How editing has changed over time
- 1. How Editing Has Changed Over Time
- 2. What Is Editing? Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible and film media used to convey information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, and many other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate and complete work. The editing process often begins with the author's idea for the work itself, continuing as a collaboration between the author and the editor as the work is created. As such, editing can involve creative skills, human relations and a precise set of methods.
- 3. Early Editing Early films were short films that were one long, static, and locked-down shot. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse an audience, so the first films simply showed activity such as traffic moving on a city street. There was no story and no editing. Each film ran as long as there was film in the camera.
- 4. The Lumiere Brothers The Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, France, in 1866 and 1867, and moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), ran a photographic firm and both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still- photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images. It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera, most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The original cinématographe had been patented by Léon Guillaume Bouly on 12 February 1892. The brothers patented their own version on 13 February 1895. The first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on March 19, 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.
- 5. Edwin S Porter Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American early film pioneer, most famous as a director with Thomas Edison's company. Of over 250 films created by Porter, the most important films include Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). In 1899 Porter joined the Edison Manufacturing Company. Soon afterward he took charge of motion picture production at Edison's New York studios, operating the camera, directing the actors, and assembling the final print. He collaborated with several other filmmakers, including George S. Fleming. During the next decade Porter became the most influential filmmaker in the United States. From his experience as a touring projectionist Porter knew what pleased crowds, and he began by making trick films and comedies for Edison. One of his early films was Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King, a satire made in February 1901 about the then Vice President-elect, Theodore Roosevelt. Like all early filmmakers, he took ideas from others, but rather than simply copying films he tried to improve on what he borrowed. In his Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) and Life of an American Fireman (1903) he followed earlier films by France's Georges Méliès and members of England's Brighton School, such as James Williamson. Instead of using abrupt splices or cuts between shots, however, Porter created dissolves, gradual transitions from one image to another. In Life of an American Fireman particularly, the technique helped audiences follow complex outdoor movement.
- 6. D.W. Griffith David Llewelyn Wark "D. W." Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director, mostly remembered as the director of the 1915 film the birth of a nation and the subsequent film Intolerance. The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) is a 1915 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr. Griffith co- wrote the screenplay (with Frank E. Woods), and co-produced the film (with Harry Aitken). It was released on February 8, 1915. The film was originally presented in two parts, separated by an intermission. The film chronicles the relationship of two families in Civil War and Reconstruction-era America: the pro-Union Northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy Southern Camerons over the course of several years. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.
- 7. Development Of Continuity Editing Seamless/Continuity Editing – Seamless editing that was used was also known as invisible editing. This meant that the cuts between the shots were matched to the action, this technique was usually used by DW Griffiths, with the seamless editing it makes you watch something and not even realise that it’s been edited. Continuity editing is a system that focuses on creating a clear continuity for the final piece that you have created. The idea of this style of editing is to create a smooth flow between all of the clips so the narrative of the story will be obvious without interruptions. With community editing you make sure that there isn’t and jump cuts and to make sure that people don’t jump around the room through the different shots that have been used. The main focus of this type of editing is to be seamless and to make sure that the audience stays focused on the story instead of the techniques that are used.
- 9. Soviet Montage Editing Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing (montage is French for 'assembly' or 'editing'). Although Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s disagreed about how exactly to view montage, Sergei Eisenstein marked a note of accord in "A Dialectic Approach to Film Form" when he noted that montage is "the nerve of cinema", and that "to determine the nature of montage is to solve the specific problem of cinema". While several Soviet filmmakers, such as Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov, and Vsevolod Pudovkin put forth explanations of what constitutes the montage effect, Eisenstein's view that "montage is an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots" wherein "each sequential element is perceived not next to the other, but on top of the other" has become most widely accepted.
