Editor's cut in Film Editing

Editor's cut
An Editor's Cut of a motion picture is made by the film editor on his/her own, or working with the film director. The editor tapes together the first cut of the film, the "editor's cut", arranging the separate takes into a coherent story according to the plan communicated by the director. The editor's version of the film will often be as much as two hours beyond the final running time of the film. Working from the editor's cut, decisions then need to be made, usually together with other creative staff, to improve continuity, balance the story, trim or delete scenes, etc.
A version supposedly nearer the Director's original creative vision is sometimes marketed as a Director's cut, or Editor's cut. These special-market versions of a movie DVD are more expensive than the regular edition, as they are usually longer than the theatre version, and have extra discs often including "making of ... " documentaries, out-take collections, extended interviews with cast and crew, etc.
Footage A- Roll
In film and video, footage is the raw, unedited material as it has been recorded by the camera, which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work. More loosely, footage can also refer to all sequences used in film and video editing, such as special effects and archive material (for special cases of this, see stock footage and B roll). Since the term originates in film, footage is only used for recorded images, such as film stock, videotapes or digitized clips – on live television, the signals from the cameras are called sources instead.The origin of the term "footage" is that 35mm film has traditionally been measured in feet and frames; the fact that film was measured by length in cutting rooms, and that there are exactly 16 4-perf frames in a foot of 35mm film which roughly represented 1 second of silent film, made footage a natural unit of measure for film. The term then became used figuratively to describe moving image material of any kind.
Television footage, especially news footage, is often traded between broadcasting organizations, but good footage usually commands a high price. The actual sum depends on duration, age, size of intended audience, duration of licensing and other factors. Amateur video footage of current events can also often fetch a high price on the market – scenes shot inside the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks were reportedly sold for US$45,000. Sometimes film projects will also sell or trade footage, usually second unit material not used in the final cut. For example, the end of the non-director's cut version of Blade Runner used landscape views that were originally shot for The Shining before the script was modified after shooting had finished.
Footage B-roll
B-roll or B roll is unrelated talk during an interview.
This technique of using the cutaway is common to hide zooms in documentary films: the visuals may cut away to B roll footage of what the person is talking about while the A camera zooms in, then cut back after the zoom is complete. The cutaway to B roll footage can also be used to hide verbal or physical tics that the editor and/or director finds distracting: with the audio separate from the video, the filmmakers are free to excise "uh"s, sniffs, coughs, and so forth. Similarly, a contextually irrelevant part of a sentence or anecdote can be removed to construct a more effective, to-the-point delivery. This can also be used to change the meaning of the speaker to fit the view of the producer. In fiction film, the technique can be used to indicate simultaneous action or flashbacks, usually increasing tension or revealing information.
"B roll" also refers to footage provided free of charge to broadcast news organizations as a means of gaining free publicity. For example, an auto maker might shoot a video of its assembly line, hoping that segments will be used in stories about the new model year. "B roll" sometimes makes its way into stock footage libraries.
B-Rolls in EDLs
In an Edit decision list (EDL), b-rolls have an entirely different meaning. Linear editing systems are unable to dissolve between clips on the same tape. Therefore, the EDL can mark such clips as "b-roll" to indicate that they should be dubbed onto another tape to make the dissolve possible,
Cross-cutting
Cross-cutting is an editing technique used in films to establish continuity. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action. Because the shots occur one after another, cross-cutting is used to suggest simultaneity of action. However, it can also be used to link significant actions that do not occur simultaneously. For instance, in D.W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat, the film cross-cuts between the activities of rich businessmen and poor people waiting in line for bread. This creates a sharp dichotomy between the two actions, and encourages the viewer to compare the two shots. Often, this contrast is used for strong emotional effect, and frequently at the climax of a film. The rhythm of, or length of time between, cross-cuts can also set the tone of a scene. Increasing the rapidity between two different actions may add tension to a scene, much in the same manner of using short, declarative sentences in a work of literature.
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that is not custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of great use to filmmakers as it is far cheaper than shooting a needed scene. Stock footage can also be used to integrate news footage or notable figures into a film. For instance, the Academy Award-winning film Forrest Gump used stock footage extensively, modified with computer generated imagery to portray the lead character meeting historic figures such as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and John Lennon.
One of the largest producers of public domain stock footage is the United States government. All videos produced by the United States military, NASA, and other agencies are available for use as stock footage. There are a number of companies that own the copyrights to large libraries of stock footage and charge film makers a fee for using it, but they rarely demand royalties. Stock footage comes from a myriad of sources; including the public domain, other movies and television programs, news outlets and purpose-shot stock footage.Television and movies series also often use stock footage taken from previous installments. For instance, all the Star Trek series kept a collection of shots of starships that would appear on a regular basis, being used most of the time a ship was seen.
