Final Assignment-Unit 16‘Understand the development and principles of editing’

IntroductionFilm editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. The film editor will work with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. Editing is sometimes referred to as an ‘invisible art’ because when it is done well the viewer may become so engaged they may not even notice that it has been edited. Editing is important to film editing because without it we wouldn’t have the films we have today. DevelopmentEarly filmmaking didn’t involve any editing at all. The shot variation was very limited and the camera didn’t follow the action it just took a static shot and let the action play out on screen. If there was any editing used it would usually have been in-camera editing. This is when the filmmaker would film in a linear fashion and would pause the camera and move it to the next shot.

This can be seen in films made by The Lumiere Brothers. One of the first films they made (in 1895) was one long continuous shot of people walking out of a factory. At the time this was made there was no technology to edit a shot and there was also no sound to go alongside the action because there was no way to edit back in 1895. When the very first films started to come out the producers where limited with what they could shoot because of the cameras they used. They were big and bulky and had big film reels attached to them. Because the cameras where big they weren’t really movable, which means the filmmakers couldn’t use a pan or tilt shot, it was all just static.

Within 11 years from the Lumiere brother’s film, R.W Paul discovered how you could use more than one shot to make a more interesting motion picture. He used in-camera editing. By doing this R.W Paul started to involve

a narrative and in the film ‘The Motorcyclist’ the narrative is quite comical. The pictures below show some of the different scenes within this film and you can see how different they are however the shot variation is limited as only long shots are used. This film shows how editing had developed since the Lumiere Bros in 1895 but still how far it has to go. Eventhough there is many different shots in the ‘The Motorist' still there was a lack in shot variation. As I have said there was only use of long shots because still at the time this film was made the camera could not physically be zoomed in and out which made it more difficult to add multiple different shots which when we watch this film back today it may become quite repetitive and boring.

Edwin Porter was the first to acknowledge that the audience wanted a narrative to unfold as the film was playing. Porter also had excellent editing

skills. He found that you could use transitions to make the film move more smoothly. Instead of cutting directly to the next scene he used dissolving transitions and fades. By using transitions it may make the audience feel more engaged by the moving image because it is more interesting to watch for example a dissolve into another scene than just watching jump cuts all the way through. Transitions are still used today because it makes the action on screen move easier and it will come across as being ‘easy to the eye’. This means the viewer may have an indication of what might happen by the style of transition used from one shot to the next. Usually transitions are used today to add tension or drama to a scene; the transition should complement the action. In Porters film ‘The Life of an American Fireman’ is about a fireman rescuing a lady from a burning building. Porter made this film to show both the man and women’s point of view at the same time during the same events. Parallel editing (cross cutting) is however not used in Porters work he just shows the same action twice in a different perspective. Parallel editing is a technique used to show multiple lines of action occurring in different places at the same time. In this film they still relied on long shots just like they did in ‘The Motorist’. If we watched this film now in the 21st century we would find it strange that we see the same piece of action twice but at the time it was made (1903) that was a normal editing technique used to make the audience more interested in the film. This shows Porter had developed editing quite a lot but still it was not like what we have today.

Another way to make an audience interested in what is happening on screen was developed by a man called Georges Méliès. Georges Méliès shot a film called ‘A Trip to the Moon’. Whilst he was shooting this film his camera jammed and the footage made an object disappear. This is when Méliès realised that cinema had the ability to manipulate diegetic time and space meaning he could change the speed of which the film was going as well as developing early special effects on the film. He showed this because

at the part when all of the people are stood together and then the camera cuts to them making the rocket ship. He made the audience feel like they were on the journey the actors where on (they felt like they could be transported to another world) because of the special effects. These special effects could add further meaning to the film and this will enhance the narrative.In his film ‘A Trip to the Moon’ Méliès experimented with costume as well as special effects. This film is about people preparing to go to the moon and when they get there. In this film there is more shot variation because when they moon is coming closer to the camera we could class this as a close up shot. This starts to show a development in shot variation through time and also a development within film.

DW Griffiths pioneered continuity editing and used a range of shots to create a feature length film with a narrative, which also told the story from multiple points of view. His film ‘A Birth of a Nation’ was created in 1915 including advanced camera and narrative techniques. Griffiths also was the

first person to introduce continuity editing. Continuity editing is when a series of shots should be continuous as if the camera simply changes angles in the course of a single event. By using this technique the action will appear to be ‘seamless’ which means the audience will be unaware of the cuts and the action will just flow from one scene to the next. Comparing this to ‘The Motorcyclist’ the shot variation is very different. In ‘The Motorist’ the shots are all mainly long shots where as in ‘A Birth of a Nation’ there is mixture between long shots, medium long shots and medium close ups. This is effective because it shows the development within shot variation and film techniques, from 1906 to 1915, which I personally think has changed a lot. Continuity editing is still the preferred editing style used today because we as an audience want to see the narrative unfold in a chronological order. For example in the romance genre you would want to see the two main characters get together in the end.

