Style of Editing

The style of editing considers how the shots are linked together. The movement from one shot into the following shot is called a transition.

There are several types of transition:

Mid-point of a dissolve

1. The most common and "invisible" transition is the straight cut. It occurs when one shot moves instantaneously into the next without attracting the audience's attention to help maintain reality.
2. We can also use dissolves to fade one shot off the screen while another shot fades in. This maintains fluidity in a way that a rough sharp cut doesn't. When the dissolve reaches mid-point, the audience will be able to see both shots on the screen at once (shown in the image). Therefore this form of transition can be used to link two places, characters or objects together. It can also indicate a short passing of time.
3. Fades indicate a longer passing of time as the image gradually fades entirely black or white. It is only a 'fade' when only a black or white screen can be seen. It is also used to end a particular section of time within the narrative. 
4. Wipes are when one image is pushed off of the screen by another image. They are most commonly pushed off the left-hand side because this maintains a sense of moving forward in time. They are used to signal movement to a different location that is experiencing the same time. (Star Wars example)
5. A jump cut breaks continuity editing, causing 'discontinuity', because the audience's attention is brought into focus on something else very suddenly. It appears as if a section of a shot has been removed entirely. (provide example)
6. A graphic match is when two consecutive shots are matched in terms of their shape/size. This creates a smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next. Hitchcock uses this in Psycho by matching the circular shape of the plug hole with Marion's eye.

Montage Theory:

Lee Kuleshov was one of the first to theorize the new medium of montage in cinema in the 1920s. Kuleshov argued that creating a film was like building a building: shot-by-shot, brick-by-brick. Around 1918, he conducted a study to prove this theory by taking a head shot of a known Russian actor and inter-cut this shot with various images.

Kuleshov's theory in use

Strike 1925 directed by Sergei Eisenstein used Kuleshov theory by associating images of a cow being killed with collapsed workers to make it appear as it they were being slaughtered.

Montage editing consists of many images that are quickly edited together to force the viewer to create connections between the images being shown. At times the images may be put together deliberately without any necessary connection which is used to reflect chaos, tension or disturbance of a character's state of mind perhaps. Although the images do not provide a sense of the narrative moving forward, the images are full of meaning for the viewer and they may have an overall thematic or visual connection with one another.

Citizen Kane opening:

Montage Theory:

Montage: The Kuleshov Experiment

Montage editing: