Task one Editing on Early Cinema

Editing is used everywhere in our media Industry, from images to videos.This blog will show you the big improvement that film editing had. In the early 50s, editing was not as easy as it is now, film editing was hard work and took long hours. In this Unit I will be talking about how the early films were edited,the developments of early cinema, who were the big men that helped improve the film Industry and how they Improved it. 

In this blog I will be sharing my knowledge about:

• Thomas Edison
• The Lumiere brothers
• GA Smith 
• George Méliès
• Edwin S.Porter
• and how all of them improved film editing.

Thomas Edison


If you are the type of person that enjoys watching films, you should be thanking Thomas Edison.
Thomas was born in February 11, 1847, in Milan Ohio US, and died on October 18,1931 at age 84.
Edison began his career at a young age, the invention that made him be recognised was the phonograph.
At just the age of 22 Thomas Edison quit his job to become a full-time Inventor, Edison was the first person to do film editing , he opened a laboratory where he invented the Kinetograpic camera and the Kinestocope .Edison was the first person to make a film,he made it on a long real footage which when all put together would become a film, he called it the 35mm film strip, he also created a projector to play the film on, so everyone could watch it easily.
His invention became important because he gave people the chance to watch other people inside of a screen, at that time that was like a miracle, because most people didn't even know that was possible.

The Lumiere brothers

Edison and the lumiers worked together and they made short films, like for example Sortie d`usine which was made in 1895. The film was  less than a minute long and it showed workers leaving a factory after work, others films showed moving traffic or other types of activities, this may not sound as interesting now, but it amused people at that time because film didn't exist, it was a new thing never seen before, and people believed that if they can do that in this film, in means that the next ones would be even better, and for who at the time didn't have cinema or theater it definitely was an exciting thing.

GA Smith 

Smith was the one that took editing  a step forward, he was the first person to include a Story in a film and make it longer, the previously films were plain activities with no story and less than a minute long.Smith made a film called The Miller and the Sweep in 1897,in this film you see 

a man with a flour bag that gets hit by another man, we could say  that the film had a little bit of action and comedy because they started hitting each other with the bags that were on their shoulders and right after that they get chased by a group of people, the funny thing is that no one  knows why and that is what it makes the film entertaining. 

His other film was "The Kiss in the Tunnel"this one also had a story line, the film starts with the outside of a train, that was filmed by putting a camera on a train and filming while the train was moving then the  train goes inside a tunnel, because a black tunnel wouldn't be a fun thing to watch they cut it and added a different scene, a scene that shows a room with a lady and man kissing, the kissing scene was another step forward because at that time kissing was still something sacred and watching two people making out on a screen  could have been kinda of a surprise, straight after that it shows the outside of the train, this was a risky one because they weren't probably sure if the audience would understand it, but the audience realises that the room was the inside of the train, and that anything that they would see afterwards  would be something to do with the train.This film was the beginning of  Narrative editing, and that was a big deal because it meant that the film industry was already improving and it was happening fast.

George Méliès

Méliès was a French magician that saw the possibility of earning money while doing something he liked magic, he had the idea of using his magic in films and do things that he couldn't do in real life. Méliès first film was the Vanishing Lady, in this film you could see a lady and George himself , his plan was to make people think that he could make the lady vanish so that's what he did , using the method of in camera editing he threw a blanket over the woman that was sitting down on a chair,
when the blanket was over the woman,he removed the blanket and by that time the woman had vanished.You probably asking "how did this happen" In between the process he stopped the camera for the woman to walk off the stage, then he turned  the camera back on, with the camera on  a skeleton appeared, which landed on the chair, Méliès covers the chair again while the skeleton is on it then uses the same method again to make look like the lady appeared back on to the chair.This improved the way people edited because, Méliès found a new way to edit, by stopping the camera and play it again,so you could make stuff off camera to make a film seem more interesting. He did that with the idea of becoming famous and rich, but that was not what happened instead no one believed his films and he died poor and lonely.

Edwin S.Porter

Porter was another cause of advance in early editing,he worked as an electrician,then he joined a film laboratory of Thomas Edison in the late 1890.Their plan was to improve the duration of the films by  making them longer,and that dream was successful when they created a film called A life of an American Fireman in 1903,  it was a success because it had action and a plot and even a close up, and it was 6 minutes long.
A life of an American film was 6 minutes long, longer than ever before and it showed the day to day of a firemen.They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from a burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom, and they go back to save her. He also made a film called Train Robbery in 1903. Train robbery was more of an action film, the film was about  a group of robbers that robed a train,  the first thing you see is a small group of men attempting to get inside a train, then  bunch of different  scenes appear,  at that time you could see that hey were experimenting with editing and using the art of in camera editing a lot more.

