list of cutting techniques…

[Alan E. bell]

Interesting question.

I think you may be better served talking about the process of editing as opposed to trying to get scientific about specific edit types. At it’s most fundemental level there is only one type of edit and that is the cut. Everything else is an effect of some sort.
Some people like to call audio cuts which do not line up with the image edit points prelaps or overlaps, but it seems to me that’s just another way of looking at a straight cut.

Some of the many techniques I use when cutting narative are:

Straight Cuts
slipped lines (sliping a line from one take and using it in another)
Dissolves
Fade ins
Fade outs
Blow ups
Push ins
blurs
wipes
pans
Composites
snap zooms
super impositions.

The list goes on and on and on. It’s funny though because I cannot for the life of me tell you why I would use each one and when. It’s dependant on so many factors that it seems impossible to describe. Ultimate it’s all about taste.

Alan

[Enzo Tedeschi]

Not a bad list – but it’s missing one omy favourites: the Jump Cut.

Also a fundamental concept in editing is parallel action, or parallel editing. Sergei Eisenstein pretty much invented and refined this concept,and it probably would get missed in a list like this because it’s now an assumed technique, particularly in cutting drama.

Example, a shot of a speeding train followed by a shot of someone tied to the tracks suggests that the train is headed straight for them, even though we haven’t seen the train and the person in the same shot. Taking it one step further, this also extends to intercutting scenes that are meant to be happening at the same time.

Examples for reference: Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin” sometimes known as “Potemkin”. There is a classic scene with a baby pram. Ground-breaking stuff when most films at the time were locked off cameras on wide. You’d be lucky to get a closeup!!

Brian De Palma reworked the pram scene in “The Untouchables”. Goes to show the timelessness of the technique!!

Hope this helps!

e.

[Chaz Shukat]

I think it is a major problem in the educational process of editors that they aren’t being taught the basic techniques of the trade. Editing is an art and involves much more than knowing how to work the equipment. I am currently writing a book to address this problem. It’s designed to be a mentor to students and new editors. If you have any ideas as to what should be included in the book, please post a way that I can contact you directly.