Shot and editing

Shot and editing can make or break a film. It can make a film look spectacular or make it look amateurish. Filmmakers uses different techniques on shots and editing to help better direct their story as the plot unfolds.

“You tell a story with the film provided to you by the director and when you have a director who is a superlative craftsman, an artist like Howard Hawks, it becomes fairly easy” (Blangested, 1976). For some directors it may come easy for them to make a film they are proud of, but for it to be editing and finished the way they want is always a success.  

Editing is one of those things that can help a film because if you are having trouble with a particular scene the editor can always go in and fix a scene with a simple edit or play up a scene with a more complex one. “It is one of the many functions of a film editor to protect the actors. The technique of storytelling is the use of performances by actors and when you can help actors, you're helping your film and you're making a better film out of it” (Blangested, 1976).   

Editing and how a film is shot can help set the mood for the film. “Editing is as much an art form as motion picture direction, writing, or photography; yet most of us have probably not thought of it in that light. This is a good time to begin thinking in that direction” (Putnam, & McCarron, 1949). The art form can be interpreted in many different ways if the editor is not careful.

The overall responsibility of the scenes the editor gets is the director. “The director is actually responsible for getting scenes a cutter can do something with” (Putnam, & McCarron, 1949). The director needs to make sure they can get good quality shots because without the shots needed to make the film then the editing may be lacking because of it.

A closeup shot is one that is used a lot in film. “I think you can define a closeup as being a shot

which is close enough to show the idea you are presenting. There have been a lot of terms

which Hollywood uses; waist shot, knee shot etc., but they are all relative and it depends upon

who is using it as to how they will convey their particular idea” (Putnam, & McCarron, 1949). 

The close up shot is a form of editing that takes a shot and zooms in on the character or object and then in th 

editing process they can make it more subtle or more dramatic.

BLANGSTED, F. (1976). On film editing. Journal of the University Film Association,, 28(4), Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20687339.pdf

Putnam, V, & McCarron, J. (1949). Production problems: editing. Journal of the University Film Producers Association,, 1(1), Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20686206.pdf