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How can editing contribute to sitcoms?The specialist study I have chosen is editing, more specifically sitcoms, I will be researching about visible and invisible editing techniques and how editing contributes to sitcoms, the sitcom I will be going more in depth about with researching and talking about is the sitcom ‘Friends’. The reason why I want to research into the editing of sitcoms is because I am a big fan of sitcoms and like the idea of being an editor in the TV industry and edit sitcoms, I like the type of comedy of Friends so I wanted to do my own twist and do a British version, having the comedy side of it slightly darker as British humor is typically darker than American humor.Friends was not the first sitcom but it changed the sitcom landscape and broke away from the typical formats, like revolving around a family household or workplace, the character Ross said “To find one magical actor who is just right for the role is difficult enough, but to find six and then to have them actually have chemistry with each other is just kind of a miracle.” Which a lot of people will agree that is very true. (Tv., 2019)Also, to have six leading roles is very different to other sitcoms of that time as usually sitcoms have one to two main characters with then supporting roles around them. Friends revolved around six friends in their twenties, the show pretty much created what is now known in sitcoms as “hangout comedy”. NBC wanted there to only be one main storyline per episode with just a couple minor ones, but the writers of the show didn’t listen and continued their own way and kept having three main storylines, they did this because they didn’t want to make it like every other sitcom. (Tailor, 2019) This would challenge the editor as they would have to make sure that the three storylines in the episode would be covered equally and make sure to not confuse the audience, trying to make sure that the watch was/is smooth and easy to follow etc.?When the show was first written and called ‘Insomnia Café’ the characters Chandler and Phoebe were originally supposed to be supporting characters, with the focus being on the other four friends and have Chandler and Phoebe pop in every now and again. People could argue they made a good decision not continuing with that idea as it turns out they were both popular characters and was found in a poll done in 2016 at friend's fest that Chandler was the second most liked character with Phoebe in fourth, voted by over 60,000 people. (, 2019)Friends was edited digitally as digital editing came into place with TV shows in the 1980s (.uk, 2019) with Friends starting to be aired towards the end of 1994. This means that the editors could edit in any order instead whereas before it went digital you had to edit in chronological order. Also coming to making a mistake with digital editing you can just go back and just fix it with no hassle whereas linear editing with the tapes roles if you made a mistake you would have to go back and then do it all carefully by hand, making it more time consuming. Sitcoms uses both visible and invisible editing techniques to help tell the story and to help tell the jokes. Continuity editing is an invisible editing technique where similar/related shots or different parts cut from a single shot are combined into a sequence to maintain continuous and clear narrative action by following a set of rules. Friends uses establishing shots for example when changing location, they use a shot of the exterior building, showing the location, time of day etc. The 180-degree rule is an invisible editing technique used, it is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When crossing this invisible line, it is known as crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. Friends always use the 180-degree rule, for example when they are sitting in Central Perk, they don’t cross the line and use shots of all of them to also show their positions and you always know their positions from conversations.Pacing is another invisible editing technique, it is the timing of cuts. When the editor varies the length of the shots, guiding the viewers in their emotional response to the scene. Friends uses this quite often, but the one in particular is the last episode ‘The Last One, Part 2’.Sitcoms use visible transitions going from one scene or location to the other, there are different transitions to use like wipes, which is where one shot is replaced by another by going from one side of the screen to the other and can use different special shapes to do this too, a sitcom that uses this is ‘The Big Bang Theory’ where it just uses a black wipe across the screen which suits the style of the show as the show is quite snappy and fast paced whereas the sitcom ‘Friends’ uses a dissolve to go from one scene or location to the other, which suits the shows style as it is more laidback with the pace. A dissolve is more of a gradual transition it is also known as a fade in/out. According to the book ‘The Technique of Film & Video Editing’ they talk about how there seems to be a decline in the importance of spoken word comedy and how comedies seem to rely more on the visual humour compared to comedies from the past, so visual editing techniques are relied on more than before when there were more dialog comedy rather than visual comedy. (Dancyger, n.d.)For example the show ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ uses visual comedy a lot with the main character (Mrs Brown) continuously braking the forth wall to break out of character for visual comedic affect this happens through the whole show and is the type of humour used in the show.A montage is a visible editing technique where several short shots are edited together into a sequence to condense time, space and information. Friends uses montages in a few episodes, they commonly use montages for when they go to a new location like when they went to Vegas they had a montage of Vegas before going into the hotel and then when they went to London there was a montage of London as well as a montage of Joey and Chandler going around London.Flashbacks are also another visible editing technique used, it is a transition in the story to an earlier time that interrupts the normal order of events, it can show what happened when a character was younger and are also commonly used for comedic effect, to prove or contradict something in the present. Friends uses this a lot for example in season three in the sixth episode ‘The One with the Flashback’ which by the title, obviously uses a flashback that lasts for almost the entirety of the episode that flashes back to 3 years earlier after Janice asks the group about their past relationships the flashback represents them recalling when some of them came into the group and several of them almost slept together.When editing a show like this with six main characters you must be very careful when it comes to the characters screen time, at the start of the show Matthew Perry (played Chandler) and Lisa Kudrow (played Phoebe) had less screen time as like mentioned before were supporting roles, but as the show went on all six characters had equal screen time. The editor would need to be careful if the episode is too long and in need of cutting down because they need to be cautious of not cutting to much of a character's part/screen time and make sure it is still all equal.?? In the last two episodes of season four (episode 23 and 24) where the character’s go to London for Ross and Emily’s wedding, Phoebe cannot go due to being too heavily pregnant, these two episodes would have been a challenge for the editor because they would have had to think creatively as the editor had to make sure Lisa Kudrow still got equal screen time and also let the audience know/keep them up-to-date with what she is up while they are away etc.?