Task One- Editing In Early Cinema

Throughout time editing has been shaped and improved thanks to the great minds that made the future of editing. I am going to discuss the people that started the editing industry. I am starting with a man called Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio. In 1887, Edison had built a new, larger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. It is there, were Edison invented Kinetographic Camera and the Kinetoscope. The Kinetographic camera and Kinetoscope an early motion picture, which the tools that started the film industry are. By 1892 William Dickson which is (Thomas Edison helper/BFF) and Thomas Edison created the 35mm film strip that came to be the industry standard. Also he created a film projector that could enlarge the films that he played in the cinema. Because of Edison invention people in the word could enjoy old memorise they had etc.

The Lumiere Brothers

The Lumiere Brothers were the first people that ever created a film in history.  Auguste (born in 19^th October 1862) and Louis (born on 5^th October 1864) also known as Lumiere brothers. The Bothers named the film Sortie de l’usine Lumiere de Lyon, which was short in 1894. The brothers worked with Edison to create the short film which stared the film industry and changed/inspired people to believe or make they own movies. What intrigued the audience about the movie was the motion in shot, they have never seen anything like it, so they would be intrigued a lot.

This is the movie that the Lumiere brothers made.

G.A Smith

G.A Smith or (George Albert Smith) was born on April 4, 1870 in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. In 1898 G.A created a short movie called “The Miller and The Sweep” It’s a comedy movie about a sweep cleaner that fights with a miller. Like The Lumiere Brothers, G.A did not make a story and they were no editing. Each film ran as long as there was film in the camera, so the film was only seconds. By 1899 G.A made a new movie called “The Kiss in the Tunnel”, which is about people kissing in the tunnel. What made the movie so shocking to the audience is, that it involved kissing, which was a big deal back then because it was inappropriate to people. Also in the movie it shows that it has a narrative editing, which is creating a story. G.A Said “Felt that some extra spice was called for”. What G.A did, was he took advantage of the brief onset of the darkness as they went into the tunnel to splice which is an editing method (cut and then stick two pieces of film together) in the shot of the couple that were making out. 

George Melies 

George Melies was born in 8^th December 1861 in Pairs, France. George Melies was a French magician and filmmaker famous for leading technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Melies saw at once the possibilities of a novelty more than just motion its self. By 1896 Melies made a movie called Vanishing Lady, he used a technique known as in-camera editing. Also he discovered the art of shop motion purely by accident when a camera of his broke down for a brief second. But the industry forced him out of business, it never occurred to him to move the camera for close-ups or long shots so his work was overlook. By the 1913 he died in poverty.

Edwin S Porter

Edwin was born on April 21 1870, in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Edwin was an American early film pioneer, most famous as a director with Thomas Edison’s company. He worked as electrician before joining the film laboratory of Thomas Edison in the late 1890s. He and Edison worked together to make longer more interesting films. Over 250 films created by Porter, the most important films include “Life of ab American Fireman” (1903) and “The Great Train Robbery” (1903). Life of an American Fireman made a breakthrough thanks to Porter in 1903. This was one of the first that had a plot, action, and even a close up of a hand pulling a fire alarm. Also they project an image of what the man is thing off, by using another projector while filing the guy in the station. After the movie Porter discovered important aspects of motion picture language: That the screen image does not need to show a complete person. Edwin used the splicing techniques to splice together two shots creates in the viewer’s mind a continual relationship. These were the keys discoveries that made all narrative motion pictures and television possible. The Great Train Robbery was a ten minutes long film, it is considered a milestone in film making, expanding on Porter’s previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of innovative techniques including composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. The film is one of the earliest to use the technique of cross cutting, in which two scenes appear to occur simultaneously but in different locations. Also some prints were hand coloured in certain scenes. Porter’s film is a great example of how early films began to resemble the types of films we see today.

Charles Pathe

Charles Pathe was born on 26 December 1863 in Chevry-Cossigny, France. Pathe did something that other film makes didn’t do, he introduces a new example of a technique known as parallel editing, which is cutting between two shorelines. He did that form his film called The Hours that Bolted, which is a movie about an hours’ that dose funny things. What he does is, he goes to one person then back to the hours to show what he is doing while the man is inside the building.

