MMS 175 (Videography in Multimedia). UNIT IV. Module 11.

Editing Techniques, Effects & Transitions

Prepared by FIC Juancho Victor L. Moreno, UPOU FICS

MODULE 11. EDITING TECHNIQUES. EFFECTS AND TRANSITIONS.

Editing
Transitions and Why They Matter
Types of Shot Transitions
Editing as Visual Language
Parallel Editing
Special Types of Edits
Types of Sound Effects Transitions

Editing

Editing is the heart of post-production. It is the last story-telling device that can be used prior to the
audience finally watching the finished product.

Gabe Moura (2014) has an interesting article about Basic Editing which you can find in the link below. He
has a relatively short article, but it includes two videos. The first video is only seven (7) minutes long,
wherein Alfred Hitchcock explains Cutting. The second video, is rather lengthy at nearly 1 hour and 39
minutes long. It is not his work, but rather a documentary by Starz Encore Entertainment entitled “What
do Editors do”.

TRANSITIONS AND WHY THEY MATTER

There are many types of transitions. The most commonly used are: Cut, Fade-in/out (to include dissolve
and ripple dissolve) and Wipes (natural wipe and iris wipe). For the purposes of our course, we will focus
on these three. I’ve included the names of the other types of transitions so that you will become aware
of them, and can research them on your own.

When we talk about film, we are talking about hundreds of shots that are placed together during editing
to form the single film viewed by your target audience. Shot Transition or simply “transition” is the way
that two shots are joined together in a logical manner.

Types of Shot Transitions

Cut.
Cutaway. Cut-in. Contrast cut. Dynamic cutting. Direct cut. L cut. C Cut. Invisible cut. Parallel
editing cut.
Fade in/out.
Dissolve.
Ripple dissolve.
Wipe.
MMS 175 (Videography in Multimedia). UNIT IV. Module 11. Editing Techniques, Effects & Transitions
Prepared by FIC Juancho Victor L. Moreno, UPOU FICS

Natural wipe. Iris wipe

Caesura.
Continuity Editing or Classical Editing.
Defocus transition.
Washout.
Morph.
Psychological time.

These terms are defined well in an article by Wikipedia, a link to which is found below:

Wikipedia (n.d.). Film Transition. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 18, 2019 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_transition#Cutaway

Transitions and their Visual Meaning

Earlier during the course, we learned that Transitions are part of Visual Grammar. According to Gabe
Moura, the meanings of some of the most important transitions are as follows:

Fades – Fade in and fade out are the 2nd most used type of editing transitions. They are usually
used to start (fade in) and conclude movies (fade out). Fade out implies the end of a major story
event.

Dissolve – also called overlapping. It is used to signify the passage of time.

Wipe – it is dynamic. One shot pushes the other off the frame. It implies that the succeeding
scene is more important than the last.

Cut – this is the most basic change of scene. It can be used for effects of juxtaposition (Kuleshov
Effect). It allows for better flow of scenes, as other types of transitions are more distracting.

Gabe Moura’s article which describes the above, can be found in the link below:

Moura, G. (2014). Types of Transitions. The Elements of Cinema. Retrieved on September 9,

2019 from http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/types-of-transitions/

Editing as Visual Language

*This portion of “Editing as Visual Language” and other topics were also placed in Unit I. Module 2. It is
repeated here due to its relevance to Editing. If you do not feel the need to review the matter, you may
skip this part and go to Parallel Editing.
MMS 175 (Videography in Multimedia). UNIT IV. Module 11. Editing Techniques, Effects & Transitions
Prepared by FIC Juancho Victor L. Moreno, UPOU FICS

In the following article by Gabe Moura, the meanings of four commonly used types of editing is
discussed. Fades imply the end of a major story event. Dissolves are used to signify the passage of time.
Wipe is used to push the last scene off the frame. Cuts are simple changes of scene.

Moura, G. (2014). Types of Transitions. The Elements of Cinema. Retrieved on September 8,

2019 from http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/types-of-transitions/

In the following article, Ellipsis is defined and its use discussed. Ellipsis applies to both writing, filming
and editing. Simply put, we remove parts which are superfluous, predictable, repetitive and boring.

N.A. (n.d.). Ellipsis. Elements of Film. Retrieved September 1, 2019 from

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/ellipsis.html

Kuleshov Effect – is a film editing effect invented by the Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. It is a mental
phenomenon where the audience derived more meaning from the interaction of two back-to-back shots
than from one shot in isolation. Meaning is created from the juxtaposition of shots. Below, here is a
copy of the original footage made by Lev Kuleshov:

EsteticaCC (2009). Kuleshov Effect / Effetto Kuleshov. YouTube. Retrieved September 9, 2019
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gGl3LJ7vHc

In the following video, John Hess discusses the Theory of Montage as developed by early Soviet film
theorists. He begins by discussing Russian history right after World War I, leading to the events creating
the Moscow Film School and the Kuleshov Workshop. Later, he discussed the Kuleshov Effect: the
meaning of a film was not only in spatial composition, but in the arrangement of the shots. Kuleshov also
said that “Film can transcend space and time”. Hess later talks about Sergei Eisenstein and the theory of
Montage, where he uses it to break free of the confines of time and space to make film unique. Thesis
collides with Anti-Thesis to create a Synthesis. Hess discusses the five (5) methods of Montage: Metric,
Rhythm, Tonal, Overtonal and Intellectual montages.

