Coherent post-editing skills of film and television

Coherent post-editing skills of film and television

Film and television post-production is a part of the film and television production process, and post-production will begin after the film and television shooting is completed. So what are the skills of post-production of film and television? Below I have arranged a coherent editing post-production skill for you, hoping to help you!

It is this well-known "continuous editing" (also known as "smooth editing" and "shot editing") that dominated Hollywood classic films and was later adopted by a large number of films outside Hollywood. As early as the early film history, its embryonic form has been seen, and its main features have been possessed by about 19 19. The purpose of coherent editing is to make the audience understand the story and pay constant attention to it. Consistent with Hollywood's handling of stories, the basic principle is "transparency"-that is, the performance techniques should be hidden and not conspicuous, otherwise the audience's attention will not focus on what happened, but how it happened.

That is to say, juxtapose the lenses in such a way as to minimize the inherent traces of the clips. When designing the switch, it is necessary to avoid confusing omissions in the screen space or the change of screen direction. The shooting of a fixed field of view lens helps to distinguish the layout and boundary of a scene, and the scene closer behind is correspondingly understood as a scene in this larger space.

Another commonly used technique is the rule of 180, which can ensure the consistency of space in continuous shots and avoid the following phenomenon in scene scheduling: what appears on one side of the picture in the previous shot runs to the other side of the picture in the next shot (just like a mirror image). The rule of 30 plays a similar role, ensuring that the previous shot and the next shot have enough changes in framing to avoid jumping. In order to achieve smooth and coherent spatial juxtaposition, "matching" of continuous shots is also very important-such as line-of-sight matching and action matching. All these have drawn a position map for us, which determines the spatial relationship between this picture and the next picture, and connects the lens with the story itself-the characters and the plot. As "line-of-sight matching" implies, editing is very important for constructing the viewpoint of characters (meaning what they actually see, not the metaphorical meaning contained in the term "focus"). Conversely, it is particularly useful to show what people are watching on the screen and clearly convey the relationship between shots. It is also considered as another reproduction technique of coherent editing, which is generally called positive and negative lens structure. They are most commonly used to represent the dialogue scene between two characters, and the position of the lens is flush with the shoulders of both sides of the dialogue. This technology can clearly tell us where each speaker is, what they see, and also show the intimacy of character interaction.

The opening of "Girlfriend Friday" provides a demonstration for the operation of continuous editing: the setting lens of the film moves along the track of Washington post newsroom, which not only clarifies the busy degree of this workplace, but also roughly explains the relative positions of the editing office (on the right side of the scene), the gathering area for journalists and typists (in the middle) and the elevator (on the left). The subsequent overlap brought us a close-up shot. Siddy and Ralph take the elevator. Their dialogue paragraphs are represented by shoulder-high forward and backward scenes, in contrast to the previous animation. This seems to be a quiet scene. In the noisy newsroom, they created a world where there were only two of them. Then a series of healthy shots. When she passed the typing group and entered Walter's office, "action matching" came in handy. Hitty stood at the door at first, looking at the right side of the camera lens, and then switched to the lens of Walter and Louis. As we know, they are objects that Healty sees. Sidi called to say that he had arrived. When the camera switches to the middle scene, the picture not only becomes three people, but also shows the basic layout of the new room.

Just after greeting, Duffy came in, and a long-distance double lens came in, which made Sidi and Walter have a long talk. Sidi walked past the photo and sat behind Walter: now, she is on the right side of the photo and Walter is on the left. In order to talk to Sidi, Walter turned the chair around and let him face Sidi with his back to the camera. Then change it, Walter. This is for us. Although this switch changed Walter's face from his back to ours, the camera couldn't move 180, just as the first camera made it clear that Walter's position was slightly to the left, and the second camera only slightly to the right. Next, there is Sidi's viewpoint shot, which retains the spatial relationship determined by the middle distance shot before. Sidi is still on the right, and Walter's shoulder is still visible on the left of the picture.

This scenario follows the rules of continuous editing and shows how to apply changes within the scope of the rules. We may also have noticed that when Sidi sat behind Walter, he changed the position of the imaginary axis governing the 180 rule: there were four people in the scene at that time, three of them went in and out, and the line was from the door to the window; Once the scene only contains Walter and Hitty, the axis drawn from the characters has actually been recalibrated by Hitty, which is equivalent to developing a series of possible seats from one end of the axis to the other. While Walter and Hitty were talking and laughing about the details of the meeting, there were also some clever clips that suggested the changes in the interaction between the characters. The clips in the whole scene are smooth and seamless, which helps us understand the plot to some extent, but most of them are not noticed by us.

