Film/video editing is nothing else but
“the rhythmical relation between the shots”.
Normally you can find rhythm just anywhere:
– in sports fields/gymnasium, basketball, table tennis, football…
– In nature: raindrops, wind, sea waves, earthquake, smokes in the air…
– Human body movements, clapping hands, mouth movements – while eating or speaking, eyes…
I can name a billion of those kinds of examples.
Rhythm is “Timed movement through space”.
Film /Video Editing, strongly shapes viewers’ experiences, even if they are not aware of it. Editing contributes a great deal to a film’s organization and its effect on spectators.
Editing together any two shots permits the interaction, through similarity and difference, of the purely pictorial qualities of those two shots. (David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson)
The four aspects of mise-en-scene (lighting, setting, costume, and the behavior of the figures in space and time) and most cinematographic qualities (photography, framing, and camera mobility) all furnish potential graphic elements. Thus every shot provides possibilities for purely visual editing, and every cut creates a graphical relationship between two shots (David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson).