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Neupert (2004) states that 'one of the cinema's most obvious specific traits is the fact that it is an art involving both the combination and arrangement of elements'. Indeed, the production of a film involves the arrangement of image, sound and graphics in varying proportions. This process is known as editing and can be described in three specific stages: selection, assembly, and final cutting (Neupert, 2004).
Editing has many purposes, other than the obvious objective of joining separate shots. Neupert (2004) claims that the 'first function of editing is actually its narrative function'.
In fact most academic sources agree that the 'narrative function' (that is, the function to tell a story) is the most 'normal' function of editing.
In many cases, editing achieves a relationship of causality or diegetic temporality (Thomson, 1993). Most commonly in cinema, shots are joined end to end in one single narrative stream to ensure the drama is better percieved and correctly understood. This fundamental or even founding function of editing is usually opposed to a second large editing function, known as "expressive montage"(Manovich, 2004).
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