Editing Techniques

Editing - The activity of selecting the scenes to be shown and putting them together to create a film.

Continuity Editing - Continuity editing is the predominant style of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of filmmaking of narrative films and television programs. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.

Jump Cut -A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time.

Credits -publicly acknowledge a contributor's role in the production of (something published or broadcast).

Cross Cutting - Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions but this is not always the case.

Cutaways - In film and video, a cutaway shot is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else. It is usually, although not always, followed by a cut back to the first shot, when the cutaway avoids a jump cut.

Freeze Frame - A single frame forming a motionless image from a film or videotape.

Eye-line Match - An eyeline match is a film editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eyeline match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking.

Juxtaposition - The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.

Linear Narrative - A sequential narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end-in that order.

Montage Editing - The juxtaposition of seemingly unconnected images in order to create meaning.

Parallel Editing - A style of editing that involves cutting back and forth between two or more scenes in which the action is taking place simultaneously or in which one action is compared or contrasted with another. See also crosscutting.

Visual Effects - Visual effects (commonly shortened to Visual FX or VFX) are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shot.

Match On Action - Either an action commenced in shot A is completed in shot B, or an action in shot A is mirrored by an action in shot B, for example when we cut from character A in location A reading a letter to character B in location B reading the same letter.