History of editing
The Lumiere brothers
The Lumiere brothers
The lumiere brothers, were the first filmmakers in history. They patented the cinematograph, which allowed simultaneous viewing by multiple parties. Their first film was shot in 1894 and is considered the first moving picture. Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumiere was born on the
19th October 1862 and Louis Jean Lumiere was born on the 5th 1864. Their first film was called 'Sortie de l'usine Lumiere de Lyon. (Wikipedia, 2016)
Georges Melies
Georges Melies, was a French illusionist and film-maker. He is a prolific innovator in the use of special effects. He accidentally discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896. Georges was one of the first film-makers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves and hand-painted colour in his work. Because of his ability to manipulate and transform reality through cinematography, Melies is sometimes referred to as the first cinemagician. Melies was also an early pioneer of horror cinema, which can be traced back to 'the haunted castle'. He was born in Paris, France, on the 8 of December 1861. His first film was 'A trip to the moon'. (Wikipedia, 2016)
Edwin Porter
Edwin was an american film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison manufacturing company and the famous players film company. He made over 250 films, one f his most famous being jack and the beanstalk. Porter was born in Connersville Pennsylvania. His name was originally Edward but he later changed it to Edwin after the democratic politician from Ohio who had served as Abraham Lincolns secretary of war. He had many jobs, such as an exhibition skater, a sign painter, and a telegraph operator. He developed a interest in electricity at a young age. He was born on the 21st of April 1870. Edwin had 7 siblings, older and younger. Edwin became head of production at Edisons Skylight Studio in 1901 in New York City. (Musser, 1979)
D W Griffiths
David Llewelyn Wark Griffiths was his full name. Griffiths was an american film director, mostly remembered as the director of the 1915 film 'The birth of a Nation' and the subsequent film 'Intolerance'. Griffith began making short films in 1908 and released his first feature film 'Judith of Bethulia' in 1913. His film 'The birth of a Nation' made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its immense popularity set the stage for dominance of the feature-length film in the United States. For his pioneering techniques and early understanding of cinema, Griffith is considered among the most important figures in the history of the medium. Griffith was born in Crest wood, Kentucky. He was raised as a Methodist. Griffith attended a one room schoolhouse, where he was taught by his older sister. After his father died when he was 10, his family struggled with poverty. He began his creative career as a playwright but it hardly succeeded with only one of his plays being accepted for a performance. Griffith then decided to become and actor, and appeared in many plays as an extra. He was born on January the 22nd 1875. He created continuity filming. (Wikipedia, 2016)
In 1919, a film school was opened in Moscow called the VGIK: All Union State Institute of Cinematography, or the Moscow Film School. It became the worlds first film school. One of the schools students was called Lev Kuleshov and he brought new insights into the psychological workings of motion pictures. Lev Kuleshov was one of the only film-makers to remain in Russia after 1919. Kuleshov worked as a newsreel cameraman during the revolution.This is what the film school looks like.(YouTube, 2016)
His teachers at the film school didn't think Lev could work well in a traditional curriculum setting, so they let him create his own study group outside of the formal structure of the school. The study group was called the kuleshov workshop, or became known as this. This group attracted the more radical and innovative film students. Kuleshov spent most of his time making films without any celluloid. Underneath is a picture of Lev Kuleshov.(YouTube, 2016)
Not long after Kuleshov started his workshop, D W Griffiths created the film 'Intolerance' in May of 1919. The film was loved so it screened all across the soviet union. This film became the most influential film in all of Russia for the next 10 years. However it also became the main thing to study at the Kuleshov workshop. I have included a video of intolerance underneath. (YouTube, 2016)
After this film, the Kuleshov workshop dissected D W Griffiths editing style. They even took apart the shots themselves then reassembled them in many different ways. They swapped shots around and placed them in totally different orders to examine the impact different edits had. In 1922 Kuleshov was ready to experiment with some of the lessons learnt from studying Griffiths film. (YouTube, 2016)
The first experiment became known as the Kuleshov Effect. He had a shot of a man with no expression and created a short film mixing the ma with a hot bowl of soup, a woman in a coffin and a seductive girl on a couch. He showed this to audiences and they all talked about the range of emotion the actor was portraying. They said they could see in the actors face how he was hungry and really wanted that bowl of soup. Also, how he was sad because of losing a loved one that was taken too early, and finally desire and lust for the sexy girl on the couch. The audience said this even though we know the shots were all of the same man with no expression. This shows how the audience tell there own story in their minds. We could put together shots that make no sense, but the audience would make a story out of them themselves. Examples of the shots he used are below in the original order.(YouTube, 2016)
Kuleshov did a second experiment. He took three shots; An actor smiling, A close up of a revolver and the actor looking frightened. He put them in this order first. This was showing audiences that the actor was getting more scared as the shots changed. Kuleshov then reversed the order of the shots with the smiling actor at the end, and the audience see it as the actor gets braver as the shots go on. He used the exact same three shots, yet put them in different orders and this changed the whole meaning of the story. D W Griffiths had practiced this technique a lot, however Kuleshov was the first to actually put it into theory. Kuleshov said that the meaning of film was not only the spacial composition, but the arrangement of the shots. Examples of the shots he used are below. (YouTube, 2016)
Kuleshov then tried making films using different locations. He put the clips together to create a fictionalised geography in a film that did not exist in real life. He didn't use continuity editing when doing this. Kuleshov proved that the film could excel space an time. He found that the audience could create the story line in their own heads as they were watching the film. Kuleshov said that a film is born in the edit, this is what the soviets called montage. (YouTube, 2016)
Montage: This word comes from the French word montage, which mean to assemble. Sergei Eisenstein was a brief student at the Kuleshov Workshop. He said that montage is a series of connected images, that allow for complex ideas to be taken from a sequence and put together in a different order change the meaning of the film. Ideological and intellectual power means 'the editing of shots rather than the content of the shot alone constitutes the force of a film' said by Eisenstein.(YouTube, 2016)
Eisenstein and the theory of montage.
