Films are made up of sequences. Sequences are made up of scenes. And scenes are made up of shots.

● Film isn’t made in the shooting — it’s made in the edit

● Can be looked at from 2 perspectives: sound & image
● Goals of editing:
○ Continuity system: the creation of a logical, continuous narrative
○ Intellectual engagement: to call attention to some work in a reflexive manner
● For intellectual engagement, don’t show all the actions & reactions
● Editing describes the relationship b/n shots & process by which they are combined
● Relationship b/n shots can be
○ graphic
○ rhythmic: assembly of shots &/or sequences according to a rhythmic pattern of
some kind, usually dictated by music; most of the times dialogue is suppressed &
the musical relationship b/n shots takes center stage
○ spatial
○ temporal
● Editing principles
○ Contrast: cut together contrasting situations
○ Parallelism: thematically unconnected incidents dev. in parallel by means of timer
○ Symbolism: symbolic event cut to complete thought of another event
○ Simultaneity: final section is constructed from the simultaneous dev. of 2 actions
in which the outcome of 1 depends on the outcome of another
○ Leitmotif: reiteration of theme; musical idea (a certain tone reminds you of smthn)
● Spatial relationships
○ Est. shot: serves to situate the audience within a particular environment or setting
○ Reverse shot: editing technique defined as multiple shots edited together in a
way that alternates characters, typically in conversations
○ Eye-line match: a shot of a character looking at smthn cuts to another shot
showing exactly what the character sees; in many cases of this, camera
movement is used to imply movement the character’s eyes
○ Cutaway: bringing the viewer from a close view to a more distant one
○ Jump cut
● Temporal relationships
○ Continuity editing
■ Match on action: editing technique that cuts 2 alternate views of the same
action to make it seem uninterrupted; allows the same action to be seen
from multiple angles w/o breaking its continuous nature — it fills out a
scene w/o jeopardizing the reality of the time frame of the action
■ Parallel editing: portrays multiple lines of action occurring in different
places simultaneously — usually some type of connection b/n them
■ Superimposition (alt. transitions): process by which frames are
overlapped mechanically or digitally to achieve a layered transition
○ Alt’s
■ Long take (in-camera editing): shots that extend for a long period of time
before cutting to the next shot (generally anyth. longer than a min);
usually done w/ a moving cam, often used to build suspense
Films are made up of sequences. Sequences are made up of scenes. And scenes are made up of shots.

● Transitions
○ Cut: graphical & spatial coherence
○ Wipe: stylistic transitions, usually to indicate jump fwd in time, space, & location
○ Fade to black: often used to suggest lengthy passage in time, or in moments of
drama to indicate smthn significant has happened
○ Dissolve: fade b/n 2 shots, can be used to show briefer passage of time than ^ or
suggest 2 events happening at same time
■ Can show interconnectedness of 2 events
○ Graphic match: 2 shots graphically composed in same manner
○ Match on action: when movements or placement of objects match over edit (e.g.
cut to next shot when the character opens the door)
● Editing decided by how long you wanna give an emotion

Montage
● From French word “monter”, meaning to assemble
● Came from Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, student of
the Kuleshov workshop
● Marxist dialectic collides w/
● Combining shots that are depictive — single in meaning,
neutral in content — into intellectual contexts & series
● All montage = editing, but not all editing is a form of True
Montage
● Einstein’s 5 methods:
○ Metric: cutting according to exact measurement &
length, regardless of content — can be used to
create sense of chaos & tension when cut into rly short shots
○ Rhythmic montage: cutting according to shots, concerning rhythm of action in
shot
○ Tonal: cutting according to emotional tone of the piece — visual or aural (audio)
characteristics such as lighting, shadows, & shapes in the frame; creates Marxist
dialectics
○ Overtonal: cutting according to the various tones & overtones of the shots —
combines metric, rhythmic, & tonal montage: essentially how whole sequences
play against each other
○ Intellectual/ideological: cutting according to the shots’ relationships to an
intellectual or abstract concept by creating relationships b/n opposing visual
elements
● Kuleshov effect: how 2 clips placed together creates meaning & evokes an emotional
response from the audience (intellectual editing)
● Kuleshov experiment: filmed a man w/ a neutral face & intercut it w/ various objects &
showed it to audience
○ When the man looked at soup the audience thought he was hungry
○ When he looked at a dead child they thought he was struck w/ grief
○ When he looked at a woman they thought he was overcome by lust
Films are made up of sequences. Sequences are made up of scenes. And scenes are made up of shots.

