BTEC TV and FILM EDITING UNIT

MOVING IMAGE FICTION – A GENERAL INTRODUCTION

There are several fundamental techniques used to generate meaning.

These techniques manipulate both the TECHNICAL CODE and the CONTENT CODE (or
MISE-EN-SCENE). Below are four of the most important areas to know about before you
attempt any close analysis.

1. THE CONTINUITY SYSTEM

2. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES
3. IDENTIFICATION
4. SUSPENSE

1. THE CONTINUITY SYSTEM

Because EDITING can be confusing to an audience the first thing a film maker has to do is help the
audience understand the relation of one shot to the next. Therefore a set of loose ‘rules’ about
editing has developed, called the CONTINUITY SYSTEM. This consists of:
 the 180˚ Rule or axis of action
 establishing shots
 eyeline match/POV
 match on action
 shot-reverse shot

2. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
It is not enough for an audience just to be able to follow what is happening from one shot to the
next, the audience must WANT to follow it. There must be a STORY which keeps them interested.
The way a STORY is given a particular structure or PLOT can be referred to as the underlying
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE. There have been many approaches to analysing the underlying narrative
structures of film fictions (using Propp, Todorov, Barthes etc). These have met with varying degrees
of success, but it is clear that there IS a “classic Realist” (or Classic Hollywood as it’s called in film
studies) narrative structure, which involves certain recurring elements:
 The story generally revolves around one main character (the ‘hero’ or ‘main protagonist’)
 The hero leads a normal life (Todorov’s “equilibrium”) until he (or more rarely she)
encounters some sort of “agent of change” or “enigma”
 This sends the hero on some sort of “quest”
 When the agent of change or enigma has been eradicated and loose ends have been tied
up, closure is reached (Todorov’s “new equilibrium”) and the film ends.

1
BTEC TV and FILM EDITING UNIT

Narrative structure acts like a machine to generate audience pleasure. It’s a bit like a fairground ride.
We are winched up away from ‘normality’ by the enigma then set loose on the rollercoaster ride back
down to resolution. It’s pleasurable even if it’s frightening, because we know we are safe and that
eventually we’ll reach closure (get back down to the ground!) again.

Narrative structures can be very complex and fragmented. They can use flashbacks, tell events from
multiple perspectives, withhold things from us etc etc. But most of them boil down to the underlying
structure described above. However, it is important to consider how TV Drama texts use variations on
the above narrative structure. For example, there are genres and texts which use “multistrand”
narrative structures, or which do not have “closure”. Some do not have a single, clear “hero” or main
protagonist. Can you think of any examples of such texts? We will discuss some later.

3. IDENTIFICATION
It’s not just enough to have a narrative structure to tell your story through. The audience has to GET
INVOLVED with the story. So moving image texts employ a range of techniques to ensure that we
come to IDENTIFY with the main protagonist/s in the narrative. The most important of these are:

 The close-up shot to characterise and to enable us to empathise with the character’s
emotion. The close up is VERY POWERFUL as it takes us into the personal space of the
character. In real life we only get that close to people we love, unless an enemy invades
our personal space.
 The point-of-view shot
 The reaction shot

2
BTEC TV and FILM EDITING UNIT

4. SUSPENSE
Once you have your audience interested, you need to keep them! They need to experience a range
of emotions in relation to the main protagonist/s and the other characters in the text. Therefore the
programme maker will try to generate curiosity, fear, excitement, anxiety and so on. This can be
looked at generally as the generation of SUSPENSE, and there are some classic ways of doing it:

 Cross-Cuts. Perhaps THE most important convention. Cross cuts imply simultaneity and
convergence of two scenes or spheres of action within a scene. The suspense is created
because the audience knows of the convergence but the characters may not, and the audience
does not know HOW or with what EFFECT.

 Editing Pace. The speed of editing will increase as suspense builds. In cross cut sequence
this connotes the increasing convergence of the scenes or spheres of action and in non-cross
cut scenes it mimics the ‘jumpiness’ of experiencing fear. Increasing the speed of editing can
be very effective when nothing unusual is happening in a scene - it makes the audience ‘edgy’
- wondering if something is GOING to happen.

 Low/High Camera Angles. Non-naturalistic camera angles can be expressive and

unsettling.

 Extreme close-ups. These may do a number of things.

- On a VICTIM or someone without much power in a scene, they help us to identify with their
fear/powerlessness.
- Also on a victim, in a scene where they are in jeopardy, close-ups remove background from
the frame so that we see the fear of the character but not the threat or its whereabouts. An
unseen threat is more threatening! We are placed in a position where it may be ‘behind us’ or
anywhere but we just don’t know...
- On the THREAT or attacker or monster etc an ECU means that it has INVADED OUR
PERSONAL SPACE. It is thus signified as attacking, invasive, aggressive.

 Manipulation of Time. Frequently in cross cutting, time is ‘expanded’ in one sphere of the
action, and allowed to run at normal speed in the other. The threat is delayed when off
screen. This manipulates our expectations of convergence. We continually expect the threat
to ‘get’ the victim (egs the ticking time bomb type of scene in, say, a Dr Who episode).

 Point of view shots. These allow emotional identification or, sometimes, voyeuristic
identification with the aggressor.

 Mise-en-scene. This may be manipulated to generate uncomfortable feelings of suspense.

Eg Norman’s stuffed birds, or the eerie, LOW KEY lighting, often from below.