Historical development of editing

Linear editing is when the film is cut into long stripes divided by scenes and takes; it is then glued or taped back together to create a film in logical sequence. In the early stages of film editing this was done by hand, but now we have the technology to make it easier. 

Non-linear editing is a software created in the 1990’s that allows you to edit videos by moving pieces of it around in a timeline with multiple layers of video, this is a contrast to linear editing which only allowed to add one piece of video after another. Examples of non-linear software’s are Final cut, Adobe premier pro and Sony Vegas being well known ones as well as their being many others. You can even access free ones with IMovie on Macs or Windows Movie Maker for Microsoft. An advantage of non-linear editing to linear editing is that the original source files are not deleted or modified.

Analogue video was recorded on cassette tapes and VHS’s; data was transmitted quickly as it was a simpler, less expensive way of doing so. Analogue also provides a more accurate representation of the signal or data given. It provides a standard playback.

Digital video technology was first introduced in the late 1970’s early 1980’s as a way to enhance an analogue signal. Using machines such as digital video effect units, technicians would internally convert the analogue signals to digital ones, manipulate the footage, and then convert it to analogue again for standard playback.  Key highlights in the development of digital cinema include things such as real time playback, and early HD presentation from tape to digital projectors.

The earliest filmmakers were the Lumiere Brothers; by early 1895 they had invented their own device combining a camera with a printer and projector, they called it the Cinématographe. The world first public screening as held by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895, they showed approximately 10 ten short films only lasting 20 minutes in total. Their work consisted of mainly moving images from scenes of every day life.
The Lumiere Brothers have been credited with over 1,425 different short films.  

George Melies was a filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Melies was one of the first filmmakers to use fade in, fade out, and the dissolve to create the first real narrative films.  He made over 500 films but his most famous is A Trip to the Moon.

D W Griffith is best known for the director of the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. The film was a story of the civil war, capturing the violence, the spectacle and the excitement of the war. The black audience however was outraged by the racist distortion of history. Griffith used extreme and dramatic camera angles and complete interweaved edits, the film brought an event to life unlike any film had done before. Griffins developed cross-cutting in his movies to help build tension and is hailed for his vision in narrative filmmaking. 

The trailer of his most popular shows some interesting angles and even a cut away used to the gun before he shoots someone who is shown with high authority. It clearly demonstrates its main focus, the civil war.

Sergei Eisenstein was a Soviet Russian film director and often considered the father of montage. Montage allowed Einstein to manipulate the audience’s perception of time by stretching out the crowd’s flight down the steps for seven minutes, several times longer than real time. His intense use of symbolism and metaphor in what he called ‘intellectual montage’ sometimes lost his audience. Eisenstein’s techniques were a clever way of increasing propaganda through films.

Battleship Potemkin was a 1925 film made by Sergei Eisenstein and has been called one of the influential propaganda films of all time. It also tested his theories of montage; he attempted to edit the film in such a way to produce the greatest emotional response, so the audience could clearly see with whom they should sympathize.

Jean Luc Goddard is a French-Swiss film director and screenwriter. Many of his films challenged the conventions of traditional Hollywood cinema. He was considered the most radical French film maker of the 1960s and 1970s. One of his well-known movies is A bout de soufflé (Breathless) In 1960. It was his first feature length work and attracted much attention for its bold visual style and the innovation use jump cuts.

The clip above shows A bout de Soufflé and the confusion that occurs from the rules of editing being broken. For example when he is driving the road changes multiple times during one shot. This is breaking the continuity in the scene and everything people structured their work by. We also get confused at to who he is talking to in the scene as it doesn’t show a wide shot of the car, it just focus’s on close ups of him from different angles all making sure the passenger seat isn’t shown. It was a very clever way of using different angles to help with the chaos that the movie feels.

Life of an American Fireman is a short, silent film by Edwin S. Porter. It is one of the earliest American narrative films and is simply a woman and child being rescued from a burning building. Porter built a continuous narrative over seven scenes, rendered in a total of nine shots. This was a change from the simple one-take movies people were used to.

The great Train Robbery was a western film written, produced and directed by Edwin S. Porter again. It expanded on his previous work using a number of innovation techniques including cross cutting which were a new sophisticating editing techniques. Some prints were also hand coloured in certain scenes. The film was only 12 minutes long.

Rescued by Rover was a 1905 British short, silent film, directed by Cecil Hepworth, it was an advance in filming techniques, editing, production and narrative.  It simply showed a dog going back and forth to rescue its owner’s child, the shots were repeated to keep it simpler for the audience who were not used to this style of films. Hepworth attempted to avoid confusion by lining the shots together unlike earlier multi-shot films such as The Great Train Robbery.  It was a big step for narrative filmmakers and editing. 

Battleship Potemkin was a 1925 film made by Sergei Eisenstein and has been called one of the influential propaganda films of all time. It also tested his theories of montage; he attempted to edit the film in such a way to produce the greatest emotional response, so the audience could clearly see with whom they should sympathise.

Cut-aways

A cut-away is a cut that interrupts the ‘continuous’ flow of a scene usually highlighting an object/action/place.

For example in the clip above there are three cut-aways, the leg shaking, fingers tapping, and tapping the pen. These are all indications of boredom along with the continuous scene on the girl. The cut-aways just show close ups on certain actions that are going on in the scene. It adds more to a scene then just one long shot of a person talking or sitting there and helps communicate emotions of the character.

