Chapter 3

Joining Shots Together

So far we have examined shots as individual jigsaw pieces; now let’s put some of the puzzle together.

In this chapter, you’ll see how individual shots can be made into simple sequences that tell stories, create moods, entertain, and inform us in an enhanced way, much more than individual shots could ever achieve on their own.

This chapter is divided as follows:

• 3.1 The Mechanics
• 3.2 Joining Shots Together, the Don’ts
• 3.3 Key Points—Joining Shots Together, the Don’ts
• 3.4 Joining Shots Together, the Dos
• 3.5 Key Points—Joining Shots Together, the Dos

Let’s start with the mechanics.

3.1 The Mechanics

This is going to get frighteningly near an editing software manual, but I will do my best to keep focused on technique.

 Triangle—An Introduction to Three-Point Editing

Three-point editing is fundamental to the concept of nonlinear editing and associated software packages. I will explain.

The simplest example of three-point editing is where you mark an ‘in’ and an ‘out’ on some source material and choose where it is to go in your sequence by marking another ‘in’ point. The section of the marked source clip (from in to out) will be placed in the sequence, starting from the marked ‘in’.

You noticed I said ‘will be placed’ because I want to ignore, for the moment, the timeline functions of ‘insert’ or ‘replace’.

So the rule is, in order to achieve a predictable edit, you have to set up three points that are shared in some way between the source clip and the sequence. These three points (a combination of ins and outs) can be allocated differently between the clip and the sequence, depending on what you want to do. Given that the software is obliged and programed to match first ‘in’ to ‘in’, or in this pair’s absence, ‘out’ to ‘out’, then a predictable edit will result from just three marked points.

Of course, all of the above applies equally well to audio clips as well as video.

That’s it, really. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you three-point editing.

3.2 Joining Shots Together, the Don’ts

If you get to know the rules now, you’ll be more confident when you break them later on.

Here I examine some common don’ts, namely:

• Jump cuts
• Crossing the line
• Screen direction
• Jumping frame
• Two-shot to two-shot
• Repeated or double action

  Show Jumping from Hickstead—Jump Cuts…Nice or Nasty

If a cut is made in the middle of a moving shot and the resulting halves are joined together, this will create a jump cut. As a result, people and objects will jump across the join as what used to be continuous time passes in an instant.

A jump cut (or what looks like one) can also be produced if two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that are too close together. As a rule, if the camera positions are separated by less than 30° and framing similar-sized shots, a viewer experiences the cut as a jump rather than as a change of viewpoint.

In real life, our brains turn the vision from our panning cameras (our eyes) into cuts by making us blink or by temporally blinding us to the image from our panning eyes and presenting a cut to our senses.

Jump cuts are considered against the rules of traditional continuity editing, which aims to give the appearance of continuous time and space. Jump cuts, by their very existence, will draw attention to the constructed nature of the shooting.

Even though I would caution against the use of this type of edit at the moment, it can be used to great effect to emphasise the discontinuity between two shots, or more often several shots, as jump cuts tend to work better in groups.

In many recent productions, jump cuts, or near jump cuts, are the house style, and this, combined with cutting while the often hand-held camera is still on the move, gives a greater sense of reality to the coverage. We, the audience, are made to experience the scene as though we were onlookers in the actual room and not remote viewers in the stalls or circle of a cinema.

 What’s My Line?—Crossing the Line, or the 180° Rule

Crossing the line, or the 180° rule, as it is known, states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always maintain the same left/right screen relationship to each other until individual movement is seen to change this geographical relationship. In other words, what is on the left of frame stays on the left of frame (and vice versa), despite different camera viewpoints, until the movement of a person (or object) causes that situation to change.

But what does this have to do with crossing the line? To explain this, imagine two seated characters chatting together. Eye contact between these characters sets up what is known as an eyeline. Imagine now this straight line extended and stretched through and beyond these individuals as is necessary on both sides. If a camera passes over this imaginary line (the point at which there is a left/right reversal of the position of the photographed characters), it is called crossing the line or crossing the line of action.

