Editing theory
Editing has evolved so much from when it began with physically cutting the film with scissors to the modern day where we use digital for everything. Software such as adobe premier allows us to edit the footage and sound. Pieces of film where put on the edges of bins which is where we got the term 'media bin'.
Editing can be used to create tension, shock and evoke other emotions. A good example of tension is in a lot of action sequences where the pace of the cuts are used to provide tension to the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDuetklFtDQ&channel=Darkknight6749Return
The fast pacing of the cuts lends it self extremely well to the tone and the rhythm of the scene.
The opposite being an emotional scene with slow cuts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uax_2mSHiYg&channel=imafastguy
Editing can be used to create tension, shock and evoke other emotions. A good example of tension is in a lot of action sequences where the pace of the cuts are used to provide tension to the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDuetklFtDQ&channel=Darkknight6749Return
The fast pacing of the cuts lends it self extremely well to the tone and the rhythm of the scene.
The opposite being an emotional scene with slow cuts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uax_2mSHiYg&channel=imafastguy
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadwaeard Muybridge was a British photographer who was the first to create the illusion of film. He did so by using 24 photographs in quick succession. When the photos were put together it made the illusion of movement. Eadweard Muybridge also did the same thing for a American bison, he did this when he went around America to be a professional photographer.
Eadweard Muybridge was the inventor of the zoopraxiscope which was the device used to show the moving horse film. It is thought to be the first motion picture/movie projector device and has a bid impact on the direction that editing has gone down by inspiring the second device in a long line of editing devices known as the kinetoscope made by Thomas Edison and William Kennedy Dickson.
This is a picture of the zoopraxiscope when its not playing a film. As you can see every individual photo are next to each other so when they are played in rapid succession it makes you think that the image is moving.
This is what it looks like when it is playing.
Lumiere brothers
Auguste and Louis Lumiere are two French film makers who made significant advancements in terms of film making. They have been named the first film makers. The Lumiere brothers were the first to make multiple party viewing a possibility as well as shooting the first proper feature film in history, the film was called Sortie de l'usine Lumiere de Lyon. The lumiere brother developed the cinematographe lumiere which worked as a multi purpose device being able to record, develop and project motion film for multiple people to watch. It was said that 17 meters length of film roughly equaled fifty seconds of viewing. However the Lumiere brothers thought that cinema had no future so they went on to focus on colored photography instead. The first public screening was on 1895 of December the 18th this first public screening was made by the Lumiere brothers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re#mediaviewer/File:Fratelli_Lumiere.jpg
This is a picture of the camera that the lumiere brothers developed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#Telegrapher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#mediaviewer/File:Thomas_Edison2.jpg
This is the kinetescope. To view the film you would put both eyes on the top and watch the film standing up as you look down.
https://emzie1996.wordpress.com/category/kinetoscope/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re#mediaviewer/File:Fratelli_Lumiere.jpg
This is a picture of the camera that the lumiere brothers developed.Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison is a American inventor who specialized in a range of things including photography and motion picture. He made a kinetascope as well as his company manufacturing the vitascope which was originally designed by Thomas Armat. His inventions were used to screen films in new York city. He also synchronized voice soundtracks with film. He did this by having metal cylinders with the audio on them these cylinders would be played along side the film. The Edison film studio made up to nearly 1,200 films, most of these films being short films. The film studio made films such as "The kiss", "The great train robbery" and "Alices Adventures In Wonderland". He also filmed the execution of an elephant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#Telegrapher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#mediaviewer/File:Thomas_Edison2.jpg
This is the kinetescope. To view the film you would put both eyes on the top and watch the film standing up as you look down.
https://emzie1996.wordpress.com/category/kinetoscope/
First films
The first films were still shots and only contained one shot. the appeal of the film wasn't necessarily the content but of what the new technology was capable of doing. People saw these first films as "Animated photographs".The jump cut/ Georges Melies
The jump cut was discovered by a French man called Georges Melies who after inventing his own camera started filming a buss driving around a corner. During the filming his camera jammed, once he had fixed it a car had taken its place. Once Georges Melies developed the film he saw that the buss would turn into the car because of the cut. This is now called the jump cut. This jump cut would be put into effect in some of Georges Melies's films such as The haunted castle which was shown in 1896. As well as the film a trip to the moon shown in 1902. Melies also introduced several other editing techniques known as stop motion photography, fade in fade out and overlapping dissolves.
Edwin S Porter
Edwin S Porter used a mix of both stock footage from Edison's large library of footage with his own shot footage to make narrative based films an example of this is his film "Life of an American fireman". He used temporal over lapses in a lot of his films. A temporal overlaps is when you take the exact same shot but from a different perspective.
D.W Griffith
D.W Grffith was the first to use continuity editing in his films. Continuity editing is when the narrative is told through the order of the shots. Continuity editing is most effective when there is no dialogue in the shots. D.W Griffith was the first to use the 'cut in' type of edit which would have two shots which were in the same location and had the same actions but one would be a close up shot. This is used to exaggerate a moment between characters. From continuity editing the 180 degree rule was born which is used to avoid continuity problems. To avoid continuity problems the camera should be positioned on one side of the 'Axis of action' this rule normally applies when there is a conversation between two or more characters. D.W Griffith introduced the idea of cross cutting which would show two different scenes in different locations with different characters, this was used as a narrative tool. An example of cross cutting is a film made by D.W Griffith called "After Many Years" which would show a shipwrecked man and then cut to his family back at home a device which is popular in modern day cinema.
