So far we've covered three of the four major areas either a GCSE or A-Level student would consider when approaching any media text: mise-en-scène, soundtrack and camerawork. As pointed out at the start of this series, not all elements of Media Language apply to all texts - you can't very well discuss the soundtrack of a printed poster any more than you can talk about the camerawork of a radio drama! Editing, however, is something that happens to almost all media texts. Any media text goes on a journey with five steps: Idea/concept - coming up with an idea; Pre-production - working out the who, what, when and where; Production - making the content of the media text; Post-production - organising the content created into a final product, including editing to comply with laws or regulations in the intended broadcast areas; Broadcast - presenting the text to its audience, bearing in mind the broadcaster may choose to make edits of their own. There is the potential for some media texts to then be reviewed, revised and re-released, though I would argue that this is the beginning of a new process rather than a 'sixth' step. Something as simple as a photograph for the school newsletter can go on this journey: Idea/concept - "let's put a photo of GCSE Media pupils in the newsletter!" Pre-production - "Who do we want to photograph? Where should we take the photos? What will the pupils be doing? Do we need to get any special permissions?" Production - taking lots of photographs on-location in the Media classroom; Post-production - choosing two photos from the 30 taken, editing them in Photoshop for the best quality; Broadcast - the teacher in charge of the newsletter only has space for one photo, choosing one of them and putting it in this week's edition. Editing, as you may have noticed, mainly takes place in the post-production step and involves organising the content created into a final product, but as we've already said: broadcasters may make edits of their own. TV channels might cut the few moments of films that make the difference between a 12 and a 15 or a magazine or newspaper might include only 2 of the 5 submitted photos due to space. In all but the rarest cases, no media text is created in the right order in one go. Lots of different content created in different places with different people in different ways has to be assembled during the editing step. If my film, TV show or music video cut between Los Angeles and London every scene, it wouldn't make sense to film it in the order the viewer sees it, jetting backwards and forwards between London and LA! It would make far more sense (and rack up far fewer airline miles and ticket fees!) to film everything in London first, then travel to LA to film the LA scenes. Even better: if the two sets of scenes involved different actors and I had the budget for it, I could have both sets of footage being filmed by two different filming units at the same time. Either way, however, I'll then need to assemble all of that footage in the order I want the audience to see it.
It's not just films. In print adverts, two models seemingly appearing on the same poster may in fact be photographed days apart in different cities and put together later on during editing. In a radio drama, actors record all of their lines in one session despite appearing in lots of different parts of the episode. Video game voice actors whose characters work toghether or fight each other may not actually ever share a recording booth.
One of you can film Ms Harland in an interview on Tuesday with a list of questions from me, then another of you can film me on a Wednesday asking the questions or nodding in response to Ms Harland's answers (hence the term noddy shots). You can then put the two sets of footage together so it looks like I actually interviewed her - even though you did it for us because our schedules didn't allow us to be in the same place at the same time! Editing is a fine art - done right, the joins between all the different pieces of content are seamless. A two-hour James Bond film really does feel like we've been following James Bond around for the last two hours. A glamorous ghd photoshoot really does make you believe that all six models met on a London rooftop on the same day in the sunshine to curl their hair. Equally, badly edited media causes the message to be completely ignored. Music videos whose sound and visuals don't line up, radio dramas whose plots are in the wrong order or a film broadcast on TV with elements cut out to satisfy the timeslot or content will distract your focus instantly and cause the media message to be lost. Equally, editing can be used for ill as well as good. In the aforementioned scenario with Ms Harland, everyone was happy that everything was being done properly, and you would have shown us both a final copy before broadcasting the interview. However, you could just as easily have changed things to create a very different interview - at least, up until the point you're sued! The age of machine learning and deepfakes (hyper-realistic videos created to make people appear to say or do things that never actually happened) only makes this more of a concern.
But what are we actually looking for in editing?
Continuity and discontinuity editing - a vast range of techniques exist for moving from one shot to another in film. The excellent video from the How to Speak Movie series covers the most important:
Cutting - why is it called cutting? On older, film cameras, the film strip actually had to be physically cut with scissors into strips that could then be reorganised. Modern video editing software still treats your digital films in this way as it's what the industry is used to. This also gives rise to the phrase 'left on the cutting room floor' which means 'to abandon an idea' or 'to leave an idea out' - unwanted film was, literally, left on the floor of a dedicated cutting room during the editing process! Pace/ASL - this is the speed with which the focus changes in audio or video pieces. In filmed pieces (film, TV or music video) we're concerned with how often the camera shot changes which affects the piece's average shot length or ASL. As a rough rule, every six seconds is considered 'standard' - any more often is fast, any less often is slow. This varies wildly from genre to genre, however, and even from director to director, with some directors (for example, Michael Bay) specifically known for a particular ASL. For audio productions, we look at how often there is a change in sound. Between scenes in a radio drama, the verses/chorus in a song or topics in a podcast or interview. When analysing these, go with your gut feeling as to whether or not you think it feels quick or slow - you're the audience!
