Jack Mulcahy

Describe, explain and critically assess the early development and the purposes of film editing

Introduction:In this report I will be critically assessing the development and principles of editing, looking over the past 100+ years of film and seeing the changes and using examples to support my opinions and beliefs about film editing. To start, I will be looking at editing throughout the course of the 20th century, this will include talking about the works and techniques that were practiced and made famous by Russian filmmakers and theorists such as Lev Kuleshov and Sergei Eisenstein and also looking at early film pioneers such as Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers. From there I will discuss the purposes of editing, focusing on the impact that editing has on storytelling, engaging the viewer and creating meaning within films. Finally I will make the final part of this report about discuss and assess the conventions of editing.

Development:A film or a motion picture is a thin flexible strip of plastic or other material coated with light-sensitive emulsion for exposure in a camera, used to produce photographs or motion pictures (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/film) and analogue editing is the name given to traditional tape-based video post production, to contrast it with digital editing, which uses materials stored in a computer, this makes analogue editing linear as it is a form of tape-based editing because you cannot jump instantly to any point in a videotape. Analogue editing is still used today and it looks easy be today standards because of all of the advances in the digital world but during the early days of the 20th century it would have been very difficult. The first piece of motion picture technological equipment was the kinetograph this was made by Thomas Edison, the American inventor most famous for building the light bulb was also the inventor of the first motion picture camera ever made. However it would be 4 years later in 1895 that the first motion picture would be made by a pair of French brothers called the Lumiere Brothers, the film was called leaving the factory and was just one long shot that lasts a little over a minute however during the time period it was groundbreaking and is the first uses of shot variation which is the technique used in filming to create a sequence of images using movement but early film making only had very limited shot variation but they still follow the action. Following this, an English electrician named Robert W. Paul who in 1896, he pioneered in the UK a system of projecting motion pictures onto a screen. This coincided with the advent of the projection system devised by the Lumiere Brothers. He was also the first person to have more than one shot in a motion picture, this was used in one of Paul’s film, Come Along Do made in 1898, In the first shot, an elderly couple is outside an art exhibition having lunch and then follow other people inside through the door. The second shot shows what they do inside. Paul was also the first filmmaker to use continuity in film- this was very important to Paul as he wanted his films to show continuous action on screen because if you have a story that doesn’t make sense then it won’t engage the viewer

and they will not interested about the plot and will eventually lose interest.

Continuous is still used today and it is one of the most important aspects of film editing and most audience would expect this in modern day films. Paul focused more on the Continuous part of film, the next person to focus on in the timeline, a French filmmaker named Georges Melies,although he was influenced by Paul, he was a pioneer in early film making because he was also a illusionlist and loved to make illusions in his films, an example of this is in his 1902 film Trip to the Moon where a group of wizards are scene holding up telescopes but then another wizard arrives into the room,there is a cut and suddenly they’re holding up wooden stools and not telescopes. The audince is left wondering what has happened. This was the use of a technique played around with diegetic time and space also known as a jump cut which is a cut in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time; this made Melies in-camera work stands out. Melies films was also the first films to not only have a storyline but character as well even though they’re very mundane and the audience would struggle to connect to them. This is because in modern films there are scenes dedicated to character development however in the early days of film making there was no character development at all. Melies Jump-cut technique influenced many filmmakers including the next person to focus on in the timeline of early film history is the American producer Edwin Porter. He is most famous for making the Great Train Robbery and Life of an American Fireman both films were made in 1903, both films had jump-cut within them which helped move the story forward. Porter developed many technique is these films that are still used today, these being the medium close up and match on action. In film, a medium shot is camera frame from a medium distance. This is one of three main camera shots used within film, the other types of shots are long shots, which is used to get the whole of the person’s body in shot or landscapes to give the audience a more specific idea of a setting and close up which contains one part of a character's face or other object. This technique is quite common in horror films but it was also used in one of Porter film the Great Train Robbery during the final part or act of the film. The variety of camera shots helps the develop in story and helps the audience by engaging them in the plot. Which is probably the reason why he used this technique.

From 1920s, Russian filmmakers started incorporating emotion into film first

because they were the first to realize the importance of combining shots; the first of these to do this was Lev Kuleshov who is famous for the Kuleshov effect. This is where a character is seen in three different situations but has the same facial expression in each shot, In his experiment, Kuleshov cut an actor with shots of three different subjects: a hot plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, and a pretty woman lying in a couch. The footage of the actor was the same expressionless gaze. Yet the audience raved his performance, saying first he looked hungry, then sad, then lustful, this was the first use of a montage which is a the technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole, The reason that this technique is pioneering is that it showed how you do not have to show the audience every aspect of the narrative. By juxtaposing shots you can create different emits and feelings which was pioneering. This technique is commonly used today, an modern example of this within film making would be Quintin Tarantino who frequently uses this technique in his film such as Django Unchained and Inglorious Bastards. From Sergei Eisenstein another Russian filmmaker became a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage He’s noted in particular for his silent films Strike made in 1925, Battleship Potemkin also made in 1925 and October made in 1928. These films are noted for there use of montage, something that Eisenstein was fond of because he wanted to shock audiences with his films.