D. W. Griffith

The last significant director in the early ages of cinematic editing that I am going to talk about is D. W. Griffith. D. W. Griffith was born in La Grange, Kentucky, United Sates on January 22^nd 1875 – 1948. D. W. Griffith was one of the early supports of the power of editing. He made use of crosscutting to show parallel in different locations. Griffith was the first of the early directors to uses editing techniques in the production of “feature” lengths. He was most controversial film and the one his best remembered for was “The Birth of A Nation”, which was in 1915. “The Birth of A Nation” had a big affect in the early ages of moviemaking; it gave the audience and others directors a different view in making movies and editing.

Task Two - In Camera Editing

In this task I will be producing a one minute long film that my team and I will edit “in camera”. 

Task Three - Developing Editing Techniques

“In Camera editing” in short terms means editing using the camera to stop/play. You don’t need to transfer anything to the computer. Only have to stop, and then play the camera when you are in the right position or right angle. This technique was created by mistake in a movie called “The Vanishing Lady” (1869). “The Vanishing Lady” was created by a man called George Melies, he discovered it when he was filming The Vanishing Lady, one of his cameras broke down for a few minutes. Then realised that he could stop and move the camera in the right position. This gave him the idea that he could make the audience think that he is using magic. In camera editing was a technique used a great deal in the early days of film making before splicing.

George Melies

In the video that I and my group made, we include different type of shot, such as long shot, close up and wide shot. These shot gave the video style and look more professional. When one of my team member was filming she had a good idea of when to stop and play the camera. Because of the way she handled the camera by the timing when to turn it off or on, placing the camera in the right place/angels and giving good communication to use when recording, the video turned out great. 

When we were making the video, the communication could have been improved. We should have used some type of signal to tell the other team member when to stop recording. Because of that they were some sounds at the background which ruined the video a little bit. I think that I have improved, with the acting but mostly with the types of shots we did. This time we used three shots rather than non-form last time. Also the timing was better, when we had to stop, wait for the camera to get in the right position, then play. The communication was better, because we knew when to stop and start acting.

When it comes to “In Camera editing” there are many pros, but also many cons. Some of the pros are that, it really makes you think how you are going to film it, it puts in the inside the film seeing how, where and which angle to put the camera because you only get one chance. For example in my video we moved around a lot so, we have to carefully move the camera in the place to get the best view. Another pro is that it takes less time to create the film. Because we are using a camera, it is easy to edit. You do not need to connect it to the computer to edit, which takes less time. Also when you are filming, it is a constant video, with skipping to another scene. Meaning it plays more smoothly. For example you see me walking into the camera, then you see me a wild shot of me and my team.

Nevertheless there are still many cons in “In Camera editing”. The foremost cons is that if you film a scene and you did it wrong, you can’t go back and change/delete it. This means that your mistake will be in the film when you watch it. For example in my film there are sounds in the background because we did not stop at the right time, so there where sounds at the back which ruined the video. Another con is that when you are recording the actor, if you wanted to move the camera to another angle you would have to stop and tell the actor to stay in the same positon, which is hard because the actor may lose his lines or concentration, which will ruin the drift of the of the film. Also communication is another con because it is hard to communicate to the person in front of the camera while they are acting. It is hard for the actors to realise when to stop and when to play. The last con is that making sure the camera is ate the right angle, so you get a perfect shot of the actor.

In the 20^th century many editors have moves beyond the need to use “In Camera editing” for different reasons. In these days the in the film industry, many actors/actresses are very busy with lots of things, so they are not available to shoot on a pacific day. As technology grows, they is no need for in camera editing because the actors/actresses can film on different days that suit them, then you would put them together using the latest Tec for media there is. In my opinion in carea editing can still be uses for some people but not all.  

Task Four - From Analogue to Digital Editing

In this task I will be explaining the different types of editing and how/why they have changed over the years. I will be explaining what analogue film and editing techniques are. Furthermore talking about what video and linear editing are, and how digital editing works. Also including what non-linear editing is and the pros and cons of analogue and digital editing.