However in 1920’s Russian filmmakers explored editing further by introducing montage, which broke the rules of continuity. Montage is juxtaposition often in a fast paced fashion to condense time and share a lot of information. Montages are usually used to manipulate the thoughts and feelings of the audience. Lev Kuleshov introduced the Russian montage to manipulate the feelings of the audience. He believed he could make the audience feel a real connection with what was shown on screen and their feelings for the characters. Kuleshov made a short film called ‘The Kuleshov Effect’. This short film showes a mans face in one shot and then a boul of food in the next shot. This could make the audience believe the man was hungry because he was looking at the food.Then in another shot the man is looking at a dead baby, looking sad, and then looking at an attractive women,looking happy. This is what an audience interpretes from this short film. However Kuleshov used the same recording of the man each time. After the short film was made and he had identified the reaction of the audience and had realised editing can influence an audiences idea or beliefs. This use of shot combination was a major breakthrough and is used now in film editing but it is now used to make a message more powerful. Kuleshov’s introduction of montage editing is still used today in many hollywood films to show many different events in a condensed scene. This is achived by fast paced shot combinations. This shows the audience what is going on within the film in a short space of time rather than taking up a large amount of the narritive.

Another Russian filmmaker also used montage but to deliver a completely different message then Kuleshov. S Einstein was a filmmaker for a film called ‘Strike!’ (1925) There is a scene in this film where people are running and tumbling down hills, up hills and through fields. This then quickly cuts to a scene where there are cows in an abattoir getting slaughtered. Einstein used messages of propaganda making the audience fearful and apprehensive about the war representing the people as cattle going to the slaughter. This use of montage editing could still leave the audience to

interpret this film as they wanted to. This could also be classed as a powerful propaganda film as it will catch the audience’s attention and will manipulate the viewer’s feelings. This was a break away from the continuity edit pioneered by Griffiths because the shots where not continuous they were quite different.

Experimentation with continuity continued with the French New Wave cinema. A French director called Jean Luc Godard was the first person to introduce a jump cut into the world of editing. A jump cut an abrupt transition, typically in a sequential clip that makes the subject appear to jump from one spot to the other, without continuity. Jump cuts break the rules of continuity and are meant to be seen by the audience. This technique is still used today. In his film ‘Breathless’ there is a use of jump cuts through this film. The purpose of this within the film ‘Breathless’ is to show the audience the breaking of continuity. Godard used this technique to be creative and innovative in his film style. According to my research Andrew Sarris argued “the meaninglessness of the time interval between moral decisions” (Wikipedia2015)

From the start of filmmaking/editing people used analogue editing. Analogue editing is when filmmakers edit the action in a linear fashion and then splice (cut) the film real and put it back together. An advantage of analogue editing is you can keep the tape reels and video tapes forever however the process is quite time consuming and if you splice it in the wrong place you will have to reshoot that scene to get the correct content for the film. Also if the editor wasn’t precise enough it would cost money fix the mistake. Since the late 20th century the technology has developed and now filmmakers can use digital editing. By now using digital editing you can pre-visualize the action before the completion of filming. This means you don’t have to film the scenes in a linear fashion and you can put the content onto a computer and edit it on a film-editing program such as Final cut and Avid. An advantage of this is it is quicker to edit a film, Walter Murch states ‘In The Blink of an Eye’ “It takes under ten seconds to make one-and-a-half splices” (2001) Although this makes the editing time a lot quicker this could also be a limitation because you can quickly cut out parts you might miss some good parts that you wouldn’t have missed if you edited by analogue editing. You can re-order the shots to create different meanings within the film and also you can add more advanced special effects.

PurposesMoving on, the principles of editing from the pioneers of filmmaking are still visible in Hollywood cinema today and I will discuss these in the following section.The reason editing is used in television and films are to create meaning, develop storytelling and to engage the viewer. Most of the films you see today include all of these things to appeal to the audience. Sometimes people can complain about the pace of the action screen and it may have not engaged with the viewer as much as the editor had hoped. Usually in today’s day and age the pace of films are much faster then they were back in the

early 1900’s because as time has moved on, technology as developed and people’s attention spans have decreased.

One way to engage with the audience is to create a sense of pace and excitement. An example of this is ‘Fast and Furious- Tokyo Drift’ (2006). ‘Fast and Furious’ is a film about cars. The pace of this film is very fast and creates a since of excitement whilst watching the film. The film uses many different editing techniques to create a sense of pace and urgency. At the Beginning of this scene the 180-degree rule is used to show there is two teams. The 180-degree rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another.It is done to not confuse the audience and to show them what is going on. The pace of editing is fast and these shots are combined into continuous

sequence, just as Griffiths did in the early days of editing, however this is now advanced to build up the tension and this will create a sense of faster paced action. This technique is effective because it relates the genre of the film, which is action. A cutaway is used when the camera shows Sean Boswell’s (Lucas Black) face, cuts to the pedals and then back to his face. This is used to show the audience the urgency of the speed and how much pressure he is under to win this race. All the way through this piece of action there is close ups onto the actors face. This can show, by their facial expressions, they are determined to win and they are not getting beat. This will engage with the audience because they will feel the adrenaline the actors feel in this film.

