The History of Editing

The History of Editing

The Lumière Brothers

In 1895 The Lumière Brothers Auguste and Louis created the Cinematographe, inspired by their father Antoine and also by the Kinetoscope which was created by Thomas Edison also in 1895. The Cinematographe is a motion picture camera, a film projector and it is also a printer.

The Cinematographe

Edwin S. Porter

Edwin Porter was the first film maker to use cross cutting editing in the 1903 film "The Great Train Robbery". A 12 minute silent film. This inspired many other directors and film makers to create similar films and editing styles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JpBqE3Dx0o - The Great Train Robbery - Trailer.

D.W. Griffith

D.W. Griffith is similar to Porter however Griffith revolutionized editing techniques by using a variety of camera shots to focus on a certain object or person and cross cutting all of the shots used withing the film. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvIH0MzPQ14 - Griffith's first film as a director - The Adventures of Dollie.

Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Eisenstein was a film director from Russia who introduced overlapping during films. This means that the second clip would be repeated from the first one however a part of the clip is left out so it is shorter than it would be in reality. The montage effect was used to effect emotional and/or intellectual responses from the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjQ1Skzzdos - Eisenstein's first film - Strike

Lev Kuleshov

Lev Kuleshov introduced the idea of the audience immediately knowing what the character is feeling by using two shots, using the same expression on the characters face but focusing on something that could express an emotion. This is known as the Kuleshov effect.

The Kuleshov Effect










For example when the camera focuses on a corpse the audience know that the character is sad inside without expressing any emotion. When the camera focuses on the food the audience know that he is hungry and lastly when the camera focuses on a body the audience know that the character feels lust.

Digital Technology
During the late 1970's to early 80's more video editing equipment were being made like the Time Base Correctors and also digital video effects. This is made it easier to edit and made it better for the audience. Before computers all editing was analog.

What is the purpose of editing?

What is the purpose of editing?

There are many purposes for editing. This includes to cut your video clips together in a film or TV show which makes you have more than one camera shot in a film and experiment with different camera angles.

Purpose of Editing
There are many principles involved in editing and film makers should follow the following principles to get the best possible film and more realistic film too.

Pacing
It is very important to pace the editing of the film in a smart way. If you want a tense, dramatic or sad scene then the pace of the clips and cuts of  the video clips very slow to build tension on the audience. If you wish you to have a comedic, happy or neutral scene the cut of the video clips should be an average speed. For an action scene like a car chase or fighting scene, the cutting should be very fast paced, one clip should be no longer than 2 seconds to get full effect on the audience. The audience will get bored if an action scene is slow paced and they won't feel as much tension if a dramatic scene is fast paced. It is very useful to have both paces within your film. For example building the initial tension and then the characters could battle it out at the end so starting with slow pace and getting faster and faster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eug4wbPSykc - A slow paced scene (Silverado)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTthaChCseU - A fast paced scene (The Avengers)

Telling the Story
Characters do need dialogue and a script, however, the editor who is editing the film needs to make sure that the story is told just by showing the audience and placing non-diegetic sound in suitable places. For example you could see the anger in a character's face and with good edited music the scene will have more of an impact on the audience and they will be more pulled into the film.

Creating Meaning
As an editor you need to realize what message and meaning you want the audience to feel for each scene. For example a horror would have sounds which could prepare the audience without the actors and actresses even saying anything like doors creaking or the pace would be slow. Also with good editing and pacing the audience will feel the characters emotions as well as seeing them. A good editing technique for creating a sad or dramatic meaning would be a fade out. Normally near the ending of the film and then fade in to the credits.

Editing Techniques
Editing techniques are what editors use, do and what effects they use within a film, TV Show, Music Video, etc.. A very famous technique used is fading a clip in and out. This adds more drama to the scene because a fade is normally used to show a sad moment by slowly fading the video clip. Another effect is something that very little people notice however without it the things you watch would be bland and boring. Colour correction is something that you can use to intensify the colour on your film. It makes everything more interesting and less bland. A good example is the terrain in Back to the Future: Part 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63KOboifCig. The terrain is a very bright orange-yellowy colour and really stands out. Techniques are used to make a film look as realistic as it can be. Blurs are used to get the audience's attention and to focus on a certain thing to have more of an impact.

The Principles of Editing

The Principles of Editing

What is Editing?
Editing is a stage in post-production and it is the stage that normally takes the longest of them all since video files have to be manually corrected. During editing you are putting together all of the video files that you had to shoot during the production stage.

Principles of Editing
There are many principles involved in editing and film makers should follow the following principles to get the best possible film and more realistic film too. According to Vsevolod Pudovkin who was a film maker in the early 1900's there are 5 principles of editing.

Contrast
Contrast is cutting between two scenes to heighten and intensify the contrast between the two clips. For example moving a scene from a rich family to a really poor family. The audience will really see the difference between the two more than focusing on just one scene or scenario.

Parallelism
Cross Cutting or also known as Parallelism editing is an editing technique in which the editor cuts from one scene to another. This could be a different time period or just different scene.

Symbolism
This means by showing a metaphor basically. A main scene is being shot, however it then cuts to something which associates itself with the main scene. For example Pudovkin said "Cutting between shots of striking workers being shot by Tsarist police and scenes of cows being slaughtered: in the audience's mind, they associate the slaughter of the cattle with the slaughter of the workers."

Simultaneity
Simultaneity is when two scenes are happening at the exact same time just in a different location. For example during a bank robbery the shots would switch between the criminals, hostages and the police. It is all shot in the same time period just different location.

Leitmotif
This is basically repetition of a shot or something associated with the main character being repeated during the film. For example in Spider-Man 3 when Peter Parker went to his cupboard each time you would hear the same music, similar shots and the audience could automatically tell what was coming next.