Unit 16 – Film and Video Editing Technique

Assignment 2-  Editing Theory

I have been asked to create a blog to help students to edit there first film. My blog will be including information for the development, theories and conventions of editing.

Development of Editing

Most editing is done digitally on computers using software such as "Adobe Premiere" and "Adobe After Effects" these programs can be used for several editing tools such as cutting scenes, adding special effects and colour grading. 

"Eadward Muybridge" made the first film of a running horse by setting several wires and camera's that when the horse went past the wires would be set off and the camera's would take a picture these images put together and played through it would appear to make a moving picture "the first film", this film was mainly an experiment as Eadward betted that a horses feet would all leave the floor during a run, this experiment was successful and Eadward was also correct with his bet.

The "Lumiere Brothers" were French inventors who devised early equipment such as the motion picture camera combined with a projector this was named the "Cinemagraphe" this is where the work "Cinema" has come from. The Lumiere Brothers used a frame speed of 16 frames per second which is much less than the 24 frames per second which is the average today, the first film reel they used was 17 metres long this only created a short amount of footage just around 50 seconds. The first screening they had was on the 22nd March 1895 at an industrial factory where the workers who were leaving Lumiere Factory got to watch it. When the Lumiere Brothers came to editing footage they would have to physically cut film and put the shots they want together, editing was arranging a written audio or video material for the final product.

George Melies believed that a shot should remain still and not move so in his first movie (in 1902) all shots were completely still, he thought that it’s the scene that should be manipulated and edited not the frame. George Melies didn't change a scene with a hard cut but a dissolve and in his 14 minute film "A trip to the moon" in all 30 scenes it had a dissolve as a transition. George also only worked with wide shots there were no close-up shots during this ere in film making.
Edwin Porter was credited for the creation of the discovery shot this connects scenes using cut unlike what George Melies did with dissolves. He first created this shot in the film "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) this was noted for using the first close-up shot recorded, even though it was considered a gimmick at the time.
D.W Griffith created "Birth of Nation" (1915) was known to be one of the most influential films ever created it used the cinematic technique of close-ups effectively and basically created this technique and made it more popular, also he used parallel action which wasn't really done before, he alternated between wide shots and close-ups within the same seem going against George Melies idea of a still frame for a scene. When he used parallel action also known as cross-cutting he would show separate events and cut between them simultaneously creating this way of cutting scenes.
Citizen Kane (1941), this movie pretty much transformed the world of film, it used straight cuts for a shock effect and dissolves to connect scenes, this film really put meaning behind its cuts and camera positions for example, the film is filmed mainly from very low-angle in fact the directed had holes dug in the ground to get the camera as low as possible this was to make the audience feel smaller and make certain characters to appear bigger giving them a more powerful appearance. It also used a combination of lighting and effects the background lighting would fade out at the end of a scene then followed by the foreground lighting, once a new scene opening the background lights up fade up then again followed by the foreground.
The CMX 600 was a machine that created non-linear editing, this device had 2 monitors built into it, and the right hand side monitor would be used to preview the original video and then would generally be used to make cuts and edits to footage, by using a light pen tool to select options on the device. The left hand side monitor was used to view the edited video. The device recorded and played back black and white skipfield video in analogue not digital on disk pack drives, the audio would be recorded digitally using a Pulse-code modulation (PCM). The problem with this audio was that the quality was very poor due to the jitter that occurred from the signal being played from the disk packs. The video would also be low quality due to the skipfield mode that it recorded in.

Purposes of Editing

Basic editing is made to make sure scenes flow well so that they connect well to an audience this enables a story to be clear and not incoherent, appropriate scenes need to be cut next to the right ones. Editing also can create a narrative behind its certain camera angles and cuts for example:

 - A low shot of a character can signify that the character is powerful and important as it is making the character appear bigger than the audience and size is associated with power.

- A high shot of a character can signify that the character is weak or unimportant as you are placing the audience above your character making the viewer feel 'above' the character (more powerful).

 - A wide shot enables you to get more coverage and area in a scene this can be good for if you want an area to appear bigger.

 - A close up is normally used to intensify something this could be a situation in the script or an emotion for the character, this is generally used to add more drama to scenes.

 - A distance wide shot can be used on a character to make them feel disconnected from the audience and lonely.

 - Dutch angle shots give an unusual, unnatural vibe to scenes this can be good for characters with mixed emotions or if the story/situation suits it.

 - Fast cuts this can be used for intense moments, mainly used for action sequences as this can make them feel quicker and more intense than they are.

These are the more easier basic ways to convey a message ore meaning behind a certain shot or angle, however you can create more meaning behind cuts and this is more complicated, during a conversation between 2 characters you would get full coverage of all types of shots, close-ups of each character, wide-shot of both of them, medium shots of each character etc. You could start off the conversation with a foundation shot (a wide-shot) this just identifies both characters then you can cut to close-ups for a situation in the dialogue for example if the dialogue gets personal of unconfutable to a character this can add to that feeling the shot intensifies the emotions and situation in the scene, a movie that does this is "Whiplash" with the awkward date scene that is masterfully edited. Every cut and edit should have some meaning to why you cut at that certain moment, you should accompany this with a certain camera angle or shot with meaning also. Pans can be used to add flow to a scene but and also be used in other ways, as in a horror movie pans can be used for a content feel of the character being watched also placing things in the foreground of the shot really sells the vibe of being watched by someone. The pan can also be used to show connection between 2 characters as they don't have a cut between them.

The Conventions of Editing

An important convention in editing is "continuity" this means that the editing of the film will make it so that a movies story should make sense and scenes will be edited correctly together otherwise movies wouldn't be coherent to the story. A jump cut is when 2 sequential shots of the same subject/character are taking from very slight different camera position if not at all, this is a problem to continuity as it goes against the idea of how a scene should work, a scene should flow well and appear natural which jump cuts do the opposite of, they cut out parts of a scene that in real life you would normally see, this can look fairly unprofessional and unnatural however some directors have used this effectively to give a uncertainty to a scene or to go with what the scene is trying to show. The 180 degree rule is essential for continuity in film as it says that when 2 characters are shown in a shot, for example a dialogue scene between the 2, the camera must stay on one side of the characters and cannot go past the 180 degrees of that side, this is because when this rule is broken it seems to distort the location of the characters and the area as the characters are now flipped, this again has been used effectively by some directors for example Stanley Kubrick in "The Shining". A dissolve should really only be used instead of a cut for a reason, as dissolves usually give the appearance of passing of time, so this should only be used to show that otherwise it could confuse audiences. The shot reverse shot capitalizes on the idea of the 180 degree rule, this shot is usually done as an over the shoulder shot between 2 character but also can be used with medium shots or close ups, as long as the camera shot stays on the same side to stick by the 190 degree rule and to identify both characters and to switch between the two during dialogue, this adds flow to a conversation between the characters and immerses the audience into the characters conversation. When cutting a fight scene you would want to keep the cutting nice and quick but stick by the rules so if it’s a fight between 2 characters try and stick by the 180 degree rule, these fast cuts make the fight feel faster and more intense like I mentioned before, a hand held camera can make the fight feel more real, gritty and brutal, it also adds to how a fight actually is it is a stressful quick messy situation the hand-held matches it. When cutting to a sound-track a popular way it is done is by cutting to the beat of the music, this can make the camera work flow well with the music and can give a very satisfying visual to the footage.