(YouTube, 2019)There was a total of seven editors throughout the whole show, the editor who was a part of the production for the entire ten seasons was Stephen Prime who was an editor from the very start to the very end.Stephen Prime was the editor of 161 episodes of the TV show 'Friends'.5/7 nominations are nominations for his editing on friends, most of which are “outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Series” the other two being for directing an episode of friends and another for editing a different TV show called Mike and Molly which is also a multi-camera picture editing.However, the king of editing sitcoms was Robert Bramwell, a assistant editor, Robert J. Williams posted on talking about how he went to the, who he called "king of editing sitcoms" (Robert Bramwell) for advice for editing the sitcom he was editing. (The Assistant Editor, 2019)He asked him questions about the best ways to play up jokes and how to incorporate music into a sitcom, since sitcoms are very dialog oriented.His response and advice were very interesting to him. He said that the timing of dialog jokes is the most important thing with comedy. He mentioned about sensing when they should say the punchline and think of it as editing the sound, like editing a comedy CD or a radio show, rather than editing it visually. For the music he said about how he prefers to use it as a transition into scenes and punctuate the end of scenes as playing music all the way through a scene can ruin it and said how it fights the comedy.Representation in media, like in television for example is the way the media portray specific groups of people or communities, so some groups of people or communities are underrepresented in some television shows. With friends there is a lack of diversity, there were two occasions where they came close like when Ross dated Julie who was Asian and then Charlie who was black but except from those two all the cast were white. (The Independent, 2019)Friends does well when coming to representing Jewish people as three out of the six friends are Jewish (Monica, Ross and Rachel). As well as having to be careful with representation they have to be careful of social and political issues as even though sitcoms may be fictional, they have to be aware of the real world which leads to when one of the storylines had to change on the episode ‘The One Where Rachel Tells Ross‘ where the two go on their honeymoon and are at the airport and try to get an upgrade, it was originally going to be where Chandler makes a joke about a bomb after seeing a sign about things not to joke about with one of them being about having a bomb, saying “don’t worry about me ma’am I take my bombs very seriously”. (YouTube, 2019)The episode was due to air two weeks after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 so that scene had to be redone. (YouTube, 2019) This would be challenging for all the crew including the editor due to having a short time to redo the whole scene including the editing so time management would be more needed. If you look at BARB, not one of the top ten is a sitcom which could suggest that sitcoms are dying but even though sitcoms viewing figures look/seem like they have declined a lot compared to older sitcoms it is most likely not from people not watching the sitcoms rather than people watching them in different ways for example like recording or downloading it instead of watching it or waiting for it to come out on DVD, there are also illegal websites that people watch sitcoms on too, all of which would not come into the watch numbers, making it look like sitcoms are dying out. Back when Friends was aired in 1994 there was only a few channels on whereas now there are hundreds of channels competing for attention and views. (Barb.co.uk, 2019) (Guide, 2019) In conclusion, continuity is an invisible editing technique which I can use. The 180 degree rule helps you to know people’s position in the scene so it helps it flow. However I also like using flashbacks and montages because I like the style and pace of them. It helps to grab people’s attention. People like backstories of characters so this is a good use of flashback because it builds their character so you can relate to them more. Using a montage means you do not need to show every single moment, it condenses time. I want my programme to look like a classic sitcom and uses a group of friends or a family or work colleagues, just like Friends. But I want the humour to be as dark as Ricky Gervais’s After Life because I’m also interested in dark comedy.Harvard referencing YouTube. (2019).?Watch This 'Friends' Scene That Was Pulled Because of 9/11. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].. (2019).?Chandler And Phoebe Were Nearly Cut From The Main Cast Of 'Friends'. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].Tailor, N. (2019).?These Proposed Friends Storylines Would’ve Made Everything Very Different. [online] Unilad.co.uk. Available at: [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].YouTube. (2019).?Friends - Season 4 - Season Finale - Phoebe on the telephone. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].YouTube. (2019).?Friends - Chandler and Monica "We need the stuff". [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].The Assistant Editor. (2019).?A Lesson in Sitcom. [online] Available at: [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].Tv.. (2019). [online] Available at: [Accessed 8 Feb. 2019]..uk. (2019).?Editing – How television used to be made. [online] Available at: [Accessed 5 Apr. 2019].The Independent. (2019).?10 time Friends was incredibly problematic. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].Guide, B. (2019).?is the sitcom a dying genre? - Forums - British Comedy Guide. [online] British Comedy Guide. Available at: [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].Barb.co.uk. (2019).?Four-screen dashboard | BARB. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].Dancyger, K. (n.d.).?The technique of film and video editing. ................
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