If crossed completely, the new shot (now photographed from the opposite side) is heading towards our old friend, the reverse angle. In most cases, reverse angles are quite acceptable when the geography is well established. Occasionally, a director will purposely cross the line in order to create disorientation.

The next exercise contains clips for you to view in which I have deliberately flopped some of our shots to show you how disturbing crossing the line can be.

Have a look at Exercise 7: Crossing the Line Examples 1–4.

In addition, here is another exercise, Exercise 8: Crossing the Line, which will attempt to prove how difficult it is to disguise these faulty shots.

 Late Night Line-Up—Multiple Eyelines

The term eyeline keeps coming up, and it’s simply the line along which any character is looking. If a character is looking predominately left in one shot, then that same character should continue to look left (to a lesser or greater extent) when the shot is changed to a different viewpoint. Making sure eyelines are matched over a cut is another way of making sure you have not crossed the line unintentionally.

This may seem slightly trivial given our example of two characters chatting with each other in isolation, but imagine this scene extended to a dinner table with eight people around it. Here, eyelines become much more complex and transitory, with all the characters around the table constantly engaging and disengaging with each other. For this reason, you’ll find that a good director will run close-ups of key characters from both sides of their action to give you the maximum flexibility when you assemble the scene. This will also help if the scene has to be shortened in any way later on.

Wider shots, or establishers, are also vital here, not only to act as reminders of geography, but also to show changes of eyeline as conversational relationships come and go.

 Twelve Angry Men (1957)—Dealing with Multiple Eyelines

Twelve Angry Men (1957), which was directed by Sidney Lumet, edited by Carl Lerner, and starred Henry Fonda, is a superb example of how a director and editor deal with multiple eyelines in a 360° situation.

Find it on the Internet and look at the jury room scene, from 10:30 into the movie, for as long as you like.

See how the director photographs the different eye contacts between pairs of participants in the conversations. When a conversational pair is established (and that could be between one of the guys and any number of the rest of the group), then the eyes of each of the parties in the pairing will be framed to look out of opposite sides of the picture frame. Have a look, and you’ll see what I mean.

Great scene, isn’t it? It’s hard to look at shot construction with dialogue and performances as good as that. But back to work!

Hopefully, you clearly saw that when a new eyeline is created, the director quickly establishes this by making sure we see either a head turn or at least a person’s eyes flicking over to a new direction. In this way, a new eyeline is established, and subsequent shots are arranged accordingly.

Incidentally, look at the start of the film for an impressively choreographed single shot, lasting over six minutes, as the characters assemble in the jury room. I wonder how many takes it took to get that right.

 Points West—Screen Direction and How to Maintain It

Crossing the line is linked to, and sometimes even called, screen direction. I think this is very confusing, as they are really quite different.

If an actor is shown walking from camera left to camera right, and then shown in a subsequent shot, to be moving from camera right to camera left, the audience will, in the absence of other geographical information, assume that the actor has changed direction. In order to prevent this, the screen direction must be maintained over successive shots.

The screen direction rule applies equally to moving objects. If an aircraft is seen taking off from right to left (pointing left, in other words), then any following in-flight shots (both exteriors and interiors) should also have the aircraft flying right to left, in order to avoid the impression of an unscheduled return flight.

So the rule to follow (or break) is: out left-in right and out right-in left, if that makes any sense at all.

 It’s Marty (BBC TV) (1968–9)—‘Just Putting the Cat Out, Dear’

There’s a great sketch by Marty Feldman from one of his BBC shows It’s Marty (1968–9), produced by Dennis Main Wilson and written by Marty Feldman and Barry Took, where, in trying to get away from his nagging wife sitting up in bed, the husband makes the excuse of putting out the cat, filling the bins, or making some cocoa, but each time he is visiting one of his many girlfriends from all parts of the world! It’s a great sketch, and screen direction tells us exactly whether he is going out or coming back to his ever-nagging wife.

