Editing Essay (section)

==Non-literary types==
===Film<!--'Film essay', 'Essay film', 'Cinematic essay' redirect here-->===
[[File:Häxan (1922).webm|thumb|thumbtime=300|''[[Häxan]]'' (1922), a horror essay film about the historical roots and superstitions surrounding [[witchcraft]]]]
A '''film essay'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> (also '''essay film'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> or '''cinematic essay'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->) consists of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot per se, or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Laura Rascaroli|date=2008|title=The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments| url=http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/framework_the_journal_of_cinema_and_media/v049/49.2.rascaroli.html|journal=Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media|language=en|volume=49|issue=2|pages=24–47|doi=10.1353/frm.0.0019|s2cid=170942901|issn=1559-7989}}</ref> From another perspective, an essay film could be defined as a [[documentary film]] visual basis combined with a form of commentary that contains elements of self-portrait (rather than autobiography), where the signature (rather than the life story) of the filmmaker is apparent. The cinematic essay often blends [[Documentary film|documentary]], [[fiction]], and [[Experimental film|experimental film making]] using tones and editing styles.<ref name="chicagomediaworks1">[http://www.chicagomediaworks.com/2instructworks/3editing_doc/3editing_docinematicessay.html Cinematic Essay Film Genre] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808123129/http://www.chicagomediaworks.com/2instructworks/3editing_doc/3editing_docinematicessay.html |date=2007-08-08 }}. chicagomediaworks.com. Retrieved March 22, 2011.</ref>

The genre is not well-defined but might include propaganda works of early [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] filmmakers like [[Dziga Vertov]], present-day filmmakers including [[Chris Marker]],<ref>{{registration required|date=August 2012}} Lim, Dennis (July 31, 2012). [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/movies/chris-marker-enigmatic-multimedia-artist-dies-at-91.html "Chris Marker, 91, Pioneer of the Essay Film"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120803014622/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/movies/chris-marker-enigmatic-multimedia-artist-dies-at-91.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/movies/chris-marker-enigmatic-multimedia-artist-dies-at-91.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |date=2012-08-03 }}{{cbignore}}. ''[[The New York Times]]''.  Retrieved July 31, 2012.</ref> [[Michael Moore]] (''[[Roger & Me]]'', ''[[Bowling for Columbine]]'' and ''[[Fahrenheit 9/11]]''), [[Errol Morris]] (''[[The Thin Blue Line (1988 film)|The Thin Blue Line]]''), [[Morgan Spurlock]] (''[[Supersize Me]]'') and [[Agnès Varda]]. [[Jean-Luc Godard]] describes his recent work as "film-essays".<ref>[http://www.chicagomediaworks.com/2instructworks/3editing_doc/3editing_docinematicessay.html Discussion of film essays] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808123129/http://www.chicagomediaworks.com/2instructworks/3editing_doc/3editing_docinematicessay.html |date=2007-08-08 }}. Chicago Media Works.</ref> Two filmmakers whose work was the antecedent to the cinematic essay include [[Georges Méliès]] and [[Bertolt Brecht]]. Méliès made a short film (''[[The Coronation of Edward VII]]'' (1902)) about the 1902 coronation of King [[Edward VII]], which mixes actual footage with shots of a recreation of the event. Brecht was a playwright who experimented with film and incorporated film projections into some of his plays.<ref name="chicagomediaworks1"/> [[Orson Welles]] made an essay film in his own pioneering style, released in 1974, called ''[[F for Fake]]'', which dealt specifically with art forger [[Elmyr de Hory]] and with the themes of deception, "fakery", and authenticity in general.

David Winks Gray's article "The essay film in action" states that the "essay film became an identifiable form of filmmaking in the 1950s and '60s". He states that since that time, essay films have tended to be "on the margins" of the filmmaking the world. Essay films have a "peculiar searching, questioning tone ... between documentary and fiction" but without "fitting comfortably" into either genre. Gray notes that just like written essays, essay films "tend to marry the personal voice of a guiding narrator (often the director) with a wide swath of other voices".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gray|first1=David Winks|title=The essay film in action|url=http://www.sf360.org/features/the-essay-film-in-action|publisher=[[San Francisco Film Society]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315200322/http://www.sf360.org/features/the-essay-film-in-action|archive-date=March 15, 2009|url-status=usurped|date=January 30, 2009}}</ref> The [[University of Wisconsin]] Cinematheque website echoes some of Gray's comments; it calls a film essay an "intimate and allusive" genre that "catches filmmakers in a pensive mood, ruminating on the margins between fiction and documentary" in a manner that is "refreshingly inventive, playful, and idiosyncratic".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110720113611/http://cinema.wisc.edu/series/2009_spring/essay.htm "Talking Pictures: The Art of the Essay Film"]. Cinema.wisc.edu. Retrieved March 22, 2011.</ref>

===Video===

Video essays are an emerging media type similar to film essays. Video essays have gained significant prominence on [[YouTube]], as YouTube's policies on free uploads of arbitrary lengths have made it a hotbed. Some video essays feature long, documentary style writing and editing, going deep into the research and history of a particular topic. Others are more akin to an argumentative essay in which a single argument is developed and supported throughout the video. Video essay styles have become especially prominent among [[BreadTube]] creators such as [[ContraPoints]] and [[PhilosophyTube]].<ref>
{{cite web
| url = https://www.polygon.com/what-to-watch/23990893/best-video-essays-2023-youtube-vimeo
| title = The best video essays of 2023
| last = Schindel
| first = David
| date = December 29, 2023
| publisher = Polygon
| access-date = July 11, 2024}}</ref>

===Music===
In the realm of music, composer [[Samuel Barber]] wrote a set of "Essays for Orchestra", relying on the form and content of the music to guide the listener's ear, rather than any [[program music|extra-musical plot or story]].

===Photography===
[[File:Huahine, French Polynesia, Image - Scott Williams.jpg|thumb|"After School Play Interrupted by the Catch and Release of a Stingray" is a simple time-sequence [[photo essay]].]]

A [[photo essay|photographic essay]] strives to cover a topic with a linked series of [[photograph]]s. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full-text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order—or they may consist of non-ordered photographs viewed all at once or in an order that the viewer chooses. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events.
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===Visual arts===
In the visual [[art]]s, an essay is a preliminary drawing or sketch that forms a basis for a final painting or sculpture, made as a test of the work's composition (this meaning of the term, like several of those following, comes from the word ''essay'''s meaning of "attempt" or "trial").