Editing of film or video material is an essential part of any
film production. Without the process of manipulating source material, all film
and video would have to be shot in sequence and without mistakes.
Editing has adapted and evolved as technology has improved
with time.
History of Editing
Classic Montage
Classic Montage (French for ‘Assembly’) is the sequence of
shots to show the passage of time in the story, and condensed into a small
amount of screen time. Montage sequences were often combined with special
visual effects – such as fades and dissolves – in the 1930-50’s.
Two
common montage sequences of that period consisted of newspapers and a railroad.
There are multiple shot of newspapers being printed, with multiple layered
shots of a man looking at a paper, papers at the end of a press, and papers
moving between rollers. Headlines rolled on screen whenever something needed to
be explained.
Soviet Montage
Created in Soviet Russia, the editing was focused on
influencing the audience into the propaganda being shown on scene.
In this video, A man is faced by moral confliction upon
encountering his wife's adulterous affair and contemplates over the issue with
a mustering desire to murder her lover.
Kuleshov
By placing seemingly unrelated shots side by side
(Juxtaposition) film-makers could create new meaning and create visual
metaphors.
Experiment
Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a pioneering coviet Russian film director, often considered the ‘Father of Montage’ . He is noted for films such as Strike (1924) and Battleship Potemkin (1925).
He and Lev Kuleshov argued that montage was the ‘essence of the cinema’. Eisenstein believed that the editing could be used for more than just emphasising a scene or moment, though a ‘Linkage’ of related images. He developed what he called ‘Methods of Montage’.
·
Metrick – Unit of length or measurement
·
Tonal – Emotion of a scene prime factor
·
Rhythmic – Movement in shot conflicts rhythm of
editing
·
Overtonal – Metric, Tonal and Rhythm combined
·
Intellectual – Visual metaphors
Example of Eisenstein’s five types:
The Lumiere Brothers
Louise and Auguste worked in a Lyons factory that manufactured
photographic equipment and supplies. They created their own combo movie camera
and projectors, using a film width of 35cm, and a speed of 16 frames per
second.
Their first movie was born in December 28th, 1895,
Paris.
George Melies
Melies was a French Cinematic Illusionist, who came up with
the idea of fantasy and art films. By using films to tell stories, he set up Europe's first film studio in 1897. It created over 500 films in over 15 years.
Few survived, and screened his own productions in a theatre. He went out of
business in 1913.
Editing Techniques
Parallel Editing (Cross Cutting)
Cross Cutting is the technique of alternating two or more
scenes which happen simultaneously in different locations.
Different story lines unfold in parallel. These parallel story lines can come together, but it
is not necessary. Story lines can converge to make it seems more interesting.
An example of this would be The Godfather, and its famous
scene:
Suspense can be created by cross-cutting. It creates
expectations and hopes that the scenes will be explained in time.
Cross-cutting is used for pace, suspense and exposition – to
narrate the back story, themes, and character detail.
Continuity Editing
Continuity Editing is the use of connecting clips which
follow each other directly seamlessly, to ensure that all the clips are shown
without blips and errors. If continuity was not there, it would be clear to
see. For example, if a door is closed in one clip and open in the next, this
breaks the continuity.
Continuity falls if anything breaks the suspense of the clips realism.
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| This picture shows The Doctor emerging from his Tardis on a motorcycle. The tardis itself is supposed to be bigger on the inside, therefor shouldn't have strange grate-like walls on the inside. Youtube (2012) History of Film Making [Online] Available from http://youtu.be/rv8ls-Jf2xU Accessed on 7th Jan, 2014 Youtube (2009) Soviet Montage [Online] Available from http://youtu.be/7rt6HRvgkYQ Accessed on 7th Jan, 2014 Youtube (2009) Original Kuleshov Experiment [Online] Available from http://youtu.be/4gLBXikghE0 Accessed on 7th Jan, 2014 Youtube (2012) Eisenstein's 5 Methods [Online] Available from http://youtu.be/MzXFSBlQOe4 Accessed on 7th Jan, 2014 Youtube (2012) Parallel Editing - The Godfather [Online] Available from http://youtu.be/S_I82117oAw Accessed on 9th Jan, 2014 Wordpress (2013) Whopix [Online] Available from http://whopix.wordpress.com/2013/03/ Accessed on 12th Jan, 2014 |
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