Film Editing Glossary

Cut: A visual transition creating during the editing process where the shot is instantaneously replaced by another.

Continuity Editing: Creates action that flows smoothly across shots and scenes without visual inconsistency. It helps to establish a sense of story for the viewer.

Cross Cutting: Cutting backwards and forwards quickly between different lines of action, which indicates they're happening simultaneously.

Dissolve: A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one.

Editing: The work of selecting and joining together shots to create the finished film.

Errors of Continuity: Disruptions in the flow of a scene, such as failure to match a action or replace prop.

Establishing Shot: Shot normally taken from a great distance, perhaps from a bird's eye view. It establishes were the action is going to take place.

Eyeline Match: The matching of eyelines between characters. It established relationship of proximity.

Fade: A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on screen without any action or picture. The editor fades out of the shot, then in again. Often used to indicate change time in place.

Final Cut: The finished edit of a film.

Jump Cut: A cut that creates lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.

Matched Cut: A cut joining two shots whose compositional elements match, helping to establish strong continuity of action.

Iris: Visible on screen as a circle closing down over or opening up a shot. More commonly used in the silent Hollywood films.

Montage: Scene's that emotional impact and visual design are achieved through editing together many brief shots.

Rough Cut: The editors first try at assembling the shots into a film.

Sequence Shot: A long shot that extends the whole length of a scene or sequence. It is composed without any editing.

Shot Reverse Shot Cutting: Usually used for conversation scenes. This technique alternates between over the shoulder shots showing each character speaking.