Analogue

Analogue is a type of editing; it is where you cutting pieces of celluloid film and then sticking them back together. It’s just like splicing, where you cutting pieces and putting them back in the right order. Analogue was used in the olden day to edit a group of pictures to be spliced together, then it would had to be taped back together, which would be repeated over and over again until a reel film was created. After the reels of film are put through projector at a constant speed of 24 frames per second, this would create the effect of the pictures looking like they are moving. An example of this would be the first ever film “exiting the industry” which was created in 1895 by Lumiere Brothers, it show the film in black and white, if you pay enough attention you can see cut between the shots from 2:07 to 2:11. By 1924 lawn Serrurier an inventor created the Moviola, the Moviola was the machine that allowed an editor to see the film and edit it at the same time. 

First video

created by the Lumiere Brothers 

Moviola

Video Editing

By the late 19^th - 20^th after Analogue, there was another form of editing which is video editing. This type of editing became popular and replaced Analogue editing because it was easy and not time consuming. Before cd or digital things became available, people used to uses magnetic tapes to store information, most people knew these as VHS (video home system). Video editing is the process of which segments of these tapes were edited using a device that mechanically puts pieces of video tapes together, this would make film. This types of technique need to be done in a correct way first time to dodge mistakes from happing. This is the same as linear video editing which is a video editing post-production process of choosing and arranging images and sound in a fixed organized structure.

VHS video editing system

Digital Editing

Nowadays film industry uses the most common method of editing, which is digital editing, this type of editing, is a form of electronic media where data are stored in digital from, as opposed to the previous methods of analogue editing. Digital editing is electronic method, so it uses computers to order and manipulate this digital data. There are many software’s that have digital editing such as Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro and Acid, all these are the top digital editing software in the industry. In the film industry digital editing is done by using bits and bytes, which are strings of (1’s and 0’s) to record, transmit and replay images, instead of the old method of chemicals on a film. The reason being is that the method is electronic there is no need for splicing, so digital editing over ruined video editing, because it is quicker and cheaper. The major advantage of digital editing is that, while you edit, you don’t have to edit at the begging of the movie or video, you can start at the end movie or video and make you way up. This is also the same as Non-Linear editing. Non-Linear editing, you could assemble a cut in whatever order you wanted and go back and make changes without disturbing the rest of the assembly.

Digital editing software


Pros and Cons

They are many pros and cons, when it comes to Analogue and Digital Editing.

A pro of digital is that you won’t need to worry that much about mistakes, because it is digital editing, everything is done on a computer, so if you do make a mistake you can undo it, with a click of a button, also this will be saving you a lot of time on editing because you won’t need to worry about any mistakes. Another pro is that it, digital editing is cost effective, in the film industry editing does not take long like the olden days it is faster and mistake free to edit, so you will be saving money by the cost of electricity, paying the guy to edit and other things. Also because it is digital editing is done on computers, if you lost or accidental deleted you work they will be protocol that will have a backup of your work, when you need it. The last pro is that when you edit, you can edit in what every way you want, so when you are filming, it’s not necessarily to film it in the right order because you can edit it anyway you want. However, they are some cons to digital editing, such as some people don’t really take too much care about editing, so if they keep making mistakes it would take them a long time to edit then they are supposed to. Another con is that some people may find digital editing too difficult for them to use or lean, so when it comes to the film they will be struggling.

The pros of Analogue editing are that it is make the film editor thinks twice of what he is about to do, so he/she can the film perfect, also it makes them take care of the editing they are doing, to try avoid mistakes. Nevertheless they are lots of cons to Analogue editing such as editing the film takes too long, it would take months to edit a film in the olden day because the process was so slow and you only had one changes, if to film it so if film makes got it worn they would have to redo that scan again. Also they did not have CD’s or VHS’s to carry the film around in, this meant that it would had cost effective to carry the film around, because it would have been heavy. Additional in the old days they would not have backup copies of the film and the film was hard not digital so it could had gotten lost damaged or stolen, which likely could had happen in the olden day.

Task Five - Understanding Montage Theory

In this task I will be writhing detail post explaining what Montage are and the different types of Montages that are used in the film industry.