4

Charles Pathe 

Charles was born in December 26 of  1863 and died on December 25 of 1857, .made a film called Bolt in 1907. Phate was born in France and raised by his butcher father, Charles and his brother Emile Phate created the Société Phate Frerer  together. Phate made a film called the runaway horse In his film  Pathe used a new technique called parallel editing, which was used to show a story line between the horse and his owner In this film you would be able to see a story line, about a man that delivers laundry, and he left his horse outside while he is delivering the laundry the horse eats a full bag of oats, an by the time he gets back the horse begins to race out of control.

D.w. Griffith

Griffith was born in the USA,he made a film called the Birth of the Nation in 1915, this film was the longest film ever and even longer than most films now a days, Birth of Nation used a technique called cross cutting, by showing action in a lot of different areas.The Birth of Nation was the longest movie ever, in the film was used every single type of editing skills they knew at the time, and even new ones,this film was 3 hours long.

Task two and three- Developing Editing Techniques

In camera editing

In-camera editing film the scenes in the order that it will be viewed, is basically means that you can only film a scene once so there isn't retakes, for that you will have to be very good when it comes to camera angles and  be aware of what film you are doing, and what type of shots you would like to do.
To make a film in camera editing  you have to turn on and off the camera when necessary, in this case in the right scene when its positioned into the right angle and place. You basically turn on the camera when filming a scene, then turn it back off move the camera to your desire, then turn it back on and so on.

George Melies was the first film-maker  to make use of in camera editing, he did that when he was filming the vanish lady, to make that film he had to turn off the camera so the lady could leave the stage without anyone seeing so people would think that she disappeared, then turn it back on when she wasn't there , and then do the same thing again for  her to come back.He did that because he was a magician, and he was planning in doing what he couldn't do in real life on the screen for everyone to see it, but he didn't succeed you can see that by reading my other post by clicking here.

Pros and Cons of In-Camera Editing

If you are Interested in trying In camera editing, I have to tell you that  its not as hard as it looks, but it also isn't easy, but when you learn it it can be a lot of fun.

Camera editing has a lot of cons like for example:

• One of the con I experienced while filming was the difficulty of  communication, like for example when the camera operator wanted to communicate with the actors, it was hard because we couldn't do any verbal communication or harsh moments because that could have been recorded into the film, or damage the camera.This was a con because without communicating the actors weren't enabled to know when they have to start acting or when to stop.

• The other con is Time Consuming I choose this because, to do in camera editing you would have to be a very organized person and if you know that you are not one  i can say that  it will be very difficult for you. I believe that it is time consuming because even before you start recording, you have to prepare everything or in your head or down on paper in order to film it , but when i say everything i say step by step because you have to film the scenes the way they are going to be viewed. Like for example if you are making a film about someone that left their house to buy something then came back home because they forgot their wallet then that person had to go back to the store, it can be kinda of time consuming because you have to film the way its going to be seen , so you would have to go to the store film there then come back home film again then run  back to the store and film again and  that can be kinda of annoying because if you could edit, cut and add stuff you could just film all scenes on a certain place then go to a different place and film there then just link and combine your scenes together.

• Another con is that you can only shot once, even if you did something wrong the only thing you will be able to do is film it again, because you cant even go on the computer and cut the scene out. That can be kind of frustrating if you start recording when you shouldn't like for example start recording earlier or later then supposed to, then there will a awkward sounds and movements .

But it also has some Pros like :

• Some  of the pros I experienced were that after filming the whole thing you wouldn't have to worry about editing because that job is already done, so you would spend no time editing.

• The other good thing about in camera editing is that if you normally don't prepare everything and get everything organized this time you will have to do it, which means that the film will come out better because you would put more effort to it because you know you only got one chance to get it right.

• The other pro is that by doing this you spend less time but also less  money, because if you don't have a software that edits or if your camera isn't the best therefore the memory is smaller, by doing in camera editing you would have to be cautious about your time so you would make sure you have space to record all at once.
• This is also is very beneficial for producers that don't like to edit or just want to learn more about the angles of the camera, by doing that you are gaining experience.