Because coherent editing is still the main film "language" of mainstream and art films, the audience is more and more proficient in film expression, which also makes the chances of breaking this rule more and more frequent. In particular, action paragraphs often break the rule of 180, such as adding dynamic scene scheduling where the lens moves and the picture changes. Art films tend to disrupt the coherence of fragments (like the jumping fragments used by Godard) and become part of their conscious exploration of film skills.

Noun explanation:

180 rule (180 rule). That is, the axis law. This editing technique stipulates that an imaginary axis is extracted from the scene, and the camera should always be on one side of the dotted line. Otherwise, it will be off-axis, which will easily lead to confusion in the audience's spatial direction.

Rule 30 (Rule 30). This editing technique stipulates that the camera placement angle always differs from the camera position of the previous lens by at least 30 degrees.

Eye contact. In a switch, one shot shows someone staring at somewhere outside the screen, so the next shot should show the stared object. It is more common to show gazer in front, but it is not uncommon to reverse this order in actual editing.

Matching operation. In fact, the action shown in the previous shot can be completed in the second shot, and the two spaces are exchanged.

The lens is reversed Within the scope of the 180 rule, in the complementary or matching space, the lens positions are switched at basically opposite or almost opposite positions.

Extension: Introduction to Post-production Technology of Film and Television

First, the quality of editors.

1. Look for the best expression and action in limited material.

2. The ability to cut materials and find their connection with the next picture.

3. Creativity in using images and choosing music to create melodies and plots.

4. The editor should also give the film a sense of jumping composed of continuous still pictures and inject life into the image.

5. The editor will naturally find the best expression in many shots and find out which point is the tangent point, which is the melody sense of the clip. At the same time, the whole picture of the work will be slowly presented in many photographic materials. Through the material, you can see what the work should look like.

Second, find the method of editing points

Where should I cut and connect? Finding the tangent point is undoubtedly one of the important tasks of editing, and it should be noted that this is the vertex of the picture.

The so-called picture vertex means that the picture is the turning point of action and expression, such as the moment when the character's arm is fully extended, the moment when the bow action ends after nodding, the moment when the ball rises and is about to fall, and the moment when the smile is withdrawn.

The image is a series of still pictures, because the previous film will form afterimages in the human eye, so the pictures on the film look dynamic.

Therefore, the more intense the action is, cutting at the top of the picture or at the moment before the action begins will have a strong afterimage effect on the film behind, leaving a deep impression on the audience.

Third, the tangent point that produces a sense of melody.

Let's take the action of turning pages as an example to see how to find the starting point.

If you start shooting from the state where the action stops completely, faithfully shoot the action of turning the book from beginning to end, so that the audience will know that it is the action of turning the book at a glance.

However, the beauty of the image cannot be reflected only by clarity, and the sense of melody and comfort are equally indispensable. So what should we do?

We choose the initial cutting point in the state that the book turning action has started. If the page turning action is decomposed into 1 ~ 24 pictures, then the first 3 ~ 4 clips are cut off as the initial tangent point.

This change has no effect on understanding the page turning action, on the contrary, it can show the melody and comfort of the action. This editing method can also be applied to other images.

Fourthly, there is not only one correct method for film editing.

One thing I hope you don't misunderstand is that the cutting point is not unique.

When the page turns to the middle, it can be used as a tangent point, and it can also be used as a tangent point at the end of the book turning action.

According to the different works and the different pictures before and after, the tangent point can be changed, and the correct editing method is not unique.

Of course, editing also has its fixed forms and conventions, which can be said to be the rules of editing. It is important to know these rules, but editing itself is a creative job, so sometimes you will break the rules and make some new attempts.

The purpose of verb (verb's abbreviation) editing.

Free from physical constraints, free to control time and space. In photography and production, it is sometimes necessary to divide the lens and form a plot in the later stage.

Omitting the passage of actual time in the story, omitting the movement of space in the story, combining the performance intention to form the plot, and determining the final appearance of the work.

Connect the shots purposefully, clarify and emphasize what you want to express, make the order and structure of the shots more rigorous, and highlight the plot elements.

Six, the fixed rules in the action clip

Editing method when shooting object moves.

Action connection refers to editing the action of the subject.

Once upon a time, it was often necessary to interrupt the shooting of an action because of changing films. However, the same action connected by different lenses looks surprisingly smooth and impressive. It is said that this is the origin of this editing method.

