(4) Editing can compress time.
(5) Editing can lengthen time.
(6) Edit for the appropriate moment.
b. Use cut-ins and cut-aways of the same quality as overall scene.
c. When choosing from a variety of like shots, select the one with best
composition, focus, color, and least distracting foreground or background.
d. Ensure that special electronic effects have a purpose and enhance the
program.
e. Use appropriate change of angle. The shot should be different enough
to avoid boredom but angle should not be so different as to be confusing or
give a jerky effect.
f. Use sufficient close-ups. Television is a close-up medium.
Closeups
look better on small television screens.
g. Never cut just for the sake of it.
Intercut different angles,
juxtapose, begin to build up complex sequences. Establish pace and mood. Did
you use a script? Do the shots parallel the script? Does audio support the
video? Are the shots in order? Is there continuity?
h. Don't always edit for video.
Sometimes it is necessary to edit for
sound, e.g., one might edit at the end of a powerful dialogue as opposed to the
middle of a conversation. However, strong video, in general is more effective
than strong narrative.
6. The professional editor must first understand the process behind how the
audience sees.
The human mind has the capability to fill in information
omitted from the basic sequence. A cut from a long shot of the cowboy on the
horse, to medium shot of a closeup of his face, is psychologically acceptable
to the audience. The audience requires key information.
a. The specific details must be emphasized. The general impression leaps
into the specific. At the fitting moment, the editor will cut from a general
view of the whole to the specific. The editor does not show every detail and
movement.
By cleverly editing together scenes of the basic sequence, the
editor gives an impression of the real.
b. The director exercises his right to select details which he deems
significant, those details which best portray his story or documentary. A 1-
hour show on television may cover a 2-week period in a man's life. There is
not time to show everything that happened in that 2-week period; only key
events, in sequence. The mind will fill in the rest. What a tedious affair it
would be if it took 2 weeks to watch a story about 2 weeks in a man's life.
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