Editing (Discussion)

Basic definitions

Provide a definition of these terms and describe how/if it is used in the Sopranos excerpt.

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/EO/DV/Sopranos.php

Group 1

1. Establishing shot
   • Re-establishing shot

Group 2

1. The shot-counter shot editing pattern (also known as "shot-reverse shot")

Group 3

1. Match cut
   • Match-on-action
   • Eyeline match
2. Jump cut

Group 4

1. 180° rule
   • Screen direction
   • How/when might this rule be broken in a TV program?

Each student individually

1. Do a sample decoupage of the Chevrolet commercial, as explained on pp. 212-214.
   • Start with an overhead view similar to this one.

Single camera vs. multiple camera

1. What is the difference between the two modes of production?
   • What is it about this The New Adventures of Old Christine episode, “Ritchie Scores” (8 January 2007) that marks it as a multiple-camera production?. See video clip.
     • List at least three aspects of the scene that mark it as multiple-camera.
   • What is it about this scene from As The World Turns (password: telestylistics) that marks it as a multiple-camera production? From 1 February 2008.
   • Compare with the All My Children scene in Television: frame grabs and QuickTime clip.
2. In which situations is single camera preferred? In which is multiple camera preferred?
3. List four single-camera TV shows and four multiple-camera shows, but don't use the examples in the textbook.

Multiple-camera exercise: "The Contest," Seinfeld, October 26, 1992

• Pretend you are director Tom Cherones and map out the camera positions for this scene.

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T311/SeinfeldSetMiniature.jpg

Set miniature by Charles Brogdon.

Decoupage

From Television, p. 213.

1. How is the scene’s space, the area in which the action takes place, introduced to the viewer? Does an establishing shot occur at the start of the scene (or later in it)?
2. Skip.
3. Do these angles adhere to the 180° rule? Is screen direction maintained? If not, why is the viewer not disoriented? Or if the space is ambiguous, what narrative purpose does that serve?
4. Skip.
5. Is an alternating editing pattern used? Is shot-reverse shot used?
6. How does the camera relate to the character’s perspective? Are there point-of-view or subjective shots? If so, how are those shots cued or marked? That is, what tells us that they are subjective or point-ofview shots?
7. Is match-on-action used? Are there jump cuts?
8. How does the last shot of the scene bring it to a conclusion?
9. Skip.

Bibliography

1. Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007.

External links

1. Television Style video examples
2. Seinfeld scene breakdown materials