Seven, edit the lens

(1) action 7:3 connection.

First of all, let's look at the basis of action editing: action connection, which refers to the editing method of connecting an action with two pictures.

Theoretically, these two sets of images are just the difference in screen size and describe the same action at the same time, so you can edit from any point. But at this time, the action will be incoherent or repetitive, and the final edited image lacks rhythm.

The general image editing method is to connect the actions according to the ratio of 7: 3 or 3: 7, so as to achieve the effect of smooth action. In this way, not only the front and back movements look coherent, but also the sense of rhythm and vitality arises spontaneously. Of course, the ratio of 7: 3 is not an absolute truth. According to different materials and cutting points, human eyes sometimes have the illusion of repetition and jumping. Therefore, deliberately cutting or overlapping some shots will make the movements look more natural and smooth. Try changing the cutting point in different images to see the effect.

(2) connect the two actions into one.

Connecting multiple actions of different subjects into one, that is, the so-called single action fragment.

Example: The pitcher who hit the home run and the first baseman look back at the fly ball, and both players finish "looking back" at the same time. If we want to make full use of the existing materials, we will definitely use such a connection: hit a home run-> the pitcher's turn-> the baseman's turn-> the ball flies far away. However, with this connection, the movements of two players turning around and retreating will be repeated, giving the audience a dull sense of approval. A single action clip will combine these two back movements into one, and the time difference will be eliminated through editing. Specifically, it is to cut off the first half of the pitcher's return and connect the second half of the first baseman's return, which can enhance the sense of speed and make the picture coherent.

Action connection points

Two cameras take two images with different sizes at the same position and angle. If they are in different positions and angles, you can use this rule to deal with them.

Of course, if the material is not shot at the same time, as long as you change the angle and take the vertex of an action (a characteristic action) as the tangent point, there will be many ways to connect. For example, the moment before the release of the racket ball, the back hand of the racket ball pulls down and then connects them. When editing with action as the center, we must pay attention to several aspects. The following are the main points.

1. Take the lens that looks longer as the main lens.

2. Considering the up, down, left and right of the picture, it does not affect the continuity of the action.

3. Significantly changing the position of the application and camera will make the picture look imposing.

4. The connection according to the actual time will be delayed, so the part that can be omitted in the transition action should be compressed. Especially in scenes with intense action, the lens length should be shortened.

5. The material shot at the same time can be edited at any point in theory, but choosing different editing points and repeating or omitting some shots will make the action smoother.

6. When different pictures are connected for the same action, try to connect them at the vertex of the action.

(c) purposefully overlapping actions to emphasize

Emphasizing an action through purposeful repetition is called double action or triple action. In the example, the shot in which the pitcher's arm is raised to the highest point is taken as the tangent point, and the front and rear action shots are connected, and finally the side full shot in which the hand retracts downward after putting the ball is connected. In this way, the action may not be so smooth for the audience, but the action of "throwing the ball" is repeated three times (triple action), which is very impressive. Double action is only effective when you consciously want to highlight an action, and it should be as short as possible to avoid verbosity.

(4) The middle part of the violent action picture can be omitted.

One of the purposes of editing is the omission of time and space. If we edit according to the actual passage of time and the movement of space, no amount of time is enough to show it, and the audience will feel tedious. At this time, the more effective method is to extract some intermediate shots of the same action and then connect them. This method, also known as the middle cut technique, can greatly shorten the time, increase the sense of speed of the film, and make the audience never tire of watching it. When using this technique, you must choose which shots to shoot, which is a difficult point. The most important thing is not to cut off the vertex of the action (characteristic action). If you take away these vertex shots, you can't know which direction the action will go.

Jump editing develops this technology, which is an intermediate extraction technology, such as jumping to connect images like a phonograph needle. Jump editing dares to break the taboo of traditional editing, making it possible to shoot impressive scenes.

Method of removing the middle of action

When omitting time and highlighting the sense of speed by removing the middle lens, we must pay attention to choosing which ones should be omitted. Omitting other shots, in the initial state, when the arm position reaches the highest, the arm droops, and only these three shots can show the pitching action to the lowest.

& gt>> (5) connect in and out of the frame.

The subject is in the shooting frame, which is called frame entry; ; On the other hand, when the subject leaves the shooting range, it is called frame out. Walking or running people, animals, cars, trams, these moving objects can be edited. Let's consider how to connect the frame in and out of the same subject under different backgrounds. In the scene of a bicycle riding in front of the camera, two sets of shots of the same size were taken in different locations.