D W Griffiths would develop continuity editing through practice and problem solving. However Eisenstein approached film intellectually. D W Griffiths made films to create an emotional impact. Whereas Eisenstein would use editing to remove the norms of time and space and communicate different ideas in a different way. Battleship Potemkin was eisensteins most influential film. This film was shot in 1925 as the 20th anniversary of the 1905 revolution against the Zara. It took ten weeks to shoot. The editing took a further 2 weeks to finalise. Potemkin ran for 86 minutes and included a total of 1346 shots. This film became an international success. It was so influential that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Geobbels called it 'a marvellous film'. The film was propaganda but the best propaganda ever made. The thing that made Potemkin a success was the editing. Eisenstein saw the collision of one shot with another to create conflict that produced a new idea. This new idea would then collide with another shot to create more conflict to then create another new idea. This went on and on to create a film. Eisenstein created a list of 5 methods of montage.
These were:
Continuity editing
George Melies was at the first screening of a moving picture in 1895 in the basement of the grande cafe watching the film made by the Lumiere Brothers. He was the only person that came out of that screening with ideas to develop more. With in a month after being in the grande cafe, Melies was making and showing his own films as part of a stage show. In 1896 Melies was in France filming a bus coming out of a tunnel. However as he was filming it, his camera jammed. By the time he had fixed his camera, the bus had moved on and a hearse was arriving. When Melies was looking at the film he had recorded. As he was watching it he seen how as the bus arrived in the centre of the screen, it suddenly changed to the hearse. This is what we would see as a jump cut now. Melies used this discovery straight away in his film of 'The Haunted Castle' in 1896. He made characters pop up and appear out of no where, sort of like a magic trick. The film is below. (Youtube.com, 2016)
Melies then introduced editing techniques such as the fade in and fade out effect, overlapping dissolves and stop motion photography. From these Melies began to create narrative story telling films rather than single action shots. However Melies was always in the mode of theatrical thinking. All of his shots were filmed from the same angle, with the camera in one place at all times. In all the films he made, he never moved the camera, not even once. (Youtube.com, 2016)
Across the atlantic, Edwin Porter was coming into play. He decided to make his own film in 1903 'Life of a Fireman'. Porter used a lot of temporal overlaps in his film. These are when shots have overlapping action. An example of this is the opening scene where the fireman jump don the pole. The film is below for you to watch. (Youtube.com, 2016)
The 180 degree rule: This is when the camera stays on one side when filming at all times. For example, if you were filming a race, then the actors would always be running in the same direction. They never change. This rule enforces continuity of the film. The 180 degree rule should never be broken because this confuse the audience. The rule should only be broken if you are doing it for effect. Also, when doing over the shoulder shots, if you cross the line then the eye lines will not match. The two people in the frame should always be on the same side of the frame as each other. Here is an example of the rule. (Slideshare.net, 2009)
The purposes of editing.
Cutting to a sound track
Cutting to a sound track is when the shots change according to a beat. These are used mainly in music videos, but can be used in other examples as well. The pace and beat of a song determines how fast scenes can cut. these cuts are good because they keep the audience interested because the cuts are so fast you don't know whats going to come next.(Anon, 2016) How fast the cuts go are determined on how fast the pace of the song is. (Anon, 2016) A good example of one of these would be the music video of 'feel the love' by Rudimental. The link to the video i here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oABEGc8Dus0
These were:
- Metric montage which was the most basic. (cutting to the beat)
- Rhythmic montage which concerns the rhythm of action in the shot.
- Tonal montage which isn't concerned with time but the tone of the shot.
- Over-tonal which concerns montage of large sequences. (how whole sequences play with each other)
- Intellectual or ideological montage which concerns ideas.