I believe that editors moved on from in camera techniques because now  its easier and less stressful, while in camera editing can save you some time after filming because you wouldn't have to edit, it takes a large amount of time making the film and if you are  perfectionists that wouldn't be helpful because you wouldn't be able to improve your film with some special effects or music. Now that you can actually edit after everything is recorded you can now  record your scenes in different locations, no more worry's of having to move around every 5 minutes to record, like for example if you record in different cities you can record the scenes from there then go back to the original city and film there then link them together.

In Camera Evolution

The Shots that were used in this film were wide shots,close ups, over the shoulder shot and long shots. we were successful on the shots because we were able to use 4 different types of it, and they match the type of film we did, the part that I believed we succeed the most were the shots  the one I  believe we did the best was the close up at 0.19 - 0.23 , this empathised the scene because he was walking to meet his girlfriend while being relaxed because he had no clue of what was going to happen. In my opinion we could improve the way we communicated with one another, i say this because we weren't conscious that we could be heard so our film has background noises, this happened because it was difficult for the actors to know when to begin or when to stop,i believe that we could improve this next time by using non-verbal communication.


 

Task Four – From Analogue to Digital Editing

What analogue film and editing is (splicing)

Analogue editing is the cutting together of pieces of celluoid, traditional films are made up images printed on to acetate negatives, these then are spliced together to make a reel of film, these are then feed through a projector at a constant speed of 24 frames a second which makes those pictures seem to be moving, this is called analogue.

Video editing

Way before all this advanced technology existed, we used to store information in little plastics rectangular things called video tapes, video editing is the process of editing pieces of these tapes using device that mechanically puts parts of video tape together. The film has to be edited in the correct order, this is called Video editing.

What linear editing is

Linear editing was the original video tape editing method, before non-linear editing computers became available in the 1990s. These days, many people consider linear editing to be obsolete. Although non-linear editing is the preferred method for most projects, linear editing still has a place.is a video editing post-production process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a predetermined, ordered sequence

How digital editing works (Final Cut/ Avid/Premier Pro)

Digital editing is the manipulation of computers in order to operate digital data, there are different programs that you can use to edit like ( Adobe Premier, Avid or Final Cut Pro). Digital editing works by using bits and bytes(string of 1s and 0s) to record, transmit an reply images, instead of chemicals on film.The whole process is electronic so there is no printing or "splicing" involved.Digital Editing soon over video editing as it is much faster and therefore cheaper. The biggest advantage is that you can edit digitally in any particular order.

Non-linear editing

Editing a video in any order is called non-linear editing, you can edit in any sequence from the first scene then the last, or the last and then the first, the process uses electronic files so it makes it easier as cutting and pasting text in a word document. 

Analogue Editing

Pros

One of the pros is that it is taken seriously since the begging, this means that because they only have one chance to film it, because they cant edited the filmmaker would take more consideration because they know they only have one chance so they would be more responsible. Another Pro is that it would be safer to store, because it isn't stored in a computer it would be less likely for it to get lost,stolen or damaged, and because its not accessible for hackers, it cant be copied or stolen.

Con

There s also some cons one of them is that because you only have on shoot to do it, if you do anything wrong you wont be able go back and redo it, because you cant edit which means the film you created may not be as successful as you desired. The other con is that because they didn't have CDS or VHS to carry the film around, it means that its was very hard to carry the roll with the scenes in it, it might also have been very expensive and heavy. The last one is communication this is  another con that can be found when talking about Analogue Editing, this is because because they cant edit it is very hard to communicate, because the actors wouldn't know when to start or stop because no one could say , action or stop, because the audience would be able to hear it in the film.

Digital Editing

Pro

One pro is that because you are able to edit it means that you can film in whatever order you want , another one is that you also get more than one chance to do it, this means that you can redo it  as many times as you desire to make it as good as you would like.

Con

Theres also a few amounts of cons as for example some people may find hard to use digital editing, because not everyone knows how to use and understand how to use different s apps to edit, because not every app is the same and has the same features, another one comes along with app is that editing apps can be kind of expensive for someone that is new at editing. Another one is that because you know you are able to edit you might not put as much effort to it as if you would if you weren't able to edit. And lastly because Digital Editing relies mostly in technology which means you would never know if the application you are using is going to be efficient or that it might have what you desire, or you have no guaranty that the app is not going to do something to your film, lose it or make it possible for people to steal it.

