Editing Techniques

Cut – This is the most common of a video transition. It means to replace one shot instantly with the next. When you shoot footage on your camera there is a cut between each shot.

Cross Fade / Dissolve – A fade takes one shot to the other is known as a crossfade, mix or dissolve. Crossfades have a more relaxed and slower pace. Crossfade could be used in situations; where it creates a mood, too slow the pace of the video, convey a sense of passing time or photomontages.

Shot-Reverse shot – This kind of shot is when it alternates from over the shoulder shots between a conversation with two people (another name for it would be. Keeps alternating from each persons shoulder until towards the end of the conversation where we see all the people involved in the conversation in one shot. The example picture to the right demonstrates the reverse shot in the best possible way. Simply how it alternates between each character's over the shoulder position showing the characters in dialogue, this is exactly what shot-reverse-shot is.

Jump Cut – A jump cut is a transition between two shots, which tend to ‘jump’ forward in time. This simply means that if a subject has been recorded then many different sections of the clip would be cut in-between, this would give the illusion of time going forward but is obvious to the audience that clips have been cut in-between.

Graphic Match / Cut Away – A graphic match is a cut within film editing when two objects look similar and it fades form the original object to the next similar object. The reason for using this is to create metaphorical meaning within the shot.

Parallel Editing / Intercutting – This is a technique which cuts between two separate events that are on going at the same time within the same context of the film. The image to the right is from the film v for vendetta and it displays parallel editing perfectly. It shows two different people at the same moment of time looking in the mirror, which is the effect that parallel editing should have.

Match On Action – This is a style of cut that connects two different views that are of the same action during the same moment. This would tend to be captured with a mutli-camera set-up. The picture below displays match on action, as there are of the same scene but two different angles. The first view is of them walking but showing the front view but the second view is of them walking with a view of the back.

Montage – The reason for using a montage would be to transgress a moment during a long period of time within a couple of minutes and showing the highlights of what had taken place. There tends to be background music that goes with the moment.

Wipe – This transition is very old and tends not to be seen on modern films. The shot is wiped from a screen to reveal the next shot. This picture shows of how the modern wipe tends to look like. Which instead of having the old style wipe (which just a line going across the screen) in these modern times mainly objects are used as a wipe. So the example below shows a man tying his laces and as a man walks past it wipes to a younger man getting up from tying his laces.