Of course, we can connect the bicycle from entering the empty stage (there is only background in the lens, and there is no object being photographed) to leaving the lens. There is nothing wrong with this connection, but the space is too empty and the movement is not smooth enough. An excellent and rhythmic action connection method is to connect the lenses of the latter group when the object is about to leave the shooting range.

The key point is to use a picture in which the subject is half in the lens and half out of the lens, so that the connection action will look smoother. If the angle of the subject in the front and back shots is different, adding an empty stage shot between the frame entry and the frame exit will make the picture more coherent.

& gt& gt& gt& gt (6) The action of connecting different objects at the same point with a dark lens or * * *.

How to connect the actions of different subjects? An example is the connection between a running figure and a speeding car. Let the running figure run closer and closer until it fills the whole picture and turns it black, and then connect the subsequent shots.

Although the running speed of the character is different from that of the car, the black screen (or very dark lens) between them successfully reproduces the smooth movement.

The method of editing character lines with fixed rules in dialogue editing, in which dialogue refers to lines. Dialogue editing refers to editing the lines of the characters in the scene. It ranks as the most representative editing method with action editing, and it is an indispensable factor to show the story.

The seemingly simple dialogue fragments are actually some fixed rules used to express special effects.

Eight, line connection

(a) Line to 1:3 connection

Between the lines, except se and bgm, everything else is silent. For video editing, it is important to create this silent state and use it to express the rhythm of the film. An example is a scene where two people are talking in a car. The key to editing is how much space there is between two people's conversations.

One conversation scene after another was shot with a camera instead of another character, so there was no real conversation between the two people (= interval). When editing, it is important to have a natural interval between conversations.

Generally speaking, the intervals between dialogues will be more coherent if they are connected according to the ratio of 1: 3.

If the gap after each line in the previous shot is 1 length, then a gap of 3 lengths should be left before the dialogue in the subsequent shot begins.

(b) The lines move up and down, which increases the dramatic effect.

Conversation moves up and down, that is, inserting lines into the previous shot (moving up) or dragging them to the next shot (moving down). Its function is to highlight the changes of characters' expressions and actions caused by the conversation. For example, Mr. A was stopped, Mr. B greeted him and said "Hello, Mr. A", and moved this part up. Then Mr. B's lens appeared, and Mr. A's moving line was inserted, "Isn't this Mr. B!"

This makes the whole scene more fluent and coherent. For example, in the previous shot, the key name of "I have someone I like" moves down, highlighting the expression change of the protagonist under the influence of this sentence, which is the intention of this skill. For example, in order to highlight the expression changes of the heroine before and after the hero invited her for a ride, the actor's lines were moved up and appeared with the heroine's facial lens.

If you don't move the lines up, there will be a silent face shot of the heroine in the picture, and the film will look very long and have no sense of rhythm. It is not the length of the lines that determines the cutting of the lens, but the purposeful cutting while considering the plot, which is very important.

(C) the use of embedded montage to express emotions

In order to make the above scene more dramatic, you can use the method of inserting other shots between lines. For example, you can also show a little follow-up shots. In the previous group of shots, when the heroine's lines are in the middle, the facial shot of the hero is inserted, which can not only show the strong expression change of the hero after listening to his girlfriend's answer, but also emphasize the calm and happy state before. Editing methods of non-action and lines, scene change and manufacturing connection points.

1. Beginners can use the traditional o.l method to gently transition shots.

O.L. (Overlap photography), like fading in and out, is a very common transitional effect, which indicates the passage of time and the movement of space, and can also be used to express mood. Similar transition methods are wiping method and dissipation method.

2. Connect different scenes with shelter! Change the window

Window changing refers to the editing method that when there is a shelter in front of the subject, the screen is blocked by the shelter and transitions to the subsequent shot.

Shelters can be roughly divided into two types, immovable shelters (walls or other big things) and movable objects such as pedestrians.

Both can be connected directly, but it is more natural to connect with shelter.

3. Connect different scenes with blurred images.

Aggregation and non-aggregation refer to the gradual synthesis of a clear image from a blurred image, or the gradual transformation of a clear image into a blurred image.

Because it is a very abstract picture, it is very natural to use it to connect two different shots.

However, it should be noted that if there is no similarity in color and image between the front image and the back image, the final effect will look very disharmonious.

