Film editing has been around since the just after the birth of cinema, in the early twentieth century. Well until the 21st century it was a mechanical process, and involved the physical cutting of celluloid film and splicing it together to tell a story. From the 1950s onwards, television began to use the electronic system of video tape to shoot and edit.
What is Editing?
The action of shifting attention from one aspect to another.
The technique of assembling footage (or shots) and sound to create a logical and meaningful film experience (usually a narrative).
Connecting, juxtaposing and structuring shots and scenes to tell a story.
Choosing the 'moments' from your footage to create a convincing reality for your audience.
One of the most celebrated scenes in the film is the massacre of civilians on the Odessa Steps (also known as the Primorsky or Potemkin Stairs). This sequence has been assessed as a "classic" and one of the most influential in the history of cinema.
Before the widespread use of digital non-linear editing systems, the initial editing of all films was done with a positive copy of the film negative called a film "work print" (cutting copy in UK) by physically cutting and pasting together pieces of film. Today, most films are edited digitally (on systems such as Avid, Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro) and bypass the film positive "work print" altogether. In the past, the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do as much experimenting as he or she wished, without the risk of damaging the original.
Before you start even thinking about editing, you need to open a new project in Premiere. If you’re starting from scratch, open Premiere and select to create a new project. Pick a name for your project and somewhere to save it on your device. The first thing you need to do after creating your project is import files to work with. This will most commonly be video files, but can also be images and audio.
Import your files into your project by dragging them into the project panel or using the Import button. In the project panel, you can rename files and put them into folders. This allows you to really organise your files any way that makes sense for you.
There are a lot of tools that Premiere packs into one window. This of course means that multiple areas need to serve multiple purposes. The top-left panel holds the Effect Controls, Audio Clip Mixer, Metadata, and Source Monitor. The bottom-left panel features the Project files, Media Browser, Libraries, Info, Effects, Markers, and History. The main viewer and the timeline have their own areas.
Now that you have set up your project and imported all of your media its time to start cutting something together for a rough. Starting out there are nine different cuts that every editor should know these are :
The Standard Cut
Jump Cut
J-Cut
L-Cut
Cutting on Action
Cross Cutting
Cutaways
Montage
Match Cut
Here's a video to explain these definitions further:
Being skilled in multiple areas of the creative industries is invaluable as not only does it mean you are able to do more, you have a greater understanding of how to work with other industries.
With my major being Audio Engineering, it is almost invaluable in my opinion particularly with my specialisation in post-production, to understand what goes into the creative process of creating visual media for film and TV. This also means that for my own benefits, content creation will be much easier as I will not need to outsource to edit videos for social media and clients alike.
Battleship Potempkin - Odessa Steps scene (Einsenstein 1925)
9 Cuts Every Video Editor Should Know | Filmmaking Tips