Task Five – Understanding Montage Theory

Montage is a technique that you use to combine two scenes together, this is done to give an illusion that the 2 elements belonged together originally or just to add meaning to the compound. Montage has 3 different meanings French Montage, Soviet Montage and Hollywood Montage each one of them has a different definition. 

French Cinema: This is one of the 3 Montage types this one simply means to edit, this was created  Montage literally translated from French is assembly, the process when an  editor takes two scenes and combines them together to highlight their meaning. It is a method by which through two unconnected shots that creates a third and different meaning.For example lets call it shot A shot which is a ball and B which is a head ,mix the shots together and you will be able to figure out that the ball is going to hit the persons head.


Soviet Montage: This montage technique was created in the early s 1920, film makers started using juxtaposing, which basically means putting two intentionally contrast images next to each other, to make a new meaning that did not exist in either shots alone,the soviet montage was more about pushing the audience comprehension limit.
While other places had around three hundred or more shots, soviet films had more than a thousand. This idea came from a young soviet filmmaker, he was doing an experiment by taking an old film clip of a head shot of a noted Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with different images.This type of montage can be found in the film Strike, in this film you can see two different scenes(videos) one of people and others of bulls, we could see Russian troops killing innocent people and then we could see a butcher killing bulls, like I mentioned before, they made this to see if we could visualize what they are trying to say and compare, they were comparing the bulls being killed with the innocent people.

This is one example of Soviet Montage this is a soviet montage because in the film you were able to see men running away from Russian troops, then they show a second type of video that are bulls running away from  butchers, do they have something in common i do think so, which means that they are both going to end in the same way Death, this is what the filmmakers want you to realize and feel.

This i another example of soviet montage, this one shows a group of men going to work, and them shows a group of bulls so you can see what they both have in common, they both look busy , going somewhere, following each other.



Hollywood Montage:This type of montage is basically to show a narrative sequence of actions, in a short, compact way. This  is the way the film maker can take a long scene like for example, a 7 hour day in a school and turn it into a small scene that it only contains the necessary bit. These montage is used in a lot, for not say most of the movies now a days, one of them is (Rocky). In the film we see scenes of rock training for a big competition, the filmmaker made it look like he trained everyday and every time, but they made sure to short it and only show the essential of it.

This is one o the films where Hollywood was used, this was used to show rocky s, daily training and they made us believe that he was training for a long time days, weeks , they did this by showing the sky changing from lighter to darker, (day-night) but they made sure to only show the  important bits of rocky s training, that's why it is a Hollywood montage  scenes and bits of a daily activity in a short period of time.

                                           Les Kuleshev – Montage Experiment

Les Kuleshev was a the person that created the soviet montage, but he did that by doing an experiment, the experiment he did was take an old film clip of a head shot of a noted Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with different images. He then did another experiment he gathered 4 images and made people think what are their meaning, the first image was an image of Les Kuleshev face, then he added 3 other images to compliment the first one and give it meaning.

This is an image of a man and a young girl in a coffin, with no other detail just the image so now think and tell me what do you think it means. 

 

This one is an  image is an image of the same man but with a plate of food, and this makes you wanna think what hes feeling. 

This last one is an image of the same man as the other two but this time there's an image of a woman sitting down to compliment it, and now think.

OK, so now I am going to tell you what this images  have in common and what they mean, all this images are supposed to express feelings, and you are supposed to look at them and figure it out yourself, but they can mean a lot of different things.

Now lets reveal the meanings: 

(Did you get it right?)

    Serge Eisenstein 

Serge Eisenstein was another man that helped develop the montage technique,he was the one and only that introduced us the soviet montage.Serge first film was a video called Strike, where he shows scenes of butchers working in a slaughter house. They showed two different s scenes one of a group of people running and other of animals being butchered. The idea of this was to show the audience the way in which the people were being treated by comparing it with the animals. 

Task Six – Creating a Montage

   The video showed bellow is a soviet montage, a montage becomes soviet when you link different scenes together to give it meaning. 

The intention behind this montage was to send a message to the audience, to make them see and think without telling them what to think, the meaning in this montage is to compare school with a prison,we did this by showing scenes of a usual school day, then try and make it relate table  to prison.

I believe that this was successful because we did show both scenes from each situation school and prison, I also believe that we could have improved this by adding more scenes to it, so it could be more expanded and have made it more difficult to understand, so its not too straight forward.

