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.