The purposes of editing

Editing is used to put all of the film/footage into an order that makes a story and how the editor wants it to look. Obviously the right order in in chronological order, but this isnt always the case. However, the film Memento is backwards as it doesnt start from the beginning. This film was made very well as it is in the viewers eye the film is in the right order, it creates a different impact when it is shown this way. As it is shown backwards it makes the storyline very strong and very well put together. For example, here is the trailor for Memento.

Editing can also be used to have a different effect on the film that is made by the film maker. As you can use transitions from shots, the edits of the colour tones and the brightness. It makes the film more easier and clearer to understand what effect is being made. Speeding up a shot or slowing it done is done to create a more creative, special effect. For example, here is a video that shows this.

The history of film editing

There has been many changes within the history of film to today, such as the editing techniques.

The first film ever made was in the 1800's, where there was no editing involved. If we look back on these films that were made then, then it looks as if they were home videos. Firstly, we can see in the video L'Arrivee d'un train a La Ciotat by the Lumiere Brothers in 1985 that no one really knew anything about film and editing. This made the audience think that the train in the video was really coming at them, this made the viewers scared.

After all the one shot films that were made, the cinema did not seem that successful as people were making films themseleves as they were that easy. Then came the idea of cutting film footage so they could cut to different shots. So they would literally cut the film with a splicer and threaded them together on a machine. This was the start of editing.

D.W Griffith was the very first actual editor. He came up with diffferent type of techniques which had text introducing us to the film. He was the first person to use a close up shot. However, the viewers did not understand why it was used or what this shot was. The audience said they would of rather seen the whole of the actors body since they paid alot of money to see the film.
D.W.Griffith worked with a man called Jimmy Edward Smith. He was Griffith's film cutter. They both stayed in the film studio where they worked till they finished the film. Smith was not really known by anyone but most editors were not known at that time. The people that got the credit for the films made were the directors.


 
 After D.W.Griffiths work, film makers then realised that they could use different types of techniques which would give a reaction to the audience. So they would use techniques like, flashbacks, parallel action and close ups. This would create a certain reaction to the viewers, which they could use to their advantage. An example of one of these techinques would be in the film Carousel which was in 1956.




Alfed Hitchcock was the master of suspense. He did this by using editing. An example of his work would be the film Psycho, the scene in this is the shower scene as that would be the best example of how used editing to build up suspense.



Serge Eizenstein
Eisenstein is a very well known editor, he certainly became convinced that in cinema he could maniuplate time and space to create some kind of new different meanings. Especially if the images were not to be merely linked. Kuleshov suggested to Eisenstein but juxtaposed. Eisenstein is known and considered as the 'father' of the cinematic montage. He usually used heavy edited sequences to create impacts on the viewers. He would create emotional impact and historical propaganda. Eisenstein is most famous for the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin in 1925. There are many examples you could use montage for in a film, such as a brake up, if a couple were to break up in a film there could be a montage of images of the couple together in the times when they were having a good time.Here is a example of Serge Eizensteins work.

Jean-Luc Godard born 3 December 1930 is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter He is often identified with the 1960s French movement. The second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. In 1961 Godard shot Une Femme est une Femme , his first film using colour widescreen stock. Later that year he participated in the collective effort to remake the film The Seven Deadly Sins. One of his personal quotes is “all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun” I think is a brilliant quote and could be interpreted as the public are easy to please so to speak. Jean was voted the 31st Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly which is still a great achievement all though I’m sure he would of seen at as different.

The principles of editing

When editing films there are a number of principles that are important and are taken into consideration that really shows the best of what bits have been edited. These principles are basically rules that film editors cannot break as much as possible for editing to work and look good. But if an editor was to break these rules they would have to do it very well for that to work also.

Continuity Editing
Continuity editing is when the editor uses a sequence of shots to make it look like a progession of events. This type of editing is used alot in films and also in television, as it makes the story alot more easier to understand. It also has to be done as if you cannot see the editing. This type of editing was usually used in Hollywood but is now used universally. It is a very smooth style of narrating.


The 180 degree rule

The 180 degree rule is an easy and basic rule as it is when two characters in the film or elements in one scene should always be on the same left or right side to each other. Then if the camera goes across the imaginary axis where the two characters are placed then it would look as if they have flipped round and swapped sides. This could confuse the audience if this rule was broken as it moves the position of them so by stopping this the camera does not cross this line. On the other hand, this rule can be broken if there was a meaning behind it. For example, 

The eye-line match techinque

Another technique used is the eye-line match technique. This is used while continuity editing is being used. In the shot would be a character that is looking away from the camera and off screen. Then in the shot after that it will show us what the character had been looking at in the first shot. Eye-line match is used usually to make cuts less noticable. So this means when the audience are excepting the cut to happen it will be smoother. For example, this video will show us this technique.

Cross-cutting technique

Cross-cutting is where the camera will cut away from one action to another action by doing this it suggest to the audience that both of the actions being shown are happening at the same time. This technique is used to build suspense and as the scenes cut shot to shot the viewer will compare them and gain a set of expectations in which will be fulfilled in the end.

Fade Out
This is when the image on screen fades out to black.

Fade In
This is when the screen fades from black to an image.Fade in and fade out can be used in a number of ways to help add effect to a film it can be used to suggest an amount of time passing and also as a bit of a break for the audience to maybe allow them to adjust for the next scene. Another common way of using this is at the end of a film were it will slowly fade out leaving it more dramatic and a slow transition to the end credits.

Dissolves

Dissolve is where the image will slowly disappear or dissolve so to speak as the other image gradually comes into shot this is generally used to show the end of a shot or the begging of the next scene there is a example below:

Wipes

Wipes is where the screen quite literally wipes over the rest of the screen.  In most films they would never dream of using wipes as it can be seen as looking quite comic-bookish in which would not fit in with a lot of films and television. Star wars uses this effect very well as it fits in with the basic concept star wars came from of comic books I also find it is very effective and helps give the films something different to others.

Introduction

I will be working with Max Rogan on this blog. Our blog is going to be about the purposes, principles and history of film editing. Editing a film or video is a very important part of audio-visual production. When editing a film or video it has to be done without getting rid of, adding more or changing the source material. The film and video will have to be shot in the right sequence and without any mistakes being made. Also when editing, creative decisions will have to be made in the source material all the way through to the finished product, as it provides opportunities in the creativity of the filming stage. While doing the research on this blog, we will look into the 'language' of editing and the techniques used by different editors.