like arithmetic. When we see one shot after the other, we assume they add up to a new meaning.
- When we see the back of the man’s head and then the close-up of the woman’s eyes, we assume she is looking at him.
- When the shot of the knife follows, we assume that either the man or the woman is lifting it.
- The slow, steady pace of the music increases our anticipation as it speeds up in the third shot.
- The use of “Happy Birthday” at the end undercuts the tension.
How do the additional shots in the “Relief” scene change how we interpret the scene?
Editing can make us change what we thought we knew.
- When we first saw the knife, we assumed it was going to be used for violence. The shot of the cake tells us it was for cutting the cake (knife+cake = cutting cake).
- The shot of the woman implies that the eyes we saw in close-up belonged to this woman, and that this scene is related to the first one in this video.
Point out to students that we don’t actually know that the man was the one holding the knife, or that the eyes we saw in close-up belonged to the woman we see in the final shot: we assumed they were because they were juxtaposed. Mischievous film-makers will sometimes play on our assumptions by juxtaposing shots that are not related in the way audiences are likely to think they are.
Two or more shots in a video that make up a distinct part of the narrative.
A shot which tells the audience how to react emotionally to what we've just seen.
A shot in which the camera "view" is close to the subject, which takes up most or all of the frame.
Placed next to one another in time or space.