Editing: Continuity, Montage and Manipulating Time

How editing shapes a film

Editing is where a film is really made. The same footage, cut in different ways, can feel smooth and real, or fast and shocking, or dreamlike. This module works through the whole picture: - Continuity editing: cutting so the action flows and the joins stay hidden.\n- Montage: cutting shots together to compress time or build an idea.\n- Manipulating time: slowing it, speeding it, or jumping through it.\n- Audience response: how each choice makes the viewer feel. Camera work, lighting and sound each have their own module. Here the focus is entirely on the edit.

Words for film editing

Five terms you need before you use them. Learn what each one means.

Match each editing technique to its effect

Continuity against montage

Editing pulls in two directions. One hides itself to tell a smooth story; the other shows itself to make a point. Skilled films use both.

Which cut shows two events at once?

A director wants to build tension by showing a rescuer racing across town while a trapped person waits in danger. Which editing technique does this?

• Cross-cutting between the two actions
• A single long take with no cuts at all
• A slow dissolve to black
• A freeze frame on one face

Tap the two continuity techniques

Tap the TWO techniques that belong to continuity editing.

• The eyeline match
• The match on action
• The montage sequence
• The jump cut

Cutting to manipulate time

Film time is not real time. The edit stretches it, shrinks it, and jumps around in it, and each choice creates a different feeling. To shorten time, an editor cuts straight past the dull parts, or uses a fast run of shots to cover weeks in seconds. To stretch a moment, slow motion holds a single action so it feels weighty or dramatic. To jump in time, a flashback takes the story into the past and a flash forward leaps ahead, while a sudden jump cut skips a beat within one shot. Each of these tells the viewer that time has moved, without a word being spoken.

Pick the true facts about editing

Select the TWO statements that are true.

• Continuity editing tries to make the cuts feel invisible
• Cross-cutting shows two actions happening at the same time
• A montage is a single unbroken shot with no cuts
• A jump cut smooths the action to hide the edit

Order how an editor builds a scene

Put the stages an editor works through in a sensible order.

• Watch all the footage and pick the best takes
• Lay the shots in the order of the action
• Trim each shot so the action matches across the cuts
• Add cutaways to smooth the joins
• Adjust the pace to build the right feeling

Editing a conversation

Follow how an editor cut a simple two-person conversation so that it feels natural.\n\nThe footage: the editor had a wide shot of both actors, plus a close-up of each one filmed separately. Shot and reverse shot: the editor cut from a close-up of the first speaker to a close-up of the second, then back again, letting each line land on the right face. The eyeline match: each actor looked slightly off-camera towards where the other would be, so the cuts feel like a real exchange of looks. Matching the action: when one actor reached for a cup, the movement carried smoothly across the cut, so the join is invisible. The scene feels effortless, which is exactly the point. The strongest work here is the kind the viewer never notices.

Complete the editing facts

Cutting shots so the action flows smoothly and logically is called _____ editing. A run of short shots edited together to compress time or build an idea is a _____. A cut that takes the story back to an earlier time is a _____. Leaving out a dull gap in time by cutting straight past it is an _____.

Build an editing point

Choose the words that complete this statement about editing.

The film editing run

Five questions on film editing. Three lives.

Make the editing choice

Read each situation and choose the best editing technique, then think about why.

• You want a dialogue scene to feel like a natural exchange between two people. Which technique helps most?
• You want to show a character training hard over several weeks in under a minute. What suits best?
• You want the audience to feel two threats closing in at the very same time. What suits best?

Explain how editing shapes a film

A classmate is new to film editing. Explain how editing shapes a film using what this module has covered.

• Explain what continuity editing is and one technique it uses
• Explain what a montage is and what it is good for
• Explain how cross-cutting builds tension
• Explain one way editing can manipulate time
• Finish by explaining how editing shapes the audience response