Welcome to Module 2 in The Foundation of Video Editing where we’ll explore how the fundamental unit of editing shifted from the scene to the shot. We’ll introduce you to film pioneers who innovated editing styles like parallel action and cross-cutting. Learn the concept of the 180-Degree Rule, and how Dutch filmmakers cut their shots together on the action. Filmmakers like D.W. Griffith showed how narrative problems can be solved with a simple close-up. In exercises where we provide the footage, you can demonstrate parallel editing using footage from one of the earliest films, assemble cross-cuts, and edit sequences that will make your narratives more compelling.

Welcome to Module 3. Delve into the subjective innovations of editing with the point-of-view shot, where it becomes possible to tell visual stories from the narrator’s psyche. Explore a new era of subjective cinema with German Expressionism and learn about psychological editing. We’ll also explore how to smoothly transition from one shot to the next by cutting on movement. Discover how some silent filmmakers explored ways to convey a character’s inner thoughts without using words. Finally, we’ll look at the fast-paced editing style of slapstick comedy and the innovations made by global superstar Charlie Chaplin. We’ll provide you with footage to demonstrate what you learned, cutting on movement, and even using smash cuts to contrast between scenes with jarring edits.

In the final module of the course, we’ll take a deep dive into the Soviet influence on filmmaking and the theories of montage as conceived by Russian filmmakers Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin. Learn about the principles of montage, how it can be used to juxtapose shots with contrasting content, to convey emotions and ideas, and even to make symbolic connections between scenes. The montage can be used to condense time, communicate exposition, and can guide the audience’s emotions when the editing is set to music. We’ll provide you with footage with the media so you can take a crack at editing your own music montage.