Purposes:In Modern day flims such as Pulp fiction, The Dark Knight Rises and Madd Maxx Fury Road the main focuses are on storytelling , the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values. A use of Storytelling in film is in the bathroom scene in The Shining where in one scene Jack Torrance is talking to the Delbert Grady in from one point of view but from the other side it looks like he is looking in the mirror and Delbert Grady is not really there creating the image that he is a ghost this is also a explain of the 180 degree rule which is where two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients the audience. When you break the 180 line, a person who was originally facing left in a scene is all of the sudden facing right which will lead to the audience wondering ‘Wait! When did they switch places?’. Combining shots into sequences is an technique that job is to put 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. An explain of Combining shots into sequences would be the opening scene of the film We Need to Talk About Kevin where a bunch of different sounds and shots are put together in a compilation, the opening scene also used the technique known as cutting to soundtrack which is a technique that would take a scene and cut out all sound and you could hear nothing but music. Creating pace editing in a film is where a film speeds up or slows down certain parts of the film. Pace changes the way the audiences view films and make them understand it in

different ways. For creating pace two explains are needed one for a slow pace to help get storyline and drama this also allows the audience to see and understand the scene and characters fully without getting distracted by quick cut shots. into it and a fast moving pace to help get action and thrills across to the audience a scene for creating a slow pace would be the KKK raid in the film Django Unchained would be a explain because it is very slow moving but that is for the audience to get all the comedy into the scene while a scene for creating a fast pace would be the fight scene from the Fast and the Furious 5 but that is for all the audience to get all of the action out of the scene.

Conventions and TechniquesThe next part of the eassy is foucsed on the conventions and techniques used in editing, these are the elements that are used in a scene to make it great. I’ll will go over a few of these techniques and explain there purpose and meaning.

Seamless Editing:Seamless editing (which also ties into Continuity editing) is when cuts between shots are matched to action with seamless editing. It makes you watch something and not even realise that it is edited, an example of Seamless in a movie is in the movie Birdman, where the whole film looks like just one shot even though it’s not. The film was a technical achievement because not only did it brilliantly use seamless editing throughout the film but Birdman truly tells a darkly hilarious satirical tale that mirrors in many ways of career of actor Michael Keaton.

Parallel Editing (Cross-Cutting):

Parallel editing is a technique whereby cutting occurs between two or more related actions occurring at the same time in two separate locations or different points in time. D. W. Griffith is often cited for his use of this technique. An example of this is in The Godfather (one) where while Michael is getting baptized in a church, his fellow mobsters are gunning down men left, right and centre. This is a powerful scene because as Michael is taking part in a religious event, he’s getting his men to kill his rivals within the mobster world; this is also him being have hypocritical because while he is being apart of a religion that is against violence it is juxtaposed by all the murders

Transitions:Transitions mean the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another, in film editing this technique used in post production combining both scenes or shots, these include cuts, dissolving, fading and wiping. An example of this technique is in Team America where they’re many different cuts and fades. The impact of this technique is that it helps with a lot of fast paced films and films with that type of pace couldn’t be made if it wasn’t for this technique

Cutaways:A Cutaway shot is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else. It is usually, although not always, followed by a cut back to the first shot, when the cutaway avoids a jump cut The cutaway shot does not necessarily contribute any dramatic content of its own, but is used to help the editor assemble a longer sequence. The opening of the film 22 jump street has a explain of this technique in it opening scene, this effect also helps the comedic banter that both Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum Characters share with each other

Point of view shot:A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). An example of this is in the opening the scene of Kill Bill 2 where the Bride character is remembering the events of Kill Bill 1 where Bill and her former partners gun down both the bride herself and her husband.

Shot Reverse Shot:Shot reverse shot (or shot/counter-shot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then

the other character is shown looking back at the first character. A explain of this technique in film is in Schindler's List where Schindler and Goeth are talking at a table. This is an useful technique because it helps with character development and Thicken the plot

Editing Rhythm:Rhythmic editing is when the relations between shots function to control film pace. Characteristics: a shot's physical length corresponds to a measurable duration. Rhythmic function occurs when several shot lengths form a discernable pattern. A example of rhythm editing in a movie is in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie the birds specifically in the gas station scene where it blows up after birds attack a group of men

Conclusion:In this essay, I have shown that editing is not only one of the most important element in film by quite possibly it is the most important element in film overall. Despite the advancements in digital editing and the invention of both

special effects and computer generated images (CGI), Editing’s Quality of engaging the viewer. Pushing the story forward through all three acts, creating both though and meaning in the minds of the audience. If it wasn’t for editing developing throughout years and decides of work, film wouldn’t have became what it is today and that would also mean that the creation of CGI and special effects would never have happened.

If you have used any information from the Internet can you please put this in your own words? Make sure that throughout your essay you make links between ideas and developments and always give detailed examples from scenes of films. Describe the scenes using media language and always think about the strengths of the technique and the impact on the engagement of the audience. Please make sure that you reference films as well.