What is editing?

A presentation on editing in the media.

1. What is editing?

2. The definition of editing. Editing is a commonly used technique in the film and television industry. It can be used to manipulate certain people or objects in a frame, alter the physical appearance of people and make settings seem ideal or horrible. Editing can be used to create a flawless look on actors/actresses, especially if the film or piece of media is aimed at younger generations who will care more about the looks of the characters than the actual characters themselves. So as you can probably guess, editing comes under many different categories, but here is the standard definition for editing: To modify or adapt so as to make suitable or acceptable. A perfect example of this could be censorship. If a rude word is said in a show which is to be shown at an earlier ti me, then it will need to be censored.

3. Types of editing – Censorship. What is censorship? Censorship is the method of editing in order to make something socially acceptable or suitable to be viewed by others. In more detail, censoring can be used to cover up a range of different fallacious factors in a piece of film. These can include: Swear words. Racist terms. Scenes of violent nature. Scenes of sexual nature. Rude gestures. All of the above are things that should perhaps not be seen by those who are either not mature enough to see, or those who will take great offence. Methods of censoring. Perhaps the most commonly used and most understood method of censorship is the “Beep”, which takes the role of replacing rude words of phrases. The well known sound can easily be distinguished as censoring. Whilst not being as famous as the “Beep”, the “Blur” of censoring is just as affective. However, the “Blur” has an entirely different purpose. It’s role is to distort or completely remove things that could affect the audience in a less than positive way, for example, distressing images such as large wounds. Blurred out imagery can also be used to hide the identities of people who are talking or providing information. This technique is commonly used in documentaries where people may want to give information, but do not want to be recognised or acknowledged for it in the near or distant future. Offensive gestures such as the middle finger can be blurred out of sight to keep offensive nature out of the sight of those who are not mature enough to understand or not be offended. Similar to the “beep”, cutting the sound out of a piece of footage is another way of editing swear words and other phrases out.

4. When thinking within context. When people think about editing, the mainstream definition is usually to alter appearance or performance of a certain person or object, but there is so much more. As already mentioned, censoring is a commonly used method of editing in TV. But not all editing is used to make things acceptable or better for the viewers. There are things in television and film that you wouldn’t even think were editing methods. When thinking deeper into cinema and television, we find a lot more editing than you perhaps wouldn’t notice at first glance. One example of this is “Screen change”. Screen changes are put in place by the director of the film to notify the audience of when the scene has changed without the use of particular camera shots and angles. Examples of screen changes are: Fade in Fade out Side left Slide right Black out These screen changes are not only used to change the scene, but can be used to display the particular emotion of the previous scene. For example, if a scene in which an important character has died, the scene may end with a black out or a fade out. This makes the screen gradually get darker until there is nothing but a black screen. This is almost always followed by a fade in, where the screen gradually gains light again and will become a full scene again. Another method of how screen changes can affect a scene is how they can relate to the tempo of this particular scene. For example, if there is a scene leading up to a large fight, then the screen change may be an instant blackout, which is then followed by an instant change of scene. Screen changes can help to determine the tone of a scene, display the emotion of a scene and alter the importance of one too.

5. The order of scenes. When watching a film or television programme, we can notice how scenes change. But we rarely think of or realise how they can display meaning within the piece of media that is being observed. The order of shots is probably the most commonly used piece of editing there is. They can be used to display meaning, as already mentioned or a chronological order. Scene changes can also cause confusion within the viewer. For example, if a the story of a film is told in two different narratives, then the scenes can switch without notice from one narrative to the other. This can cause a twist in the plot/story or can simply make your mind work. The order of scene changes can also display the importance of a particular character or scene. If one scene changes to another that should chronologically link to the previous one then we know that we need to pay attention carefully to. Example of how the order of scene changes display importance to a scene. For example, an action film. Main protagonist conflicts with villain. Main protagonist plans a battle Large battle/ fight between hero and villain.

6. Final editing procedures. Once a film has been made and is almost ready to be presented to the world, there is one last stage that is needs to go through in order to be absolutely perfect for the audience to watch. This is known as the final editing procedure. These are the final tweaks that the editors of films have to do to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Here are some terms and definitions that relate to the final editing procedure: Timing - the process of adjusting the colour balance for the printing of each scene once the negative has been conformed. (also called grading) Sequence - a series of shots or scenes which has a beginning, middle and end (like a chapter in a book). These need to be put in proper order. Continuity of motion - the flow of action from one shot to the next as it is placed on the screen at the cut point. Placing the significant action at the end of a shot in the same area of the screen where the significant action will begin in the next shot. Relational editing - editing of shots to suggest association of ideas between them. Sync pop - a single frame tone placed on the sound track so as to correspond with the "2" frame on the SMPTE leader. A lot of these editing techniques are made when the scenes or bits of the film related to them are actually filmed/made. However, they may need to be checked on one more time before the film is released.