After reading this chapter, you should be able to understand:

1. The proxemic categories of film shots
   
   
2. The various styles of joining shots
   
   
3. The dominant editing style of Western films is narrow. Considered continuity editing, the purpose is to create a smooth flow from shot to shot. This style typically falls into four categories.
   
   
4. Graphic editing (graphic match) involves configuring patterns of light and dark, line and shape, volume and depth, movement and stasis, independent of the shot's relation to the time and space of the story.
   
   
5. Often the durations of several shots in a sequence form a pattern or rhythm.
   
   
6. Spatial editing constructs the space within a film. It connects actions and objects and controls the physical relationships between them. The filmmaker relates points through similarity, difference, and development.
   
   
7. Editing controls the compression and expansion of time within the film as well as its chronology.
   
   
8. When a filmmaker adjusts the length of the shots in relation to one another, this is the basis of rhythmic editing.
   
   
9. Spatial relations allow for the action to move from one spot to any other. Through editing, the filmmaker is able to relate any two points in space through similarity, difference, or development.
   
   
10. Editing is responsible for controlling the time of the action denoted in the film, setting up the temporal relationships between events.
    
    
11. There are alternatives to continuity editing. Films using abstract or associational form are frequently used for purely graphic or rhythmic qualities, independent of the time and space they represent.
    
    
12. When discontinuous editing is used for narrative purposes, it is usually meant to create ambiguity between the audience and the film. The film October is a good example of a narrative film that relies on discontinuous editing.
    
    
13. Continuity editing relies on the 180-degree axis of action. It employs several techniques such as shot/reverse shot, eyeline matches, reestablishing shots, and matches on action. The 180-degree line is not always followed; spatial continuity can be maintained through cheat cuts and point-of-view cutting.
    
    
14. In order to make the contrast between two or more stories more meaningful, crosscutting is often used.
    
    
15. Ellipses in time can be achieved in numerous ways, including graphic matches and with montage sequences.