The second video me and my group created was a Hollywood montage, for a montage to become  

  This is my second montage, this is a Hollywood montage the intention behind this was to show the different scenes from different period of time , situations, and actions. The montage makes meaning because our aim was to show a life of a student in a school, this made meaning because we were able to show all the necessary parts and not more then need it.This was successful because we did the main points for it to be a Hollywood montage, we showed the different scenes of an activity/day shortened.

Task Seven and Eight– Understanding Continuity Editing

Continuity editing

Continuity editing is one of the main  styles of film editing and video, this type of editing is used in television,film and in a narrative genre, editors use it to show a scene so that the editing is mostly unnoticeable, smooth with no inherent discontinuity of editing. 

There are 4 rules of continuity:

1) 180 degree rule

2) Match-on-action

3) The Eye line match

4) Shot/reverse shot

180 degree rule

This rule is usually used to when demonstrating a a conversation between characters. The rule proclaims that the characters presented should always have the same left/right relationship to each other, therefore the camera must stay on one side of the action and objects in a scene. In this rule there's something called a invisible line and  if the camera crosses the line its called crossing the line and it will make it seem as the characters swapped positions on the screen. So the best is if the camera only stay on one side of the line.

                                                 

To make everything seem more realistic, when you are having a conversation with someone you do not switch places every 5 minutes, so why should the people in films do it. If they didn't use this type of technique people wouldn't enjoy watching the show, film, whatever it is because it doesn't give a sense of reality, and also because people would get confused and they wouldn't be able to follow everything at the dot. If they didn't use this technique the people that are being filmed would change places without even realising, because there wouldn't be no one reminding them that they were in the other way around.

Match on Action

This type of technique links two shots together, like for example if a character is going up the hill, so we don't get bored by seeing the whole process up, the editors decided to just use some parts of each shoo and link it, they may choose to show the person getting ready to go up, then in the middle of the heel and  lastly at the top, they do this by starting in one shot then the camera cuts into a different angle , then  we see the character finish the action in the last shot.

                            

This is usually used so the scene its not too long, or unnecessary scenes are not used, if film-makers didn't use this technique the film wouldn't be as interesting, and the action wouldn't seem so natural and realistic.

Eye-line  Match
This type of technique also links two shots together, we see the character looking at something an then we are able to visualize what they are looking at, fun right its like you can play a game try and guess what they are looking at, and then check if you were correct. First the character looks at something off- screen second the image cuts what the character its looking at, third we see clearly the character expressing and try to guess what is he\she looking at, fourth we see a close up of what the character is looking.

                                               

They do this technique because this makes you feel like you are there looking at the same thing  as the character, experiencing the same moment. If they didn't use this we would be a little off,because they would just show the character looking at something that we wouldn't have a chance to know what it was, and I believe that its more difficult making a film  without this then with this.

Shot Reverse Shot

Like the other 2 above this is used to link two shots together, this works when showing a conversation between multiple individuals, they first shots shows one character, then the second shots reveals the other.An example of this would be if two people were having an interaction, one of them said something, so the camera would be on that persons face, then the other said something else and the camera would just follow it, and so on, but sometimes they may show someone that it's not talking so we could see their reaction, while the opposite person that its not being showed is talking. 

Film-makers use this so the audience can correct with both characters, and see their interaction, its mostly like the eye-line match, but instead of showing at hat you looking at, it shows who you are talking to. If this wasn't used in the film industry I believe that it would be have the same issue as eye-line match , the audience wouldn't be bale to understands it, because they would have to guess who is the person talking to.

           


Eye Line Match, This Technique was used in my video when i sowed my fellow peer, mercy looking into the window. We show her looking at something, then in the next scene we show what she was looking at. I believe that we use the technique right and it showed the essential. The next one we used is

Match on Action, we used this to link two scenes together as you can see above, we used this when Abigail and myself were walking and because we knew that if we showed us walking the whole way, would it make a long scene we used match on action which sowed us when we began walking and then when we entered the building. I believe that we used this technique wisely because we only added what was supposed to be added so it wouldn't be so long. 

The third technique used was shot reverse shot this is used in a conversation between two people, and instead of showing both at the same time, you only show one in one shot then the other in the other shot, we used this when me and Abigail were talking, we showed my face first then moved the camera to Abigail face. We applied this correctly because we showed first one then the other. I believe that we made one mistake while editing because we didn't show a third person talking. 

The last one is the 180-degree rule, we applied this technique when once again every part that two people were doing an action, like for example me and Abigail walking when we did the match on action, this happened because we stayed in the correct position, me on the right an Abigail on the left, the whole time.