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.