What is Film Editing — Editing Principles & Techniques Explained

Editing Definition FIlm

First, let's define editing in film

While the basic definition of film editing is straightforward, there is still a lot that goes into it. But to understand everything else involved in editing, such as the editors themselves and how they collaborate with others, you must understand the basic core answer to “what is film editing?”

In the old days, it was only when the power of cinematic editing could do to support the storytelling that film editing became a valued process. Let's look back at those early days to see where and how the purpose of editing in film really bloomed.

How It Began

The history of film editing isn’t too fancy, but it does have an early evolution that helped bring it to where it is now. In the early cinema days of the 1890s, the purpose of editing in film was simply a matter of putting frames together to create scenes (back when movies were shorter than 5 or 10 minutes).

During this brief era, very few movies used what would be called “continuity editing,” which meant having continuous scenes strung together seamlessly. Famed French filmmaker Georges Méliès was also experimenting with editing as a visual effect during this time.

With the 1900s, narrative features, like The Great Train Robbery, proved that editing could create the cinematic illusion of time and space. With the power of editing, you could make it look as though a group of robbers have boarded a train and are on the run. So not only can you “trick” the audience into believing what’s happening on-screen, but you create a true narrative, too.

Pretty soon after, more filmmakers experimented with the principles of film editing, with some aiming to prove powerful points with it. The Soviet Montage movement emerged in the 1910s and ‘20s, with filmmaker Lev Kuleshov pioneering his famous Kuleshov Experiment.

It involved juxtaposing footage of a man with a bowl of soup, a child in a coffin, and an alluring woman; it would show his unchanging face and cut to one of the three. The idea was, with the power of editing, you could make the audience believe the man had certain feelings towards any one of these scenes.

The Process

Editing film used to literally be a cut-and-paste process, involving splicing and glue by hand. Splicing was the way film editors made their edits, working with copies of negatives and creating workprints. Later on came what were known as “flatbed” machines that made cutting up and splicing film strips much easier, quicker, and precise.

Decades later, digital film editing technology helped make the editing process easier than ever, removing the need to touch the film at all. Once processed, the digitized film strip would be made into a file that the editor (and their assistants) could digitally touch at will on their computers.

Known as non-linear digital editing, this is the way virtually everyone edits their movies today. And if they’re shooting digitally, then that’s one less step they have to take.

Whether with a splicing machine or a computer, editors still have to compile their “editor’s cut” of a movie. These are often the vision of the film as seen and looked over exclusively by the editor, along with possible notes and such from the director. Later, the director and editor will work more closely together to make a “director’s cut.” This is then followed by a “producer’s cut” or “final cut,” which will include the producer’s input. It’s this “final cut” that, in theory, goes out as the final film.

The Role of Women

Throughout the years, the role of editor has very frequently gone to women. While it has always been difficult for women to break into the role of a director or producer, being an editor was a job women had an easier time getting. This is because, at first, editing was not seen as a “creative” position; rather, it was seen as a “technical” job.

After all, was the purpose of editing in film not simply to put together the scenes compiled by the filmmaker? As a result, there has always been a sizable number of women editors. While appearing to be limiting, they proved that the role of editor can be equally as creative and important to the overall creation of a motion picture.

Types of Film Editing

Editing techniques in film

All those years of editing and playing around with what you can do with it lead to many film editing techniques we use today. Some of these film editing examples are extremely common while others are used less often.

Continuity Editing

One of the earliest forms of editing, this technique simply ensures that things remain the same from shot to shot. If a person is in the middle of drinking from a cup in one shot, and they’re in the very next shot, they should still be drinking from it, or at least be holding onto it.

If there’s ever a goof in the continuity, that’s famously known as a continuity error. These are probably among the biggest mistakes that audience members will notice during the course of a movie. Even though it can be fun to point out, it can also take an audience out of a movie if it’s too noticeable or jarring. Thus, keeping continuity is one of the big principles of film editing.

Cross Cutting

Cutaway

A cutaway shot is an abrupt cut from one thing to another. As the name might imply, it is meant to cut away from one thing to bring attention to another. This editing technique can be used for virtually any purpose, from a horror scare to a comedic punchline. In many cases, it is used to provide irony to a scene or to unsettle the audience in some way.

Dissolve

One of the most common editing techniques is the dissolve, which has been in use for an extremely long time. It can be described as having the visuals of one scene overlapping with the visuals of the incoming one. It can be used for various purposes, such as if you want the audience to ruminate on what just happened in one scene before entering the new one. It can also be used for creating parallels or comparisons between the coming and going scenes, or if you want to allude to the passing of time.

Fade

Fades are fairly similar to dissolves, but they serve a much different purpose. With a fade, either to white or (most often) black, a scene comes to an end. Unlike a traditional cut, a fade slowly ends a scene definitively. Fades, like dissolves, were very common in the early days of talkies and the pre-Code era of the 1920s and ‘30s, as well as post-Code Hollywood. These days, they’re a little less common, but still used in all genres.

J & L Cut

Cut from the same thread, a J and L cut use sound and imagery to capture the attention of the audience. A J cut is when audio from the next scene infiltrates the current scene before we get to see where the sound is coming from. An L cut is sort of the reverse; the sound from a preceding scene is still with us as we enter the next scene. It is often used in conversation scenes to keep things interesting and less stilted.

Jump Cut

One of the more famous and popular editing techniques out there is the match cut. This is when a new scene carries over elements from the preceding scene. So if you have a scene of a donut in one shot, the very next scene could be of a bagel; same shape, different object. It could also be of a city skyline in the day, immediately cutting to that same skyline at night.

Montage

Montage is an interesting editing technique because it can mean different things depending on the context.

The most common understanding of a montage in film is when a movie puts together a series of shots and moments together into one scene. It’s pretty common in sports films where an athlete or team is training or preparing. Montages are also implied (or outright stated) to take place over a course of time; this makes the montage a compressed presentation of this time passing.

The other montage would be known as Soviet Montage (or Soviet montage theory), which came about during the 1920s. It exists primarily as a theory that encompasses many aspects related to filmmaking, audience expectations, and experience.

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