The things I learned this week were the power of editing and the types of editing. I learned that the theme or the story as a whole could be viewed differently by how we placed the skids in a certain order. This is called continuity editing. Continuity editing refers to arranging the sequence of shots to suggest a progression of events. I learned that given the same shots, an editor can suggest many different scenarios. The second type of edit I learned was relational editing. In relational editing, scenes that by themselves seem not to be related take on a cause-effect significance when edited together in a sequence. In relational editing we expect to see scenes come together in a logical sequence to tell a story. The third type of edit I learned was thematic editing. This edit could also be referred to as a montage. In thematic editing, the images are edited together based only on a central theme. Thematic editing is rapid and includes impressionistic sequence of disconnected scenes. This type of editing is used in music videos, commercials, or film trailers. Learning how to edit stands out to me because I can tell different stories but also have the ability to use the same skids. I also find editing interesting because it makes the story or movie more interesting and intense. I learned that parallel action is when the segments are cut together to follow the multiple story lines. By cutting back and forth between two or more mini-stories within the overall story, production pace can be varied and overall interest heightened. I learned that the cutting back and forth between the characters or situations also helps keep the attention of the viewers.
For this week, we watched Ronald Howard’s MasterClass. Ronald Howard is an American filmmaker and actor. Howard first came to prominence as a child star, guess-starring in several television series, including an episode of The Twilight Zone. The thing I learned from Howard’s MasterClass was the 180 Rule. One of the most common problems is crossing the line. Any time a new camera angle exceeds 180-degrees you will have crossed the line, which is the action axis, and the action will be reversed. This is difficult to fix during editing. I also learned that directors sometimes violate the 180-degree rule for dramatic effect. This crossing the line shows confusion and disorientations.
Something from class that I would like to know more about is solving continuity problems when filming. I am interested in being able to tell a story with simplicity rather than complexity. I would read articles from Cyber College, http://cybercollege.com/tvp_ind.htm, to help me understand more about continuity problems and how to avoid it or fix it. I would mainly focus on reading the video editing portion.
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