We can compare this to a film called ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (1962). The scene when they are in the courtroom is edited with very long takes. This means the pace of this film is much slower than ‘Fast and Furious’ however this technique helps develop the drama. By having slower paced shots it makes the viewer feel more intrigued by the action played on screen because you will have to watch the long takes to find out what will happen. The use of medium close ups and close ups of the characters enables us to see more of

the characters facial expressions and body language allowing you to see the emotions of the characters building the tension for the audience. For example there is a long shot of Atticus Finch stood centrally framed showing he is defending the defendant (Tom) and

questioning the witness (Mayella). Also the judge is slumped back in his chair showing no real interest in what they have to say. As an audience we are supporting Abacus Finch because we know that Tom is innocent, drama is built throughout the scene because the context of the film is prejudice against black people meaning there would have been a slim chance the judge would have believed Tom; he was black.

The use of medium close ups and close ups of the characters enables us to se more of the characters facial expressions and body language.

Not only can a film show pace but also it can provide and withhold information. This is effective because it helps to develop drama and it will engage the viewer. An example of this is ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’(2011). This film is about a boy called Kevin and he had committed a massacre in his school. Kevin is now in prison but His mam (Eva) has to live with the fact her son has committed a crime and she gets picked on because of what he did. The film is based on flashbacks of Eva’s life when Kevin was growing up and up until the point when it was the second year anniversary of the massacre when she visits Kevin in prison. Throughout the film the soundtrack juxtaposed the action on screen for example there is a scene when Eva is walking out of her house and getting into the car. Her car has paint all over and you can see her house is very run down however the music in the background sounds quite happy. This has an interesting effect on the audience because we don’t know what has happened in her life at the point this scene is played but the happiness of the music contradicts the physical look of Eva and how traumatised she looks by what has gone on. Because of the flashbacks through the film this can make an audience feel confused as to why this is happening but it will engage the viewer because it will make them want to keep watching to find out why the things that happen are happening. The film is constructed in a non-linear fashion and as the film progresses the full narrative is gradually revealed to the audience. By using some of these techniques, as an audience, it makes you want to watch till the end because all the way through the film you are given hints of what has happened but you are not fully told till the end of the movie the full extent of the incident. This will develop the drama because you are building up the tension by revealing it bit by bit.

Conventions and TechniquesThere are many well-established editing techniques in film which are effective in enhancing the narrative and reinforce the genre of the film.

Motivated Edit and Point of View ShotA motivated edit is when a scene cuts to another scene or object that was not in the previous frame. An example of this can be shown in ‘Scream’(1996). In the opening scene there is a shot when Casey answers the phone but then puts it down. The camera then stays focused on the door before a motivated edit it used when the camera moves outside. The camera tilts down from the trees to show a swing swinging. This makes the audience know more about what is going on then the character. By the swing just swinging it makes us feel like something is outside and something is going to happen to the character inside the house.

A point of view shot can also be seen in the film ‘Scream’. A point of view shot is when you can see what the character is looking at in same way as they can. In ‘Scream’ You can see a point of view shot when Casey is walking away from the door whilst being on the phone. This shows the audience that she is scared because she is moving away from somewhere a person could get into the house.

Shot-Reverse-ShotShot reverse shot is when one character is shown talking to another character, who is not usually in the same shot, and then the character is shown looking back at the first character. As the characters are shown facing

opposite directions an audience will make the assumption they are facing each other. A good example of this is in ‘Mean Girls’ (2004) when the three girls (Regina, Gretchen and Karen) are sat opposite Kady. The use of shot-reverse-shot maintains special continuity between the characters. This is effective as it shows the power of the mean girls because it is like a three against one situation. This shot also emphasises the difference between ‘The Plastics’, an idealistic representation of female beauty, compared to the natural looking ‘Kady’

Cutting to a SoundtrackCutting to a soundtrack is when the editing rhythm is motivated by the speed of the song. Today quite a lot of music video’s today use this technique. An

example is ‘Bad Romance’ by Lady Gaga. There is a part when she is walking and it cuts from her feet walking to her stood in a different outfit. This is effective because it helps to enhance the beats in the music. This can also apply to a film if the action is set to a soundtrack. This will set the pace for the action and make the audience more interested. There are different scenarios within this video and she is playing different characters in each of these scenes.A different example of a music video is ‘Thinking out Loud’ by Ed Sheeran. These shots are longer to enhance the music. The speed of the music reflects the pace of the shots. I feel like this effective because it will make people feel

what the actors in the video are feeling. You only have one location in this video unlike the Lady Gaga video when there is many.

ConclusionTo conclude I think editing is the most important development that has happened through time. The editor has one of the most important roles in film production as they control the direction of the narrative by combining shots together effectively to engage the audience. I think editing is the most important part of the film industry because without editing you wouldn’t have any of the films and TV shows we have today. The editing shapes the narrative of a film and through the change of an edit you can change the meaning created which means the editor is the most influential part of film production.