Principals of editing

Principals of editing blog by Alex Clinton

The development of editing over time

The history of film editing has changed a lot until the 21^st century arrived. Film began with no editing what so ever and was just a still camera while objects or actors moved around in front of it. Films back in the 19^th century look like our own home movies today and we can see this style of film in the video of a train arriving at a station by the Lumiere brothers. Because this was in the years, where people know nothing of film that thought they were watching a real thing and they thought the train was going to come through the screen.

 

The first form of editing was just stop start editing which was the dimple record pause edit. This was done all in the camera before they took the film out and start play with the imagery. This is the same as what we do today in our home movies where we record and stop. The first person to do this was George melies when he did a 30 second video of Leeds Bridge.

 

These films at the start of the 20^th century had been done by making more than one shot and they began to cut and paste shots together this made the first films with story and structure creating what we today recognise as a film. The one of the first films to do this was ‘the great train robbery’. This film was made by Edwin Stanton Porter and is believed to have been a help in the evolution of editing.

 

The first ever use of cross cutting was used in 1903 in the film ‘life of a new York fireman’. In this film, we see the woman trapped in her house and the shots of the firefighters coming to help her. This was the first time the audience followed a story and understood it. When the film was made, the director wanted the audience to feel for the woman in the house.

The Birth of a Nation was popular due to new, never seen before editing techniques such as the iris shot, cross cutting and flashbacks. After this film, he was well known as an important figure in the film industry due to the invention of the editing techniques.  The birth of a nation although today considered incredibly racist it still was groundbreaking in what shots were used and when people saw them they didn’t like it because they felt they weren’t getting value for money and they wanted to see the whole actor.

Lev Kuleshov said that editing a film is as constructing a building shot-by-shot the building film is built. Kuleshov was the first to use a montage, which was used to make the viewer think in a certain way. These thoughts were often though by the director.

 

Purposes of editing including conventions and techniques.

At the most significant level, editing form determines meaning in a film, for example a action film would be cut quick to give a sense of urgency and a love film would be cut slowly to build up the tension in the scene. A cut is the most basic shot transition and it is the most common way to join two shots.

 The editing is there to keep the interest of the viewer. The viewer will lose interest if the shot stays the same after a while. Also the job of the editor is to tell the story because they work closely with the director to make it look like it would keep the audience interested and so it looks the way the director wanted it to look in the first place.

 

The edit will always be different as the speed of an edit is related to the genre for example in an action film there is a lot of fast editing and in Horror films fast editing is also used, this is to scare viewers.

 Combining shots into sequences is the process of putting together all shots and making them flow. Once all of the shots have been individually edited they can they be place together in a sequence a successful edit mean the sequence will look good, the edit needs to look invisible and so the audience can only see one long sequence.

 

Creating pace is when editing is used to speed up or slow down a film. The pace of an edit can alter the way the audiences views the film. For example action films are usually fast paced, this is done editing shots so they are short and then quickly cut to another shot.

There were three types of editing which was film, analogue and digital. Digital I more common these days because of the technology we have its cost more but saves the time it would take to make the films. Analog is changing the colour of the picture and changing how the picture looks, this is often seen in films but was used quite a great extent in Avatar. The film edit was from the first days of film where film was cut and sticked together which took a lot of time but it was work for the careful and the steady handed.

The conventions and techniques are; transitions, e.g. cut, dissolve, fade, wipe, cutaways; Point of view shot; shot-reverse-shot; providing and withholding information; editing rhythm; crosscutting; cutting to soundtrack.

The conventions and techniques using language and grammar of editing.

A cut is the most basic shot transition and it is the most common way to join two shots. This is used in every piece of film you will see.

A dissolve involves gradually changing the visibility of the picture that is shown before it. This is used a few times in the star wars film.

A fade like the dissolve transition a fade occurs when the picture has gradually completely turned into a single colour, in most films they tend to use the colour black for this. This is often seen when people wake up from a dream.

A wipe is when one shot replaces another shot; it is done by the new shot travelling from the opposite side of the screen.

 A point of view shot is when the camera will be placed as though we are that character as we will see everything that that person see’s. As seen in the picture below.

 

180 degree rule - The 180 degree rule is general guideline which directors will follow to ensure that ensures two characters/elements within the same scene should always have the same right/left relationship with each other. This is seen in a key scene in the film 'V for Vendetta' it is also used in interviews

Over the shoulder - A shot that gives us a character's point of view but that includes part of that character's shoulder or the side of the head in the shot. This is often seen in interviews or on program when two characters are in conversation.

Continuity editing – editing that directs the attention of the viewer, providing a smooth flow of dialogue or keeping the situation going or interrupting the viewer with the notion that they are watching a film.

 

Montage editing – this is the juxtaposition of a collection of shots designed to show the passing of time. The idea of a montage is to tell a long story in a short space of time therefore not boring the viewing audience. They keep the attention of the audience by putting it in with a motivational song or with comical imagery. We see this sort of montage take place in 'Rocky' where we see rocky in training.
 



 

Close up – This is where the talent is near the camera and is right in frame and so they are in full view of the audience this gets the audiences full attention.

Special effects – reference to visions and fantasies or dreams possible by lighting effects or imagery which is developed via computer.

Cross-cutting – This is when the editor makes the audience think that two scenes are happening at the same time a perfect example of this is silence of the lambs where we see the agent knocking on the door of the killer and all of the police another house. This gives the audience a scene of misbelieve.

Motivation – An editor can create motivation by having shots of a character dying and another shot of another character looking on at the death. Usually it is a popular character that dies or if they die at the start of the film you feel that the dead character was a big part of the main characters life.

Providing and withholding information – withholding information can develop and increase the tension and keep your audience interested for example you see this lot in crime dramas because this is how these shows work. When a person is killed you are made to keep guessing as the police work out who done the crime. Despite there being a new form of antihero in crime dramas now the drama operates in a different way.