News programs use film footage from their archives often when more recent images are not available. Such usage is often labeled on-screen as "Library pictures".
Use of stock footage is a cost-effective way to add production values to television and film projects and when artfully done is indistinguishable from the body of the work.
Some series, particularly those made for children, reuse footage that is repeated in many episodes. Using such footage means that they do not have to continually repeat the filming of the scene, cutting costs and time and, for a young audience, increasing familiarity. This introduces problems such as the requirement to, for example, wear the same clothing and inconsistency can sometimes become a problem. When cleverly filmed it is possible to avoid many of these problems.
Examples of stock footage
Moving images of cities and landmarks
Moving images of natural environment
Historical footage
Stock footage is most often used to establish the location of a production or is used to compile composite moving images which create the illusion of having on-camera performers appear to be on location.
Suppliers of stock footage fall into two categories; rights-managed and royalty-free. Many websites offer direct downloads of QuickTime clips, the standard now in use for NLE applications.
Examples in popular culture
1. The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" used stock footage from the Star Trek: The Original Series episodes "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Mirror, Mirror".
2. Jaws: The Revenge used stock footage from the first Jaws film.
3. Most of the Godzilla films have stock footage.
4. The movie Airplane II: The Sequel uses stock footage of failed flying machines in a parody of a flashback scene. The same footage has appeared in several other productions, notably Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.
5. Various American television shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Late Show with David Letterman, have made use of the "Monkey washing a cat" footage for comic effect.
6. Through the use of stock footage from Superman: The Movie and Superman 2, Marlon Brando was able to reprise his role as Jor-El in the 2006 film Superman Returns after his death. 7. Television interviews and press conferences of Robert F. Kennedy were incorporated into Emilio Estevez's Bobby.
8. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends constantly add scenes shot in one episode into another, commonly done in Seasons 1 and 2.
9. In The Simpsons episode, Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy, Homer drinks a bottle of Grampa Simpson's love tonic and gives Bart and Lisa money to take a cab to the movies. They wind up at the "Springfield Stock Footage Festival".
Dissolve (film)
In film editing, a dissolve is a gradual transition from one image to another. In film, this effect is created by controlled double exposure from frame to frame; transiting from the end of one clip to the beginning of another.
In video editing, the effect is created by interpolating voltages of the video signal.
In non-linear video editing, a dissolve is done in software, by interpolating gradually between the RGB values of each pixel of the image.The cut and the dissolve are used differently. A camera cut changes the perspective from which a scene is portrayed. It's as if the viewer suddenly and instantly moved to a different place, and could see the scene from another angle. Often this is done without missing any action (a seamless cut). Even though a dissolve is "softer" than a cut, it draws more attention to the change in the image than a "hard" cut. The reason is that the "mixed" images during the transition are unnatural and unfamiliar from usual vision. So, dissolves are mostly used on the borders of sequences, when a break in the continuity is desired. Usually, the purpose is constructive, and it's done slowly enough to portray the passage of time. As such, it replaces the old silent film convention of showing a slide with a caption, like "Later that evening". On the other hand, poorly done hard cuts startle the viewer even more than a dissolve; so dissolves are often used to "soften up" jump cuts or similar problematic cuts.
L cut
An L cut, also known as a split edit, is an edit transition from one shot to another in film or video, where the picture transition does not occur coincidentally with the audio transition. This is often done to enhance the aesthetics or flow of the film (for example--a conversation between two people can feel like a tennis match without L cuts. L cuts allow the audience to see the reactionary impulse to speak, or the aftermath of speaking rather than simply the act of speaking.) L cuts are also used to hide transitions between scenes. They can be very effective in editing dialog scenes shot with a single camera using multiple takes. The ability to cut the picture/video separately from the sound/audio allows the sound from the various takes to flow smoothly, even though the picture cuts are at different places. In longer shots, this allows the editor to use the picture from one take with the sound from another take if the dialog reading is better.
An prominent example of an L cut occurs in the film The Silence of the Lambs when Clarice is leaving her first interview with Dr. Lecter. She has just been humiliated and remembers her father arriving home from work one day when she was a child; after he picks her up and spins her around, the camera pans over to a passing truck and tilts up to the sky. Then we hear Clarice's sobs and cut back to her outside the mental institution, leaning on her car and crying.The name of the cut refers to the shape of the cut pieces of the film - the audio track is cut somewhat after (or before) the last frame of video, resulting in roughly L-shaped film ends, as the video and audio parts of film are in tracks, one below, one above, on the film itself.