- 10. Classic Hollywood Montage Editing Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. The term has been used in various contexts. It was introduced to cinema primarily by Eisenstein, and early Soviet directors used it as a synonym for creative editing. In France the word "montage" simply denotes cutting. The term "montage sequence" has been used primarily by British and American studios, which refers to the common technique as outlined in this article. The montage sequence is usually used to suggest the passage of time, rather than to create symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory. From the 1930s to the 1950s, montage sequences often combined numerous short shots with special optical effects (fades, dissolves, split screens, double and triple exposures) dance and music. They were usually assembled by someone other than the director or the editor of the movie.
- 11. Development Of Alternative Editing Methods The New Wave (French: La Nouvelle Vague) is a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s. The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam sequence in Godard's 1967 film Week End). Also, these movies featured existential themes, such as stressing the individual and the acceptance of the absurdity of human existence. Filled with irony and sarcasm, the films also tend to reference other films. Many of the French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets; often shot in a friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots). The cost of film was also a major concern; thus, efforts to save film turned into stylistic innovations. For example, in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (À bout de soufflé), after being told the film was too long and he must cut it down to one hour and a half he decided (on the suggestion of Jean-Pierre Melville) to remove several scenes from the feature using jump cuts, as they were filmed in one long take. Parts that did not work were simply cut from the middle of the take, a practical decision and also a purposeful stylistic one.
- 12. Development Of Sound Editing Sound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production, and video game software development. Sound design most commonly involves the manipulation of previously composed or recorded audio, such as sound effects and dialogue. In some instances it may also involve the composition or manipulation of audio to create a desired effect or mood. A sound designer is one who practices the art of sound design. Possibly the first use of recorded sound in the theatre was a phonograph playing a baby’s cry in a London theatre in 1890. Sixteen years later, Herbert Beerbohm Tree used recordings in his London production of Stephen Phillips’ tragedy NERO. The event is marked in the Theatre Magazine (1906) with two photographs; one showing a musician blowing a bugle into a large horn attached to a disc recorder, the other with an actor recording the agonizing shrieks and groans of the tortured martyrs. The article states: “these sounds are all realistically reproduced by the gramophone”. The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, the movie stars Al Jolson, who performs six songs. The film is based on The Day of Atonement, a play by Samson Raphaelson.
- 13. Diegetic sound and non- diegetic sound. Both diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds are used in practically every movie being made today. Diegetic sounds are from noises that are happening in the scene that haven’t been edited in, this means sounds like people talking or things like footsteps. People can usually tell which sound is diegetic from what they can see on the screen. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that have been added in, this can include things like music, a narration and sound effects. Non-diegetic sounds are often used to add drama to moments that would be silent without it.
- 14. Film Editing Technology Non-linear editing is the most natural approach when all assets are available as files on video servers or hard disks, rather than recordings on reels or tapes—while linear editing is tied to the need to sequentially view film or hear tape. A Moviola is a device that allows a film editor to view film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924. Moviola the company is still in existence and is located in Hollywood where part of the facility is located on one of the original Moviola factory floors. A flatbed editor is a type of machine used to edit film for a Motion Picture. Picture and sound rolls load onto separate motorized disks, called "plates." Each set of plates moves forward or backward separately, or locked together to maintain synchronization between picture and sound. A prism reflects the film image onto a viewing screen, while a magnetic playback head reads the magnetic audio tracks. The two most common configurations are the "six- plate" (one picture transport and two sound transports) and the "eight-plate" (two picture and two sound transport) models. (You can see the edges of two of the plates on the six-plate model pictured at the right.)
- 15. Modern Editing Editing Film can now be done by anyone and it’s pretty simple to do basic editing, I myself use Adobe Premier Pro with my college work, obviously if you’re in the film industry and edit films you would much more sophisticated and complicated technology to edit film. In the past editing would be done by hand and only a few machines existed in the world that could show film, and now we have the technology to edit film easily with a few clicks, we can crop film, add sound effects and add smart transitions that can make your film clips mesh seamlessly together. There are many different editing software that you can use to edit film but they all pretty much do the same thing, here is a list of a few of them: Pinnacle Studio, AVS Video Editor, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie 11, Corel Video Studio Pro, Adobe Premier Elements.