Principles of Editing

Quentin Tarantino on film editing:“For a writer, it’s a word. For a composer or a musician, it’s a note. For an editor and a filmmaker, it’s the frames. The one frame off, or two frames added, or two frames less… it’s the difference between a sour note and a sweet note. It’s the difference between a clunky clumsy crap and orgasmic rhythm.”

The main principles of editing are: 

1. Telling a story- Creating a film with a story line and continuity to keep the audience interested.
2. Creating a meaning- A film must have a meaning, purpose or motive, with out these it would just be shots strung together with no editing.
3. Creativity - Good editing techniques allows more room for creativity, giving editors freedom to create a professional film that will attract viewers

The principles of editing are  used to try and get the best out of the footage you have. They are sort of like rules and guidelines, they can be broken and used alternatively to greater effect but the majority of editors stick by them. When researching the principles of editing I managed to stumble across a very early soviet film theorist and editor by the name of Vsevolod Pudovkin he was one of the great innovators in early film. He believed that editing, the organisation and placement of shots was a means of expression, that was completely unique to film making, unlike the other art forms such as theater, literature and paintings etc. Although he isn't as well know as other soviet film makers, He coined five extremely important principles of editing which are: 

1. Contrast ( Cutting from one shot to another completely different shot, allowing viewers to compare the two different scenes)
2. Parallelism ( This is connecting two scenes visually by matching certain elements between the scenes, it is commonly used to switch from location to location)



Perfect example of Symbolism in Space Odyssey (2001) A bone thrown in the air changed into a space station symbiosis evolution of humans.

3. Symbolism ( Similar to parallelism, but this time the connection between the two scenes are connected symbolically, for example in Alfred Hitchcocks 'Psycho' When a close up shot of blood flowing down a bath tub drain turns into a human eye of a dead person, the drain is the same shape and size as the eye in the next scene (parallelism) but the symbolic meaning behind the two scenes is the metaphor 'A life down the drain'. 
4. simultaneity/cross cutting ( This is when the movie switches between two scenarios back and forth)
5. leit motif (even though this usually means a constantly recurring musical theme usually associated with a place, person or idea, for exapmple in the movie Star Wars when the Sith Lord Darth Vader enters you will hear the emperors march theme. But Pudovkins idea of Leit Motif was a certain shot, like a recurring shot of a clock to show the importance of the time)

These examples of five principles/techniques are very important in film making now, almost every film will use these.