Transition - this looks at how a media text moves from one idea to another. For filmed pieces, transition shots are used like those in the above video. For my aforementioned London/LA film, I wouldn't just cut from an LA scene back to London - I'd probably fill the transition with a short piece of music and a nice shot of the Millennium Eye or the Hollywood sign. The shot of Monica's apartment from Friends (opposite) was used often throughout even single episodes and is probably one of the most famous transition shots in TV comedy. Notably, other famous 90s-era New York landmarks - not least of all the since-destroyed Twin Towers - used in transition shots date the show massively. Audio productions will likewise make use of musical cues, sound effects and similar to indicate the movement from one idea to the next.
Sound editing - For filmed pieces, this means marrying up the audio and video, which are recorded separately for ease of editing. If you've ever wondered what the clapperboard is for on a film set, it's to create a moment that 'appears' on both recordings (the motion and time on the video, the clap noise on the audio) to line them up later on in editing - helpfully, there's also space to write on the clapperboard what cameras, film rolls and so on are being used so that they can be matched up more easily. For audio productions, this is very simply the bringing together of dialog, sound effects and music. For either case, it also involves making sure everything's at the right volume and that music isn't too loud or dialogue too quiet. It may also involve modifying recorded voices or dialogue to change what they sound like. Modern televisions and home theatre systems are a nightmare for editors to contend with, as they usually have 'intelligent' settings that will make different parts of the audio louder or quieter than intended. J Cuts and L Cuts - as part of audio editing, J or L cuts may be used. This is where the audio is allowed to run before or after the video clip it is matched to. J cut audio plays before the clip is shown. This is a way of preparing the viewer for the visual cut to the next scene. A common J-cut is the sound of a phone ringing, with the video then cutting to the person answering the call. An L cut is the opposite - it is where the audio of the previous scene lapses into or 'lingers' briefly in the following scene. A common L-cut is the sound of an event in the past that the character then remembers in the present. The sound will keep playing after the cut back to the present day and gradually fade out, tying the two scenes together. They're called J and L cuts as this is the shape you can draw between the sound and video blocks when using a video editor like Premiere Pro. Visual editing and CGI - In films and print media, it's at this stage that all the particulars of an image can be altered - brightness, contrast, sharpness, colour balance and so on. This is also the point at which any text or other images can be added - and for films, this means titles, subtitles and credits. With print media, more complex editing can take place in programs like Photoshop, adding content that wasn't there or removing content that should not be.
For films and photos, it's at this stage that computer generated imagery can be created and inserted, though remember our key consideration from mise-en-scène: if it can be done cheaper and for real, it will be done practically instead of with CGI.
To aid this process, all manner of techniques are used on set. You may have seen actors filming against green screens or even used the green screen here in school. It may surprise you to know that many modern film sets are simply well-lit, green spaces covered in reference markers. As a single colour, it's very easy to 'edit out' of a filmed piece and replace with a new background. For actors, however, it's very challenging, especially when they are asked to interact with and respond to an environment that isn't actually there!
To make CGI characters believable and give actors something to 'act to', real actors may wear motion capture suits on set covered in reference points for animators to use later on. Indeed, motion capture is increasingly used in video games, as you can see opposite with a behind-the-scenes clip from The Last of Us II.
As with photos, elements can now be added and removed to the film as well.
An Example
Check out this clip from 1977's Star Wars. I picked it as George Lucas is particularly fond of wipes for transitioning between scenes. See if you can spot it here as well as the other elements of editing. In this clip, Darth Vader's ship (the big triangular one!) has captured some rebels. He's just figured out that the rebels have thrown the stolen battle station plans overboard and down to the planet below. What Vader still doesn't know is the plans have been hidden inside a robot, who we see wandering the desert in the next scene.
There's no need for a running commentary for editing - make some overall remarks about the piece's ASL/pace, its use of any transitions (if a film or audio piece) and whether or not any elements have been added to it. As ever, don't worry if you didn't spot everything - and well done if you spotted anything I did not!
Pace/ASL: The action is beginning to build again, so the ASL starts to drop. We have continuity cuts from Vader to his officer and back again so that we can see the officer acknowledges Vader's instructions. The music J-cuts in as Vader declares "there'll be no-one to stop us this time" and L-cuts out as we establish C-3PO and R2-D2 in the desert. It spans the entirety of Vader's ship orbiting the planet. It gives us the sense that Vader is not far away from the droids.
Transition: The cut to the Star Destroyer orbiting the planet reminds us that this is where Vader is, while the droids are on the planet below. The shot provides a bridge between the two settings. There is a diagonal wipe to fully connote the movement in time and place to the planetside with the droids.
Visual effects and CGI: The room behind Vader's officer is likely the work of a green screen and some inserted shooting. Though this film is 1977, it's actually a clip from the 2004 re-release, meaning some light CGI was used to alter the image quality and lighting and give the planet a nice, clear blue atmosphere. I would not have expected you to spot either of these without knowing the films well.
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