Continuity editing
George Melies was at the first screening of a moving picture in 1895 in the basement of the grande cafe watching the film made by the Lumiere Brothers. He was the only person that came out of that screening with ideas to develop more. With in a month after being in the grande cafe, Melies was making and showing his own films as part of a stage show. In 1896 Melies was in France filming a bus coming out of a tunnel. However as he was filming it, his camera jammed. By the time he had fixed his camera, the bus had moved on and a hearse was arriving. When Melies was looking at the film he had recorded. As he was watching it he seen how as the bus arrived in the centre of the screen, it suddenly changed to the hearse. This is what we would see as a jump cut now. Melies used this discovery straight away in his film of 'The Haunted Castle' in 1896. He made characters pop up and appear out of no where, sort of like a magic trick. The film is below. (Youtube.com, 2016)
Melies then introduced editing techniques such as the fade in and fade out effect, overlapping dissolves and stop motion photography. From these Melies began to create narrative story telling films rather than single action shots. However Melies was always in the mode of theatrical thinking. All of his shots were filmed from the same angle, with the camera in one place at all times. In all the films he made, he never moved the camera, not even once. (Youtube.com, 2016)
Across the atlantic, Edwin Porter was coming into play. He decided to make his own film in 1903 'Life of a Fireman'. Porter used a lot of temporal overlaps in his film. These are when shots have overlapping action. An example of this is the opening scene where the fireman jump don the pole. The film is below for you to watch. (Youtube.com, 2016)
Edwins next film was 'The Great Train Robbery' in 1903. In this film, Edwin is better with his cutting. He cuts straight between shots without using dissolves. He cuts each scene before it actually comes to a logical end. (Youtube.com, 2016)
The 180 degree rule: This is when the camera stays on one side when filming at all times. For example, if you were filming a race, then the actors would always be running in the same direction. They never change. This rule enforces continuity of the film. The 180 degree rule should never be broken because this confuse the audience. The rule should only be broken if you are doing it for effect. Also, when doing over the shoulder shots, if you cross the line then the eye lines will not match. The two people in the frame should always be on the same side of the frame as each other. Here is an example of the rule. (Slideshare.net, 2009)
The purposes of editing are to help you understand the story of the film. It guides us to the plots and storyline. It gives you the information you need to know about the narrative. It tells you how you are supposed to feel about the events and characters at any point in the film. Editing determines the pace of the narrative and the mood of the film. Without the editing in the film, it would be slow and boring and no one would really want to watch it.(Infoplease.com, 2016) Creating pace when editing a film, is when the film is made to slow down or speed up in certain parts of the film. Doing this makes the audience watch films in different ways, making them understand it differently. Action films are the best way to describe fast pace films. This would be in scenes such as car chases etc. A fast paced film is where shots are cut very quickly. Whereas a slow paced film, is cut slowly and has longer scenes with hardly any changes in it. (Pace, 2016)
Jump cuts.
A jump cut in a film is when two shots that are the same are taken, but from slightly different camera angles to make it look like time has passed and we have moved forwards in time. These are used a lot in films now. (Wikipedia, 2016) An example of a jump cut is below.
See how in the first picture we can fully see the pram, then in the second shot, they are closer to the camera. This gives the effect that the woman is walking forwards but without actually showing her do it physically. This is a jump cut.
Dissolves
A dissolve is a transition from one image to another. These can also be called fade ins and fade outs. A dissolve overlaps two shots so we never see a blank screen. These transitions are usually found at the end of a scene and moves into the next but may be only used in montage sequences. However this isn't always the case. Dissolves can be used to indicate that time has passed between two scenes. (Wikipedia, 2016)
Shot-reverse-shot
A shot-reverse-shot is a technique where a character can be looking at another character, this is normally off screen then the character is shot looking back at the other character. To make it simpler, there are two people in a scene but only one can be seen. This is character one. character one is looking at character two. Then there is a cut and it swaps the character. So then character two is looking at character one. This is just a simple shot of one person facing the left and another facing the right. However when these shots are placed next to each other, it looks like the two people are looking at each other. (Wikipedia, 2016) This is called a shot-revers-shot because the cut makes it look like you are reversing what is happening. An example to help is below.
Cutting to a sound track is when the shots change according to a beat. These are used mainly in music videos, but can be used in other examples as well. The pace and beat of a song determines how fast scenes can cut. these cuts are good because they keep the audience interested because the cuts are so fast you don't know whats going to come next.(Anon, 2016) How fast the cuts go are determined on how fast the pace of the song is. (Anon, 2016) A good example of one of these would be the music video of 'feel the love' by Rudimental. The link to the video i here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oABEGc8Dus0
Bibliography
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Wikipedia, (2016). Dissolve (filmmaking). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolve_(filmmaking) [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
Wikipedia, (2016). Shot reverse shot. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_reverse_shot [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
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Anon, (2016). [Blog] Available at: http://rachelhubbell.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/cutting-to-soundtrack.html [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
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