French Montage

The First Montage is the French montage, in France the word montage only mean to edit or assemble. It describes the process of cutting out shots and putting them together to create meaning for the audience. So a French montage or editing is the most important part of media, without it we would not know about splicing and other techniques because they are all part of editing.

American Montage

The second montage is the American Montage, This montage is based on how the editor can take the important long parts such as a day, and turn them into a shot scene, which contains only important parts that were needed in the film. This type of montage is used a lot in movies, but the montage is mainly seen in the movie “Rocky”. In the movie Rocky, we see a training scene, in the scene we see Sylvester Stallone or Rocky training, we don’t see the whole training, but we only seen the most important parts of the training in that day wrapped up in a short scene. In the eyes of the audience they would see that the clip is in a day. It would start with Rocky running, than see him finishing in the night. The affect that was created was that the audience felt like they saw the whole process of the training, but however only saw a few shots, but due to those shots filling in the missing gaps; it put together the whole training scene in one.

Rocky training scene

Soviet Montage

The last montage is a Soviet Montage, this montage creates meaning by using different shots to compare to one single shot that reveals to an overall explanation that brings the film together as a whole. This is normally done to give the film a deep and thorough message to the audience, which creates an easier understanding of the film so they can have an idea of what is occurring throughout the production. Les Kuleshov and Seregi Eisenstein were the most famous film makers for making their montages. The Kuleshov Experiment is when the same image of the man is compared to three other random pictures which give it meaning, this is what Les Kuleshov was famous for. The video of the Strike is an example of Seregei’s work; comparing two killings and giving it one meaning. The main purpose of this video is to display the similarities between the butcher killing the bull and the Nazi’s killing innocent civilians, overall giving the message that both of them are just as bad as each other. Therefore, this was a big opening in the film industry as the reviews from the audience were great, making other production companies wanting to use this same technique.

Les Kuleshov

Kuleshov Experiment

Seregi Eisenstein
Video

Task Six - Creating a Montage

In this task I will explaining the two montages that our team have made. Also describing the style of our Montage, the intention behind of our Montage, how our Montage make meaning and whether if it was successful.

Hollywood Montage

The montage shown below is a Hollywood montage. This is meant that a combination of shots are often fast paced, which compresses the time and will give more information about the scene in a relatively short period of time. The meaning behind our montage is displaying the character revising and working. In the scene, you see her flicking through the book, writing down notes then typing up what she had written. This gives meaning as the audience will know what she is doing without directly scripting it or showing the whole scene. Also, this was shot in a few seconds, yet nothing was missing, which makes the audience feel like they were part of the scene taking place. This is an effective resource as directors can cut a long scene diffeinto a short shot as it fills in the gaps of a process occurring, but also giving a positive effect to the audience as they can see what is going on throughout the film in these short shots. 

The intention behind our montage was to create a small film, of the key activates of a school day and summarise them into one short film, which consumes the whole day. By doing this, we are able to pick and chooses out the most important parts that sums up the day. 

This montage creates meaning by describing the whole school day in one shot film, if the film was shown to someone, they would understand the meaning of the school day. 

My team and I believe that our video is a successful specimen for a montage as it fully fills the requirement of a Hollywood Montage. But not only my team and I agree, the other pupils and teacher in our class agree that it represent a Hollywood Montage but in a different scenario.

Soviet Montage

The second style of montage shown below is a Soviet Montage. This is meant that, when you contrast two different images or shots, which did not occur in both shot alone and but when composed them together, it makes a ruthless meaning.

The intention behind our montage was to create a small shot, which shows the images of a school day being like prison. When making the video, we filmed it in the Soviet type of style montage, this intended that we could juxtapose (compare) the two different types of shots or images that will not normally be associated to highlight the school day. It creates meaning as the spectators can see clearly how the characters are being bested like prisoner.

My team and I believe that our video is a successful specimen for a montage as it fully fills the requirement of a Soviet Montage because the shots that don’t coexist creates meaning . But not only my team and I agree, the other pupils and teacher in our class agree that it represent a Soviet Montage but in a different scenario.