There are a couple of shots I might have flopped, but it wouldn’t have made it any funnier. It is such a great use of stock footage.

 I Know Where I’m Going—A Home-Grown Example

Look at Exercise 9: Screen Direction Example, where you’ll find an example of what I am saying. There are good and bad versions.

 The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film—What Is Jumping Frame?

Different shots that frame the same person or object in a similar size can cause that person or object to jump across the frame when they are cut together. When this happens it is called jumping frame. The effect is similar to a jump cut, and it can look and feel uncomfortable.

Imagine four people leaning on a gate or fence. The scene is shot in various ways, including a two-shot of the characters on the left (characters 1 and 2) and a three-shot of the characters on the right (character 2 alongside 3 and 4). If these shots are of similar sizes, then the cut between them can look ugly, as character 2, who is framed in both shots, will appear to jump frame. Remember that on location, many different viewpoints are taken of the same action, and some were never designed to cut together. Just be on the lookout for the jumping frame problem, which can, of course, include objects as well as people.

  Spot the Difference—Cutting from a Two-Shot to Another Two-Shot Can Look Bad

As a rule, shots of a similar size that frame the same content don’t cut well together; it’s almost a jump cut again. Imagine we have those four people still leaning on that wretched fence. A square-on two-shot containing the left-hand pair does not generally cut well to a similar two-shot framing the right-hand pair, unless the size of the shots is substantially different. It’s better to avoid this by cutting to a single first, or to a four-shot if available. The two-shot to two-shot problem is eased considerably by increasing the camera angle between the shots. If this is done, the photographed shots head towards the more comfortable ‘over-shoulder’ region.

When more characters are involved, the jump cut effect is not so much of a problem, as it is almost impossible to shoot a large group of characters without increasing the camera angle between individual shots, thus removing the possibility of the cut looking like a jump cut. In any case, a director would never arrange to have all such characters lined up so two-dimensionally unless they are all leaning on that fence as well!

 Double or Drop—Look for Repeated or Double Action

If a cut between two shots causes an actor’s hand to move twice, or a person to get up from a chair twice, or a door to close twice, then an editor would be guilty of creating double action.

Of course, this may not only come from your primary action, but from a person or object in the background. It’s just as well to check all characters and moving objects contained in the shots you wish to join for any repeated action.

If you end up in an either/or situation, then in my experience, it’s better to jump time fractionally forward than to repeat any part of the action.

This being said, the intentional use of double action is increasingly used to enhance a movie action sequence where shots of car crashes, explosions, or attacking aliens can be shown more than once. The repeated action shots are often slowed down or from a different angle, but they are all designed to heighten the moment.

Let’s get back to earth with an exercise. Have a go at Exercise 10: Repeated Action.

3.3 Key Points—Joining Shots Together, the Don’ts

• Jump cuts are produced by removing a portion of a shot and bolting the two remaining halves together.
• Jump cuts can be caused by camera positions being too close to each other (less than 30° difference) and their shot sizes being too similar.
• Jump cuts can look great when grouped together, especially if the camera is handheld.
• Crossing the line is where the camera is placed on the other side of an imaginary line between and beyond two characters.
• Shots taken from the other side of this line are effectively reverse shots.
• To avoid crossing the line, any character should continue to look out of the same side of the screen across adjoining shots, unless they are seen to move their position.
• Crossing the line can create wonderful disorientation.
• To imply a continuous journey, moving objects and people should face and travel in the same direction in sequential shots and thus maintain screen direction.
• If an object or person is seen to leave frame camera left, then it should enter frame camera right in the subsequent shot.
• Jumping frame is where an object or person jumps across the screen. It is caused by the shots being too closely matched in size and framing a common subject.
• Shots containing roughly the same shapes but different content (e.g. two different two-shots) can look bad when they are cut together. Our eyes respond better to greater difference, so cutting two-shot to two-shot should be avoided.
• Check all elements (even background action) to ensure they do not repeat any movement over a cut; this would cause repeated or double action.
• It’s better to jump time forward by a couple of frames than to repeat action.
• In certain situations, double action is a do rather than a don’t, as in the climax of some action films.