● Sequence of images conveys more meaning than a single shot* (2+2=4)

Other type of montage:
● Associative/thematic
○ Unique combo of shots showing objects or person sharing a common interest
○ Popular for MV’s
● Hollywood-style
○ Approach used in commercial cinema to piece together fragments of different yet
related images
○ Mostly used to show time passing and/or compress time while maintaining
continuity
● ^ E.g. in Citizen Kane breakfast scene
○ Superimposition + cross dissolve
○ Dolly in to begin the montage
○ Always frames the woman on the right & the man on the left to make it look like
they’re looking at & talking to each other + est. a set a placement for the
audience to easily recognize them & their roles
○ Changes parts of the mise en scene (the flowers turning into a table setting) to
show the passage of time & progression of their relationship
○ Changes their costumes and hairstyles to gradually show them getting older
○ Dolly out to end the montage
● Hinging: placing a similar prop in different shots to est. connection/similarity b/n the two

Basic forms of transitions

● 01:19 - The Cut*: instant switch/change from 1 cut/shot/scene to the next
● Jump cut: same as cut but moves forward in time
● 02:10 - Fade*: when a shot dissolves to or from a solid color, usually black or white
○ Fade from black: most common way to begin the film to ease audiences in
○ Fade to black: can give a sense of closure at the end of a film
■ In the middle can act as a closing to a chapter to stop the momentum
○ Fade to white: most commonly represents a character entering a dream, passing
out, or dying — can also leave ending up to interpretation/make it ambiguous
(e.g. end of Black Swan - does Nina die or not?)
● 04:47 - Dissolve*: fade from 1 shot to the next, usually to show longer passage of time
or as a way to signal a memory or dream
○ Can be used to create a hybrid moment b/n the two shots → superimposition
○ Superimposition: (e.g. The Godfather, creates parallels b/n them & their lives)
● Match dissolve: combo of dissolve & match cut to ease into connection & similarities
● 06:43 - Match Cut: uses similar objects, shapes, colors, movements, sound, or
compositions b/n 2 shots to connect them & draw similarities
○ When match cutting b/n faces we assume we’re looking at the same person in
different periods of time
● 08:53 - Iris: old fashioned technique that used to be used by opening a cam’s iris or
aperture to close in on a subject (act as a zoom) or begin/end a film
Films are made up of sequences. Sequences are made up of scenes. And scenes are made up of shots.

○ e.g. in Scorsese film: closes in on character to make him look tiny, anonymous, &
insignificant, but then opens out to show large police HQ to show the power that
has now been granted to him - the world has literally been opened to him
● 10:24 - Wipe: old-fashioned, most commonly seen in SW, can be to any direction
● 12:16 - Passing/mass: moving character or object to transition to next scene
○ Or has cam itself move past object
○ Momentum b/n scenes don’t skip a beat
○ Can be used to add hyper-stylized aesthetic
○ Mask in editing
● 13:19 - Whip Pan: quick horizontal cam rotation that blurs image
○ Can be used mid scene or as transition b/n scenes
○ Advantageous to maintain momentum
● 14:06 - Smash Cut: sharp, abrupt cut from 1 scene to the other using high contrast in
visual & audio
○ Can be b/n quiet & loud or chaotic & still
○ Typically used to shock or jolt audience, esp good in horror/thriller films
○ Very common application: when a character startles from a dream
○ Punctuating b/n v/ different scenes can be used for comedic effect
● 16:02 - J-Cut / L-cut:
○ J-cut: when audio of next scene precedes the visual, when audience hears next
audio before seeing it
■ Commonly used in dialogue
■ Can be used in flashbacks to bridge to the past
○ L-cut: the audio from a preceding scene carries over to a preceding scene
■ Often used in narration
○ Power of these 2 transitions: how they can create new context using sound &
image
● 18:11 - Honorable Mentions:
○ Push
○ Zoom in/out
○ Barrel roll

Resolutions
● Typical one today: 1080p (full HD)
● Began w/ 480i (too small)
● HD made resolution better but also standardized widescreen - closer to what our eyes
see
● 720p forgotten b/c came out at same time 1080i & 1080p did
● 4k: named as marketing technique to sound more epic
○ 3840 x 2160
○ 2x width & height of 1080p
● Always render in H.264 - splits frames into blocks