Film Language - Editing

  Editing involves taking shots of what has been filmed and arranging them in a way that conveys what the film maker wants to convey.
  Editing is frequently used to set the pace of the scene - few edits in a scene usually mean that things are happening very slowly and could be used to signify boredom or sorrow. In contrast fast editing is used frequently in fight scenes to emphasise the fast pace.
  There are different methods of editing:

• The straight cut - this involves immediately moving from one shot to the next, nothing complex is done
• The wipe cut - this is when one shot 'pushes' or 'covers' the current shot aside
• The jump cut - this is when the shots are edited in such a way that the audience feel as if they've skipped part of the action. This can have a variety of effects such as conveying humour, sorrow, or boredom, depending on the context.

• The fade out - this is when the screen fades to black, and is an edit usually implemented after a lot of built up tension has finished, due to events being resolved.
• The dissolve - this is when one image slowly fades out into another, this can be used for foreshadowing, especially if it makes a graphic match (e.g. a skull dissolving to show a close up of someone's eye)