Editing as Punctuation in Film

"The whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room" - Orson Welles

David Bordwell says "If [two characters] are in the same shot, I can that they are united... If they are in different shorts, I can say that the cut separates them."

Often cinematic punctuation is punctuated by the characters actions. For example, two separate shots which have no relation can be cut from one to the other, causing the audience to imagine this relationship between the two after showing the characters reactions and emotions. Eisenstein explains this by saying that "A concrete word set beside a concrete world, yields an abstract concept."

Cuts act as narrative ellipses and are a way of description. Freeze frames are used as a moment of clarification, often to allow the narrator to give the audience particular information or insight into the story. Rewinds are commonly used to tell the same story that the audience was previously shown, from a different point of view. Long takes are often significant and include no editing for a purpose, usually to indulge the audience in the scene. Finally, another editing technique of punctuation is to film an object or area that is not the focus of the scene, in order to fill time and space while the characters state or emotion changes.