3.4 Joining Shots Together, the Dos

Having seen what to avoid, let’s now examine what usually works well.

Our top four dos are:

• Cutting on movement
• Maintaining eye contact
• Using split edits
• Including all changes of expression

 World in Action—Cutting on Movement

Cutting on movement (or matching action) is probably the best technique you can adopt to achieve a satisfactory cut. Changes of camera viewpoint just disappear (if that’s what you want) with a well-timed cut on movement. For example, it can be as simple as the correct timing of a cut to a wider shot as a character gets up from a chair.

At the same time as positioning such a cut, you have the opportunity of hiding any continuity problems between the two performances you are joining. It’s the best ‘get out of jail free card’ I know to deal with those annoying little performance discrepancies.

The eye is attracted to movement; it’s totally instinctive and there’s nothing the viewer can do about it. This magnetic-like attraction to anything that moves is a human characteristic that an editor can use to great advantage. The viewer’s eyes must go and check out this movement first and then, and only then, take in the rest of the shot. It’s just the same as a magician doing conjuring tricks. A flick of the magician’s right hand, and you don’t see what has happened to the cards held in the left.

In our editing world, discrepancies in position, action, or timing can be minimised with a cut that immediately frames some movement, such as a flick of a dress, a hand gesture, or a passer-by. They all can act as marvellous eye-catching fly-paper. Again, you’ll often find that a cut looks better if time is foreshortened slightly, even by just a frame or two.

This exercise might help; it’s called Exercise 11: Movement 1.

 Not Going Out—Movement Motivating the Cut

Here is another example of movement motivating the cut. Let the actor’s movement here take you to the wide, and not before.

Have a go at Exercise 12: Movement 2.

 Eye to Eye—The Importance of Eye-to-Eye Contact

I can’t emphasise enough how important eye contact is between the characters in any scene. The eyes can often tell us more about how a character is truly feeling inside than the dialogue can.

As human beings, we are experts at recognising the slightest change of expression in another human face, and the eyes can reveal so much. It is vital for an editor to convey all this available emotional information to the audience.

You almost have to deal with eye contact as a separate layer for your attention that is equally as important as dialogue or action. So often, at the end of any speech, there’s a very telling look that is worthy of inclusion; it can be the difference between a good cut and a perfect cut. Don’t be frightened to open up the dialogue track by a small amount in order to preserve or enhance eye contact over a cut. Wow moments are made of this, and you, as an editor, have the power to make sure they hit the screen.

Have a go at Exercise 13: Eye Contact 1.

 Contact—Another Exercise in Eye Contact

Here is another example of the great importance of keeping your characters’ eyes looking at each other.

Not surprisingly, it’s called Exercise 14: Eye Contact 2.

 Making Tracks—Split Edits, How to Use Early and Late Vision

Imagine you’re chatting with a group of friends; life would be very boring if we always had to look at the person who is actually talking at any particular moment. It doesn’t happen in real life because, if you were a participant in such a discussion, you’d be constantly checking the effect the current conversation is having on the rest of the group. The same is true if this convivial chat between friends was photographed and subsequently edited. Straight sound and vision edits (straight AVs, as they are known) that only cut to the person talking would convey only a fraction of the emotional content available in such a scene.

When the vision and sound cuts are separated, even by a few frames, this is known as a split edit or L-cut. Huge benefits will result from cutting the sound and vision at slightly different times. The coverage becomes more interesting, and we begin to see reactions to dialogue that would otherwise have gone unseen. Thus, a mixture of split edits and reaction shots is the key to producing the best coverage of such dialogue-based scenes.