Task Seven - Understanding Continuity Editing

In this task I will be writing a detailed post that will explain what continuity editing is, where you see it and why editors might use it. I will be describing: Match on Action, Eye-line Match, Shot, Reveres Shot and 180 degree rule.

In the film industry continuity editing is the main style of video and film editing. The reason for this old type of style is because continuity editing is to confirm temporal and spatial continuity as a way of advancing narrative, using such techniques as the 180 degree rule, Match on Action, and Shot, Reverse Shot. The continuity editing style of editing was developed by the early European and American directors, in particular D.W Griffith in his film such as “The Birth if a Nation. In this movie we see D.W. Griffith use continuity editing style to make the film for effective to the audience, which creates a sense of meaning to the film. Continuity editing is very important in the film industry, it helps to retain a sense of realistic chronology and generates the feeling that time is moving forward. But it does not mean you cannot uses flashbacks or flash forwards, as long as the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way.

Eye Line Match
The first type of continuity editing that I am going to talk about is Eye Line Match. This is where you see a person or character in the a film looking at an object or person which is not viewable in the shot, because of this, the film leaves the audience to think what the person or character is look at, then in the next shot we are able to see what the person or character was looking at in the previous shot. They are different ways that filmmakers can use eye line match, first is they may use it for creating a sense of illusion inside the audience as the filmmakers leave them wandering what the character was looking at in the other shot. The secondly the filmmakers may use it to create an effect of surprise and tension to give the audience a shock. An example of this would in the film Conjuring from 1:22 – 1:30. It show how the girl looks at the thing, then in the next shot we see what she was looking at in the previous shot creating a sense of mystery or shock. If the audience did not see what the person or character was looking at in the film they would not start to make their own meaning of what the character saw.

Match on Action

The second type of continuity editing I am going to talk about is Match on Action. Match on Action is where the filmmaker starts an action of something in one shot and finish it in the next shot. Filmmaker may uses this because it ensure that the action seems like one natural and realistic movement even when the actor may have really performed it twice.  When making the Match on Action shots, through shooting two shots you can adjust the spot of the cameras without shifting the continue rhythm of the scene. An example of this would be in “The Matrix” from 0:09 – 0:15 clip. The Camera can be place when the Neo is entering the Metal detector, in the next shot the camera can be moved in front of Neo to see him coming out the detector. When filmmakers or director uses the Match on Action style, they have to make sure that camera man and the actors are in the same spot in both shots, to make sure that the shots make sense. If director did not use the Match on Action on right place, than it would make a jump cut, which ruins the continuous flow of the shot. 

180 degree rule

The third type of style of continuity editing, that I am going to talk about is 180 degree rule. This type of rule is about the positioning of the camera when in a scene. This rule accrues when we see characters having a conversation between themselves. Throughout the scene of the conversation the camera man must ensure that the camera stays one side of the made up axis, making sure that the characters are on the right side as they were before, so if character A was on the left side and B on the right side and the camera turned around, both characters would have to switch places to be in the right side as they were before. The reason for directors to uses this type of technique is because enable the audience to visually connect with the movement happening around the characters. If directors broke the rule the rule, it would course confession to the audience in scenes of chase, conversation or sports. An example of the 180 degrees rule would be in the Fast Five movie where Toretto vs Hobbs, we see both characters in the same side while the camera shot is being moved from 0:20 - 0:34. 

Shot Reveres Shot

The last type of style of continuity editing, that I am going to talk about is Shot, Reverse Shot. This type of style of continuity editing is about the camera facing a character when talking in a conversations between other characters. It accrues in conversation scenes, where the camera changes between the characters faces, so in a scene, the first shot is character A talking to character B and the camera is facing at character A, in the next shot character B is talking to character A and the camera is facing character B, it creates a continue effect of going back and forth to the different characters. The reason for directors using this type of technique is because it allows the audience to bond the two characters and realise that they are interacting with each other. Also Shot reverse shot often ties in with the 190 degree rule to retain continuity by not distorting the audience’s sense of location of the characters in the shot. An example of this technique would be in the “Lord of the Ring” movie, where Gollum talks to himself 0:40 – 2:00.