EDITING TECHNIQUES

Smooth editing techniques can be used to make the movie more natural and help the audience dissolve in the movie without distracting them with a good continuity, Furthermore it makes your project more entertaining. Below are some of the basic editing techniques used in filmmaking:

• Standard cut: This is the most basic cut , it connects two clips by joining the last frame of one clip to the beginning of another clip. This is the most common cut and doesn't really invoke any feelings or meanings as others do.
• Jump cut: This cut is used to skip or push forward the time i.e. a jump cut is an edit to a single, sequential scene which makes the action leap forward in time e.g. if a person is shown young at a place but then shown older at the same place.
• Montage: A montage is an editing technique that, again, signifies the passage of time or helps to give an overall context to the story with quick cuts e.g. You will often see athletes training or preparing for a big match in montages.
• Fade In/Out: In this you fade out one clip and fade in the other. This eases a viewer into a particular scene, shows disparate imagery back to back (more of a “dip” in/out), or most often implies a passage of time.  This can be a night-to-day switch or someone falling asleep but can be a bit jarring if not used properly. Nearly every modern movie trailer employs this fade in/out technique. It’s a way to push a story forward and increase the drama without showing every detail, bouncing around between various visual elements of the story.
• J or L cut: J and L cuts are incredibly common. They get their names from how the clips line up in the editing software. n L cut is used when you want audio from clip A to continue when clip B comes in. The  J cut is the opposite, where the audio from clip B comes in when we’re still seeing clip A.
• Action cut: You cut at the point of action because that’s what our eyes and brains naturally expect. For instance if a man is shown firing a bullet the scene will skip to another man getting shot instead of the bullet flying in the air.
• Cutaway shots: cutaways are shots that take viewers away from the main characters or action. They give extra context to the scene and can create more tension and foreshadowing.
• Cross cut/ Parallel editing: This type of editing is when you cut between two different scenes that are happening at the same time in different places. It can be great for adding tension in a scene e.g. a thief breaking in a bank and a guard walking towards their location.
• Match Cut: A match cut is an edit that gives context and continuity to the scene and pushes it in a certain direction without disorienting the viewer. You use it to either move between scenes or move around a space while keeping everything coherent.  A very basic version is shooting someone opening a door from behind and then cutting to the opposite side as they walk through it.
• Sound Bridge:  this utilizes audio to start or end a transition rather than visually manipulating the video layers in the timeline. Sound bridges can be music, sound effects, or even dialogue that “bridges” the gap between shots or scenes.