Scripted or not, the same techniques apply equally well to interviews, where split edits will give the viewer a better chance to see the interaction between interviewer and interviewee.

When I cut comedy, I prefer to hang on to the person who has just spoken for a moment rather than rushing over to the vision of the new speech. But I recognise that in dramas, the technique of cutting early to see the other person before the outgoing speech has ended can work just as well in some situations. Take another look at Twelve Angry Men, and you’ll see numerous examples of this technique of cutting early.

Exercise 15: Split Edits 1 awaits your consideration.

 Separate Tables—More about Split Edits

I think this technique of split edits is so important that it is worth giving you another example.

Here, you’ll need to use split edits not only to make the coverage more interesting, but also to mitigate for the fact that Gorden Kaye, who plays Philip, is sometimes popping down to read the script. This will give you a good chance to show off how well you’ve mastered the technique of split edits.

Exercise 16: Split Edits 2 is up next.

 The Banana Splits—Even More about Split Edits

Here’s another example of the technique of split edits. Have a go at Exercise 17: Split Edits 3.

 Face Off—Get Those Changes of Expression on the Screen

The best and only way to keep the viewer in contact with all the changes of attitude, emotion, motivation, states of mind (the list is endless) is to put these changes into your sequence. This does not have to slow the pace of a scene down at all, as so often these changes of expression can be laid over dialogue, typically the actual dialogue which is the cause of that change of expression.

You have the solution already—split edits and reaction shots. The next exercise is called Exercise 18: Expressions 1.

 Here’s Looking at You—Another Expressions Exercise

As I think this aspect of editing is so important, here is another example of changing facial expressions, this time happening during a conversation.

The exercise is Exercise 19: Expressions 2.

 The Green Man (1956)—A Great Example of Changing Facial Expressions

Alastair Sim, one of my favourite actors, gives a great example of changing facial expressions in a film called The Green Man (1956), directed by Robert Day and Basil Dearden and edited by Bernard Gribble. It is a Launder and Gilliat script, so you know it will be fun.

Sim plays an assassin called Hawkins who wants to blow up Sir Gregory Upshott (Raymond Huntley), who is staying at the Green Man hotel that night. The bomb (yes, this is a comedy) is packed into a duplicate radio, identical to the hotel’s own, and Hawkins’s plan is to blow up Sir Gregory while he listens to a speech he gave earlier that is due to be broadcast that night. The trouble is, as Hawkins is taken into the hotel’s lounge, a musical string trio bursts into life. His face fills with horror, as this will surely wreck his plan. With Hawkins’s face looking like thunder, he reluctantly settles down in an armchair, staring at the three ladies playing away on a small stage. He soon realises that the only way to remove the ladies from the lounge is to woo them. His thunderous expression melts into joy, and a marvellous sequence ensues as the women are increasingly flattered by his attention, and obvious enthusiasm, as he rapidly becomes their number one fan. Search it out on the Internet.

Given the riches available here, it must have been hard for the film’s editor to balance seeing all the changes of expression without extending the scene unnecessarily.

3.5 Key Points—Joining Shots Together, the Dos

• Cutting on movement is the simplest way to produce seamless edits.
• Time your cut so shots are joined by continuous movement.
• Hide continuity problems with a distracting and eye-catching piece of action.
• Treat eye contact between characters as a separate layer for your attention.
• Eyes can often reveal as much as spoken dialogue.
• Split edits enable you to easily include reactions to dialogue bombshells.
• Split edit coverage is much more interesting than simply cutting to the person who is speaking.
• Split edits with reaction shots are key techniques to produce interesting and varied coverage.
• Unspoken changes of expression and mood must be on the screen.
• Emotional journeys are as important as dialogue, often happening simultaneously, so don’t hide them from your audience.