Edward Dmytryk's Rules of Editing

Edward Dmytryk was a film director who was famous for his film noirs in the 1940's. He directed 53 films in his career, as well as being nominated for several awards. After his career as a director, he taught and lectured about film and directing at a few universities in the USA, and wrote several books on filmmaking.

In one of his books,'On Film Editing', he outlines seven rules for editors;

1. Never make a cut without a positive reason
The next shot should do something to help further the narrative or influence the audience, better serving the purpose of the filmmakers intentions. A cut shouldn't be unrelated or unnecessary.

2. When undecided about what frame to cut on, cut long rather than short
This makes it easier to cut later if you change your mind. This rule would have been especially important when film was on tape which had to be cut to edit, as to make the shot longer again would have meant taping the tape back together.

3. Whenever possible, cut in motion
This is the idea of an action match - of a movement starting on one shot and after the cut, ending in another shot. This makes the action seem fluid and natural.

4. The 'fresh' is preferable to the 'stale'
This means that a cut should be made before it is left too long - it's better to show 'fresh' material than linger on something when the actor has left or finished what they were doing.

5. All scenes should begin and end with continuing action
Scenes should never start with the actors waiting to act - they should be in the middle of another action rather than waiting for the scene to start. This keeps audience interested, as well as the scene seeming more realistic.

6. Cut for proper values rather than proper matches
If a cut is dramatically correct and to the correct rhythm, a bad match can often go unnoticed by an audience.

7. Substance first, then form
Telling the story and provoking audience reaction should always be a higher priority than technique. The human situation and context has to be put first over a stylised edit.

Walter Murch's Rules of Editing

Walter Murch is an American sound designer and film editor, and worked with Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas in the 1960's and 70's. As well as this, he is a leading author and educator on the topic of film editing, his book 'In the Blink of an Eye' described as a "manifesto for editors".

Although he encourages experimentation in editing, Murch says that there is essentially six categories to consider when editing, and he even provides a percentage to each category to what their value is to the edit as a whole. He says “An ideal cut (for me) [sic] is the one that satisfies the following six criteria at once.” That criteria is... 

1. Emotion (51%)

This is about what emotion you want the audience to feel. 

The audience's emotions and reactions should be of key focus to an editor - will each cut prompt the emotion from the audience that the director and the editors intend for that scene?

The high percentage marks the importance of emotion in the edit. A cut that prompts an emotional response from the audience should take precedence over a cut only meant to preserve the narrative's continuity.

2. Story (23%)

This is asking if the cut does anything to advance the narrative. 

In films, the narrative is the driving force of the film, so making sure each cut is dynamic and advances the story is vital.

3. Rhythm (10%)

This is asking if the cut occurs at the moment that is rhythmically right or interesting, and not jarring to the audience (unless of course this is the intention).

Often if the rhythm in the cut is right, the editing will look natural and the audience will almost be unaware of the edit.

4.  Eye Trace (7%)

This is about how the cut effects the audiences focus in the frame. 

A cut should not disorientate the viewer to the extent that their eyes cannot see the action in the next shot happening. Often actors can make this hard due to their movement in a shot.

If the focus of the next shot isn't radically different to the last before the cut, the cut will not be disorientating, again making the audience unaware of the edit.

5. Two Dimensional Plane of Screen (5%)

This rule refers to the 180 degree rule, and how each edit should follow the axis, the imaginary line that connects the two main focuses in the scene. When filming, the camera should only stay on one side of this axis, and in the edit, consecutive shots should also follow this rule.

6. Three Dimensional Space (4%)

This is about if the cut is true to the physical and spacial relationships within the diegesis (the world in which the film takes place). The cut should make sense in the setting of the scene. 

Murch emphasises that these rules aren't to be strictly followed, and should be used as guidelines when editing. Emotion and story are the top two priorities when editing, however the others often have to be used to achieve this - Murch likens them to “the bonds between the protons and neutrons in the nucleus of the atom.”The last two rules are also much more relevant to classical editing than some editing in film today, as they are much more about continuity and clarity and space, and are to be followed by editors wanting to edit a film where the edits feel truly invisible. Some editors break these rules to give a different effect to their edit, yet ultimately the edit needs to continue to shape the audiences reaction and emotions, and further the narrative. 

Suspence in Film

In our film, we use editing to cut the footage to the rhythm of a heartbeat in order to create suspense, as well as speed up the pace of our film with jump cuts in the opening. Many films use editing to create suspense in films. Here are some examples in films I have seen:

Jurassic Park (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg)
The scene with the Velociraptors in the kitchen is famous for being full of suspense. Editor Michael Kahn achieves this with slow, panning shots that don't cut away fast, allowing the audience to see the children in the same room as the dinosaurs. The short close up of the banging ladle allows for the audience to feel the same dread as the children do, as the focus is on that rather than their reactions. The shot of the velociraptors reacting to it before we cut back to the children also allows the audience to see something the children aren't, increasing our knowledge and making us aware of how much danger they are in. At the end of the scene, as Tim runs out the door, the cuts are faster, increasing the pace and tension.

Se7en (1995, dir. David Fincher)
The tension in the climax of 'Se7en' when Brad Pitts character Detective Mills finds out about his murdered wife is achieved through cross cutting. Although both the dialogue between Somerset and Mills and the simultaneous dialogue between Mills and John Doe occurs in the same location, Doe's dialogue becomes almost a monologue, and close up shots are used when cutting between Mills and Somerset's conversation where Somerset is trying to calm Mills down, and Doe's monologue. Editor Richard Francis-Bruce uses this cross cutting of the two simultaneous conversations as well as the soundscape which builds both in use of jarring music and also in volume are used to create tension in this scene.

Goodfellas (1990, dir. Martin Scorsese)
In the film there is a scene where Karen is told by Jimmy to pick up some dresses for him from "around the corner". The instruction is seemingly harmless, yet editing is used to create tension in this scene, and presume that Jimmy is perhaps planning something more sinister. The shot pans from Karen walking down the road to Jimmy by the door, emphasising that he isn't coming with her. A close up tracking shot is used to show Karen's uncertainty, especially as the shot lingers. A tracking shot of the wall by the street, presumably Karen's view also builds tension, as there is nothing there, yet the shot suggests that something may be soon.