Edit created during shooting rather than in post — stop rolling, reposition, restart. Old technique, still efficient for docs and tight schedules.
With an in-camera edit, the montage is created during the shoot itself—you stop the ongoing recording, reposition the camera, or change the location, then simply press record again. The footage is then already edited. Not elegant, but effective. Silent film pioneers relied on this because editing in the classic sense was not yet established. Today, this working method seems primitive, but it has retained its justification—especially where time or budget are tight.
Practical application: You need precise shooting planning. Every in-camera cut must be perfect because corrections in the sense of post-production editing are eliminated. This forces discipline on set. A cut from a wide shot to a close-up works seamlessly if the camera stops thoughtfully and the new shot follows immediately. In documentaries with limited editing time or guerrilla shoots, this saves real time—no digitizing, no reviewing hundreds of hours of footage. You edit directly with your cuts.
The catch: Shooting errors become a disaster. A blurry shot, a poorly chosen framing, a wrong pan—these are irrevocably fixed in the timeline. You can't simply have twenty takes of the same subject and choose later. At the same time, in-camera editing demands a deep visual sense: editing rhythms, axis jumps, transitions—all of this must be conceived beforehand. It is less about editing craft and more about composition under pressure.
In modern productions, it is primarily used by TV journalists and reporting teams who have to edit on location, or by indie filmmakers who want to optimize their rushes. Sometimes, a hybrid approach is used: in-camera cuts for specific sequences (e.g., interviews), classic multi-camera editing for more complex scenes. The effect is raw, immediate—no post-production polishing, no fine-cut detail neurosis. This can become an aesthetic strength if used consciously rather than just tolerated.