Mathematics in Video Editing

Well we all know Editing is a multi discipline but how does it fit in Mathematics?
Well my fellow editors, you know why we get that uneasy feeling when we are about to start a project (at least I get it)...it's because of this:

C = (e x n!) - 1

It's no secret that we deal with a huge amount of frames.
So let's say you have 2 shots in a scene; X and Y. You can either have X, Y, X+Y or Y+X....4 different possibilities for 2 shots.

But what if there is 25 shots? 60 shots? 500 shots?

Then you use the aforementioned formula
"C" is the different combinations you can have
"n" is all the shots the director took for that scene
"e" is the transcendental number 2.71828... (a constant like Pi)
"!" means factorial (which means that you multiply together all the numbers up to and including "n"...ex: 4! = 1x2x3x4 = 24

So a scene made up of 25 shots can be edited in approximately 39,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 different ways.

"Mathematics is the language of Nature" - Pi(1998)
For more info read Walter Murch's books

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

A documentary about editing
The invisible art brought to light.
Watch it, Love it.

"I think great editing skills with protect a director from suicide"
Sean Penn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=508MHvMGWEg