I used a video about the history of editing to get some of my facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uahjH2cspk
I used a video about the history of editing to get some of my facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uahjH2cspk
Shots
- Establishing shot. This shot is normally a very wide shot and pans over a large area it is normally used to introduce the viewer to new location.
An example of a establishing shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axt0nETgEXo
- Reverse shot. A reverse shot is a shot which is normally used between two characters when they are having a conversation the shot is normally taken over one of the characters shoulder and is positioned so you can see the other actors face. This shot is normally switched between both characters shoulders during the conversation.
An example of a reverse shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLkUHZ1qips
- Cutting on action. is when the scene cuts do a different perspective of the same shot.
An example of a cutting on action shot is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv93covb53w
- Matching eye lines. A matching eye line shot is when the scene cuts therebetween the characters face and what the character is looking at.
- Mid shot. A mid shot is a shot which normally allows the viewer to see the characters from about waist upwards.
- Wide shot. A wide shot is a shot with the camera placed a fair distance away from the character to show what environment he or she is in.
- Close up. A close up shot is when the camera is placed so that you can only see the actors face. Another variant of the close up shot is the extreme close up which is just even closer to the actors face, focusing on the eyes of the actor.
- Long shot. A long shot is similar to a wide shot in the way that they are both placed a fair distance away however it is normally placed in narrow corridor or something similar to put in focus the length of the path instead of the width.
These shots are normally edited side by side with each other the order of which varies but they are normally used at points that support what is going on, an example would be an emotional part of a conversation would normally have a close up shot.
Montage theory
Kuleshov was a Russian film teachers at the Moscow film school and it was him who put into effect the Kuleshov effect which is when you put one shot after three different shots. These three different shots influence how the viewer views the first shot. The idea was to experiment with the order of the shots instead of the actions of the actors. Kuleshov found this effect by studying D.W Griffiths film intolerance. He would re arrange the shots to see what kind of different effects the film would have.
This is an example of the Kuleshov effect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctqdCXUzGNk
Kuleshov's next experiment was creative geography which would have shots put together but they had were in completely different locations. By doing this he created a believable fictional geography that the character was in.
Next was Sergei Einstein who advanced the idea of montages in film. He created 5 types of montages.
- Metric. Metric is cutting the beat. Metric styles of cutting are seen in a lot of modern day music videos.
- Rhythmic. Rhythmic is when you cut to the tempo of whats going on in the shot. The rhythmic type of montage is similar to the metric type except the rhythmic style revolves around the actions and content of the scene.
- Tonal. Tonal montages are completely based on whats going on and what kind of atmosphere these actions create. It is influenced by lighting, shadows and the types of frames.
- Over-tonal. Over-tonal is a combination of the previous three I just mentioned. It uses all three styles in one big sequences.
- Intellectual/Ideological. These types of montages are normally used the put certain ideas into focus. An example would be in the film Battleship Potemkin which was a propaganda film so it had a lot of ideals and opinions in the film. The example is of a priest tapping his cross and then a soldier tapping the hilt of his sword. This creates the idea that the two are interlinked.
For information I referenced this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYedfenQ_Mw
Non linear editing
Non linear editing has the benefits of being non destructive which allows any changes to be made to the edit and it wouldn't ruin the complete assembly of the show. No generation loss. Non linear editing was seen as a more natural way of editing apposed to linear editing. The Avid/1 used an optical disk and quickly became the go to non linear editing device. With the increase of storage came a device cable of editing a full feature film offline.
Linear editing
Linear editing is the process of changing and re arranging the footage. The order and changes made to the footage will have already been predetermined. The first editing machines being the Moviola which was later replaced by the Steenbeck. During the 1950's television had become a big success. For live broadcasts they would set up several cameras at different angles which would be hooked up to a switcher which would be set up to a broadcaster. The switcher was used to switch between different camera angles. The problem was that there was no way to broadcast pre recorded footage, everything had to be live.The first attempt to get around this problem was the idea of pointing a Kinescope at a monitor playing the news broadcast, the recorded footage would then be sent off to a television station in a different time zone, the problem with this method was that the image quality was very low. Once there was 1 big network connecting all of america a method called "Hot Kinescope" would be used to connect the two coasts in television, "Hot Kinescope" is when the signal of the show would be recorded through the network, the development of the footage would then have to be done extremely quickly.
Magnetic tape was first used on 1951 but only used in the professional scene at the later date of 1956. Ampex made the quadruplex video tape which had a much improved video imagery quality and was an instant hit being used by all of the major television broadcasters. The first use being "Douglas Edward and the News" which was a delayed broadcast by CBS News.
Shows would be edited using the kinescopes film prints. These recorded pieces of film would have audio cues to help the editor make the splices at the correct times. This was used because the quaduplex video tape couldn't hold still frames so you couldn't see what you were cutting.
Linear editing started when you would have two devices which you would transfer video from one to the other this would assemble the cuts in a linear way. Devices like the editec would help to advance linear editing by controlling in and out points through audio tones. The Helical scan system allowed you to pause the tape and see individual frames. The SMPTE Timecode allowed video players to find any specific frame with ease because they would be labeled.
The problem with linear editing was that it was incapable of advancing creativity in editing because there was only one way to edit, innovation would completely ruin edit of the show.
For information I referenced this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIVYeyWHajE&channel=FilmmakerIQcom
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_video_editing
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