Hess, J. (2014). The History of Cutting – The Soviet Theory of Montage. YouTube. Retrieved
September 1, 2019 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=JYedfenQ_Mw

Parallel Editing

Parallel Editing is also called “Cross Cutting” and is a technique of alternating two or more scenes that
happen simultaneously but in two different locations. This technique was first used by Edwin S. Porter in
his 1903 film “The Great Train Robbery”.
MMS 175 (Videography in Multimedia). UNIT IV. Module 11. Editing Techniques, Effects & Transitions
Prepared by FIC Juancho Victor L. Moreno, UPOU FICS

Moura, G. (2014). Parallel Editing. The Elements of Cinema. Retrieved on September 9, 2019
from http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/parallel-editing/

In this article by Michael Maher, he discusses what he believes to be the best four (4) edited sequences.
He names them as: Jump Cut, Intercutting, Kuleshov Effect and Intellectual Montage. Samples of these
are posted to illustrate his points.

Maher, M. (2016). 4 Iconic Editing Techniques. Premium Beat. Retrieved September 10, 2019
from https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/4-iconic-editing-techniques/

Sean Maguire has an interesting article which briefly discusses the Early history of Editing Techniques,
which can be found below. Apart from discussing D.W. Griffith, Classical Cutting, Close-up, and Parallel
Editing, he also discusses Eisenstein & the Soviet Montage. Eisenstein had five (5) styles of Editing called
Metric, Rhythmic, Tonal, Over-Tonal and Intellectual. He also discusses Motivated Editing,
Shot/Reverse/Shot Technique.

Maguire, S. (2012). Early history of Editing techniques. Sean. Retrieved September 30, 2019 from
https://seanmaguireblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/early-history-of-editing-techniques/

[TIPS] Jordan Dueck

In the following video by Jordan Dueck, he talks about 5 Basic Principles for editing video which are as
follows: don’t jump cut, use good B-roll, cut in motion, the 180 degree rule, and determining what’s
your motivation. Note that he also talks about “cutting on a beat of a song”.

Dueck, J. (2017). 5 Basic Principles of Video Editing – How to Edit Video. Retrieved September 30,
2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXcD4KVShO4

Special Types of Edits

J Cut & L Cut – These are two particular types of cuts involving sound that I wanted you to be aware of.
When working with raw footage with professional software, we can clearly see the video reel separate
from the audio. The J Cut refers to a type of editing wherein the audio of the next scene is already
playing before the video does. If you take a look at the lines of the video and audio, a letter “J” is
formed. The L Cut refers to the type of edit wherein the audio of the first scene continues into the
second scene even after the visuals of the first scene has already ceased. There is a good video that
explains it below, from J. Swinney.
MMS 175 (Videography in Multimedia). UNIT IV. Module 11. Editing Techniques, Effects & Transitions
Prepared by FIC Juancho Victor L. Moreno, UPOU FICS

Swinney, J. (2018). SFX Secrets: The J Cut and L Cut. YouTube. Retrieved September 30, 2019
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyH-a964kAs

TYPES OF SOUND EFFECT TRANSITIONS

Overlapping Sound - This term means several things. Tim Dirks (2019) defines it as “the carry-over of
dialogue, sounds, or music from one scene to another, (it) occurs when the cut in the soundtrack is not
at the same time as the cut in the image: (it) can also refer to two or more characters speaking at the
same time; aka overlap sound”. It can also apply to a sound effect that briefly carries over to the next
scene.

Here is a video by Raqib Zaman. He uses Audacity in this example. However, the principle is what we are
after. The idea is that we can shift the sound around, and place it where we want. We use the overlap
when we slowly want to introduce the sound from another video clip to appear early (like a J cut).
However, the difference is that both sounds from the first clip and second clip overlap each other rather
than completely silencing the sound from the first clip.

Zaman, R. (2017). How to Combine Audio Tracks to Overlap to play sound simultaneously in
Audacity. YouTube. Retrieved October 15, 2019 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=U-Yi5c7PhuY

RESOURCES

Dirks, T. (2019). Film Terms Glossary. AMC Filmsite. Retrieved October 18, 2019 from
https://www.filmsite.org/filmterms14.html

Dueck, J. (2017). 5 Basic Principles of Video Editing – How to Edit Video. Retrieved September 30, 2019
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXcD4KVShO4

Maguire, S. (2012). Early history of Editing techniques. Sean. Retrieved September 30, 2019 from
https://seanmaguireblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/early-history-of-editing-techniques/

Moura, G. (2014). Types of Transitions. The Elements of Cinema. Retrieved on September 9, 2019 from
http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/types-of-transitions/

Moura, G. (2014). Parallel Editing. The Elements of Cinema. Retrieved on September 9, 2019 from
http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/parallel-editing/

N.A. (n.d.). Ellipsis. Elements of Film. Retrieved September 1, 2019 from

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/ellipsis.html
MMS 175 (Videography in Multimedia). UNIT IV. Module 11. Editing Techniques, Effects & Transitions
Prepared by FIC Juancho Victor L. Moreno, UPOU FICS

Swinney, J. (2018). SFX Secrets: The J Cut and L Cut. YouTube. Retrieved September 30, 2019 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyH-a964kAs

Wikipedia (n.d.). Film Transition. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 18, 2019 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_transition#Cutaway

Zaman, R. (2017). How to Combine Audio Tracks to Overlap to play sound simultaneously in Audacity.
YouTube. Retrieved October 15, 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=U-
Yi5c7PhuY