The clip above uses cut-aways to break off from the continuous sequence, with the main cut-away being the popcorn it is a go to during the scene showing the passing of time occurring making it more realistic, it also symbolises the chaos that is about to happen, as the popcorn gets bigger, you are waiting for it to explode, it builds the tension as you wait for the scene to explode from its normality. At 0:51 it cuts away to outside, this shows a change in location and can leave the viewers wondering whether this is the view that the caller is seeing. It also gives a sense of normality and peacefulness outside compared to the tension building inside.

Fade to Black

Fade to black is a transition that either indicates the clip is either over and another is about to start or the whole thing is over. It is often used to indicate a change in time or place. The length of the fade matters as well as a long fade indicates the end or beginning of a scene whereas a quick fade suggests a passing of time.

The clip above uses fades throughout to indicate an ending and beginning of a scene. It clearly breaks the video up into parts. Although at 0:32 there is an example of fade to black used in the wrong place. In the clip it is used in the middle, it gives a sense to the viewer that that scene is over, however it carries on after the fade. This can confuse the audience as they expect a new scene/location to appear but instead it is the same one carried on. There is then a second fade in the right place when the scene and the video is actually over. So fades used in the middle of clips are wrong, they are intended for the end or beginning of a clip. 

Jump cut

A jump cut is a cut that creates a lack of continuity by leaving out part of the action; it speeds up the pace of the sequences and creates tension. It’s considered an abrupt transition from one scene to another.

At 0.40 there’s a jump cut sequence showing a sense of panic as the guy starts of walking, then keeps looking behind and ends up running. The jumps getting quicker as the pace gets faster while he gets followed, creating a sense of paranoia to cause him to run. However jump cuts like these are good for building tension Hollywood editors tend to avoid them and directors consider them distracting.

However there is one movie made in the 1960’s that breaks all the rules of editing, one being jump cuts as shown in the clip below.

At 0:17 you see the lady with a mirror in her hand then at 0:20 it cuts to a different location in the background, different angle, and no mirror it just disappears. The jump cuts carry on throughout the scene, noticeable with the background changing as well as her self. As the scene progresses the jump cuts get quicker, leaving a sense of confusion to the viewer, as we don’t know what direction they’re heading or if they are close to their location. 

Wipe

A wipe is a transition effect in which one image is replaced by another with a boundary edge that moves in a selected pattern across the frame. It can be shown as a bar, checkers, clock etc...

Wipes are good for changing location or viewpoint or to show a passage of time.

At 0:11 a wipe is used indicating a passage of time has occurred as he is first stood alone, then after the wipe there is a second person standing there. This used just the simple wipe transition to send a simple message. The length of a wipe can change the pace of the scene, in the clip it was a slow wipe to fit with the slow pace, if it had of been quicker you would have expected the pace to speed up too.

Wipes are most famous for the star wars film with George Lucas using many different ones throughout the films.

Above is a short example of one of them used to show the change in location. The length of the transition and the music fit well as the music fades out as the transition is complete it gives the scene a slower pace as no action is happening unlike on the death star.
Apart from the star wars films wipes don’t tend to be used in modern films and were more popular in the 1930s/1040s. 

Cross dissolve

Cross dissolve is a smooth transition in which a scene fades out, while another scene fades up over the same number of frames. Cross dissolves are effective for showing a memory or a passage of time. The length of a dissolve depends on the pace or the mood of the scene, a long cross dissolve would indicate the pace is being slowed down.

At 0:18 in the clip above there is a cross dissolve communicating a memory, this is clearly indicated in the scene as it takes us to a different location. The dissolve slows the pace of the scene down indicating a memory. Cross dissolves when changing location is a smoother way to edit rather than jump cutting, a jump cut would also not indicate as well if it was a memory, instead it would feel like another scene. It also acts as a clear communicator to an audience that we are changing location in some way.

The clip above is from the movie THEM! It gives examples of cross cutting and cross dissolve, as the scenes cut back and forward you see cross dissolved being used. This seems to be done to build tension, as the plane declines and passes over a girl in a dessert like location it cross dissolves to the police, this leaves the viewers wanting to know more. Later on in the scenes they continue to use cross dissolves one reason was to quickly change location, this is one of the many uses of the cross dissolve transition. 

Cross cutting

Cross cutting is cutting back and forth between two or more lines of action, suggesting they are happening at the same time. It’s a technique most often used in films to establish the actions happening at the same time but in two different locations. This editing can also be called parallel editing; it is effectively used at the start of TV shows to introduce us to the characters and their lives quicker.

I chose this example because it clearly shows two different scenarios that seem unrelated but in reality are. For example in the video it shows a guy waiting, then cuts to a girl getting chased, this switches back and forth through the clip. Alone they seem unrelated but put into cross cutting you piece together the fact he is sat waiting for her while she is in trouble. The music in the scene adds a comedy factor as it shows the contrast of the two scenes, between normality and chaos. The normality’s the calm patiently sat waiting with uplifting music in the background switching to a scene of chaos being chased and insults being shouted.
The movies Valentine’s Day and New Years Eve which both contain examples of cutting as there are many different story lines throughout which all seem unrelated. However as the movies go on switching continuously between different people/scenarios we learn that they are all linked together in a small way.

The clip shows cross cutting used to tell a story in a movie, it shows three different scenarios however only two are happening at the same time. The cross cutting is showing a very emotional scene as it switches from the three continuous shots. Cross cutting is a good way of slowly revealing to the audience what is going on. For example in the clip, it is as though we find out at the same time as the man reading the letter, because we get both sides to the story, it allows us to develop more emotions throughout the scene.