The Technique of Film and Video Editing provides a detailed, precise look at the artistic and aesthetic principles and practices of editing for both picture and sound. Because editing is about more than learning a specific software program, this book focuses on the fundamentals of editing as art. Analysis of photographs from dozens of classic and contemporary films and videos provide a sound basis for the professional filmmaker and student editor.

This book puts into context the storytelling choices an editor will have to make against a background of theory, history, and practice. This edition includes brand new chapters covering the goals of editing, including editing for narrative clarity, subtext, aesthetics, and dramatic emphasis, all showing how to evoke specific audience responses. Some of the new films to be discussed include A History of Violence, Atonement, The Departed, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, MIchael Clayton, and more.

• Introduction
• Section I History of Film Editing
• Chapter 1: The Silent Period
• Chapter 2: The Early Sound Film
• Chapter 3: The Influence of the Documentary
• Chapter 4: The Influence of the Popular Arts
• Chapter 5: Editors Who Became Directors
• Chapter 6: Experiments in Editing: Alfred Hitchcock
• Chapter 7: New Technologies
• Chapter 8: International Advances
• Chapter 9: The Influence of Television and Theatre
• Chapter 10: New Challenges to Filmic Narrative Conventions
• Chapter 11: The MTV Influence on Editing I
• Chapter 12: The MTV Influence on Editing II
• Chapter 13: Changes in Pace
• Chapter 14: the Appropriation of Style I: Imitation and Innovation
• Chapter 15: The Appropriation of Style II: Limitation and Innovation
• Chapter 16: The Appropriation of Style III: Digital Reality
• Section II: Goals of Editing (new)
• Chapter 17: Editing for Narrative Clarity (new)
• Chapter 18: Editing for Dramatic Emphasis (new)
• Chapter 19: Editing for Subtext (new)
• Chapter 20: Editing for Aesthetics (new)
• Section III: Editing for the Genre
• Chapter 21: Action
• Chapter 22: Dialogue
• Chapter 23: Comedy
• Chapter 24: Documentary
• Chapter 25: Imaginative Documentary
• Chapter 26: Innovations in Documentary I
• Chapter 27: Innovations in Documentary II
• Chapter 28: Ideas and Sound
• Section IV Principles of Editing
• Chapter 29: The Picture Edit and Continuity
• Chapter 30: The Picture Edit and Pace
• Chapter 31: The Sound Edit and Clarity
• Chapter 32: The Sound Edit and Creative Sound
• Chapter 33: Innovations of Sound
• Chapter 34: Nonlinear Editing and Digital Technology I
• Chapter 35: Nonlinear Editing and Digital Technology II
• Chapter 36: Conclusion
• Appendix A: Filmography
• Glossary
• Selected Bibliography
• Index

Ken Dancyger is the author of numerous books on screenwriting, editing, and production. He conducts screenwriting forums and workshops in North America, Europe, and Asia. A past chair of Undergraduate studies in the Department of Film and Television at NYU, he is currently Professor of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.