For example, from the red rose to the signal light of a police car, or from one person's face to another person's face, blurred images should be associated with specific scenes and can only be used when the stage or subject has the same color and shape.

4. Connect the lenses with the blur effect caused by motion.

Fast moving photography refers to moving the camera around (or up and down) at a very fast speed to shoot.

When using this method, there will be a fuzzy effect, connecting different shots.

This technique gives people the impression that they attach importance to space movement and pay attention to the use of very short and fast lenses. If you use a long lens, it is difficult to use it as a connecting lens for scene change.

Note that the background in different scenes should also change greatly.

5. Connect the shots of the same scenery.

Blank editing means that when two different scenes are connected at the same time, the camera is raised in the front lens to shoot the sky, and then the camera is put down to become other scenes, not blue sky. You can use lens editing methods such as moon, sun and stars. The scenes in the two shots can be far apart, but there must be a * * * connection point (such as the sea).

6. Connect the lens with exposure effect

Just like shooting with a strong flash, the method of connecting different lenses with a flash (fast flashing all-white lens) is called flash effect. Even if the lenses without * * * connection points are connected, there can be no sense of disharmony at all. This technology is often used in advertisements and music videos.

7. Switch to the subsequent shot with the split picture.

The general practice is to separate the shots taken at the same time and put them together. If you don't do this, it will be difficult for the audience to understand the picture. Separate the right half of the lens and insert other lenses to form the whole picture. Very useful when representing synchronous events. Other representative editing methods Image products can be said to be a collection of montages. Finally, the representative editing methods such as reduction are introduced. Editors can greatly change the plot, the mood of the characters and the meaning of the image through different editing methods, and some works even make a 180 degree turn. Montage is to create a story through the combination of pictures. Here, I want to introduce this very effective editing method.

8. Let different shots appear alternately at the same time.

Making things happen alternately in different places is called anti-cutting (also called crosscutting). Backcutting not only emphasizes the continuity of the scene, but also enhances the tension and expressiveness.

By changing the shooting speed of the lens (slow motion), the plot can be more expressive. It will be better to let the shots from different places appear alternately in flashback, and finally both sides will appear in the same place. For example, if you are late for an appointment, the scenes of men running fast and women waiting at the appointed place alternate. Finally, whether the two finally meet or the man doesn't arrive, the lens effect of the woman shopping alone will be very good. There is also flashback, an editing method similar to flashback. Flashback is to insert a large number of ultra-short shots when expressing the memories or psychological descriptions of the characters on the stage.

9. When the connection is difficult, insert a picture similar to adhesive.

Cut away is an editing method that connects the front and rear shots like an adhesive. It is an anti-traditional theoretical method. Connecting two pictures of the same size has a great shock to the whole audience. For example, when shooting the scene of two people in a coffee shop, the specific shots of the two people are not connected together, but the shots of coffee squares are inserted in the middle to make the film more rhythmic. As long as the inserted lens captures the objects that have appeared in the previous lens. For example, connect the lens of a woman looking at a gem, a close-up of a gem with the lens of her shopping in other stores. Please feel for yourself, if there is no lens of this gem, what is the difference between the rhythm and shock to the audience.

10, connecting lenses of different frames to create a sense of rhythm!

Zooming in and out is a common way to bring freshness to ordinary lenses. It is usually divided into three stages, and the mood shots of different pictures (usually close-ups that can express the mood of characters) are connected with the scene shots (situational shots, usually distant shots or super-distant shots). Note that the pictures of different lenses are different. For example, approaching a smoking man three times (zoom in). You can also gradually reduce the lens in three times. This method can be used if the same frame is monotonous. The wonder of "backcutting" from movies is that backcutting is a editing technique, which makes two or more different scenes appear alternately and have some correlation.

This method seems difficult. In fact, we often see it in TV dramas and movies. This is a very common editing technique. For example, men and women appear alternately on the phone, which is a very common shot, but it uses the reverse cut method. The advantage of backcutting is to make the passage of time appear repeatedly, giving people a sense of time closer to the movie. For example, when describing the murderer and the police chasing him, using the method of reverse cutting will make the film enter a climax, improve the sense of speed and give the audience a higher sense of tension.

The climax of The Silence of the Lambs is skillfully unfolded by backcutting. The technique of reverse cutting can give the lens new meaning. For example, in Hitchcock's film Catch a Thief, Kelly Brand and Grace Kelly are talking in a hotel room when fireworks are set off outside the window. Fireworks are a metaphor for their love here. Here, fireworks are cut, making the plot of the film more expressive.

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