THREE MUST KNOW CUTS WHEN FILM EDITING
What is editing? Essentially editing is taking all of the footage that was shot for your film and assembling it in the best fashion that conveys the vision and message of your film.
However, there are a lot of ways to assemble your film. It’s a guarantee that if you give multiple editors the same raw footage of your film and the script with it, you’re going to get multiple end results. None of the film cuts would be the same.
One of the reasons is because there are multiple ways of getting the same result when in an editing room. And of those ways, cutting is one of them. Therefore, in this post we will highlight 3 More Must Know Cuts When Film Editing.
Without further ado:
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1) CUTTING ON ACTION
Cutting on action is a fundamental and highly used cut in editing. Of the greatest reasons why Cutting On Action is used is because it makes the cut seamless. So seamless that when done right it’s not even noticeable that there was cut.
It works like this. Lets say you start off your scene in a wide shot with your subject looking at a cookie and then the your subject quickly grabs the cookie and puts it in his/her mouth.
To cut on action you would then cut on the movement to a close up as your subject grabs the cookie and putts it in his/her mouth.
The essential thing to remember when Cutting On Action is to make sure you cut on movement, any movement. That’s the key to making it work.
2) CROSS CUTTING/PARALLEL EDITING
This is telling two stories at the same time. You keep cutting from one to the other. This can be done to build suspense. Often this method is done in thriller movies, heist movies, etc. However, this method of cutting is not solely for specific genres. If it works for the vision of your film, use it.
Cross Cutting is often done in chases, when two people need to come together, etc. With this method you can tell two stories, or more, at once as you switch back and for the between stories.
3) CUTAWAY
Cutaways are generally used to show viewers where a subject is. For example, if a shot starts off with your subject on a porch looking around, you can then cutaway to your shots of your subject’s environment to inform the viewer what your subject is looking at.
Doing this will give your audience a visual description of where your subject is, thus enhancing their viewing experience with the information you gave them.
The key to making Cutaways work is to make sure they match your subjects eyeline (i.e., where they are looking at). Also, have varying angles and compositions for your Cutaway shots. You don’t want to keep showing the same cutaway through the whole time. Unless of course, there’s a purpose or a payoff in doing so.
BONUS
MONTAGE SHOT
Montages are basically a sequence of various shots. They are often done to show the passing of time, to orderly give viewers a bunch of information about the growth of your subject(s) and are usually accompanied with music in the background.
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