The
Development and Principles of Editing
For this assignment I will be discussing the development of
editing, the purpose of editing and the conventions and techniques of editing. Editing
has improved and developed over the years in the video below you will see how
different it is compared to today’s technology.
(my video link for the youtube video i chose wouldn't upload, here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_er1g0Q3ELY ) Here is a different example:
Eadweard Muybridge had debated whether all four feet of a horse were
off the ground at the same time while trotting. The same question had arisen
about the actions of horses during a gallop. The human eye could not break down
the action at the quick paces of the trot and gallop. Galloping horse, animated
in 2006, using photos by Eadweard Muybridge. He later did additional studies,
as well as improving his camera for quicker shutter speed and faster film
suspensions. Muybridge had successfully photographed a horse at a trot; Scientific
American was among the publications at the time that carried reports of
Muybridge's cutting-edge images.
He placed numerous large glass-plate cameras
in a line along the edge of the track; the shutter of each was triggered by a
thread as the horse passed (in later studies he used a clockwork device to set
off the shutters and capture the images). The path was lined with cloth sheets
to reflect as much light as possible. He copied the images in the form of
silhouettes onto a disc to be viewed in a machine he had invented, which he
called a ‘zoopraxiscope’. This device was later regarded as an early movie
projector, and the process as an intermediate stage toward motion pictures or
cinematography.
In
the 1880s, the University of Pennsylvania sponsored Muybridge's research using banks of cameras to photograph people in a studio, and animals from the
Philadelphia Zoo to study their movement. The human models, either entirely
nude or very lightly clothed, were photographed against a measured grid
background in a variety of action sequences, including walking up or down
stairs, hammering on an anvil, carrying buckets of water, or throwing water
over one another. Muybridge produced sequences showing farm, industrial,
construction, and household work, military manoeuvres, and everyday activities.
He also photographed athletic activities such as baseball, cricket, football,
boxing, wrestling, fencing, rowing, discus throwing, and a ballet dancer
performing. Showing a single-minded dedication to scientific accuracy and
artistic composition, Muybridge himself posed nude for some of the photographic
sequences, such as one showing him swinging a miner's pick
Frames
& Frame Rates
When transferring film to video, you need to take into account the
differences in film and video frame rates. Film is commonly shot at 24 frames
per second (fps), although 25 fps is sometimes used when the final project is
to be delivered as PAL video (as opposed to the more common technique of just
speeding up 24 fps film to 25 fps).The frame rate of your video and
the frame rate you want to edit at can determine what you need to do to prepare
your clips for editing. You may find it useful to read Determining How to
Prepare Source Clips for Editing before you make any decisions about frame
rates.
Post-Production
Post-production is:
·
Video editing
·
Writing, (re)recording, and editing the soundtrack.
·
Adding visual special effects - mainly
computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digital copy from which release prints
will be made. Sound design,
·
Sound effects
The post-production stage of creating a film takes longer
than the actual shooting of the film, and can take around several months to
complete because it includes the complete editing, colour correction and the
addition of music and sound. The process of editing a movie is also seen as the
second directing because through the post production it is possible to change
the purpose of the movie. Furthermore through the use of colour correcting
tools and the addition of music and sound, the atmosphere of the movie can be
heavily influenced. For instance a blue-tinted movie is associated with a cold
atmosphere and the choice of music and sound increases the effect of the shown
scenes to the audience.
Production
The
Luminere Brothers & Thomas Edison
The first film cameras where a roll of film and moving frames
mechanically moving past a shutter and lens system, this was invented in France
by the Luminere Brothers and in America by Thomas Edison, at about the same
point in history.
The Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, were sons of
well-known Lyons based portrait painter Antoine Lumière. During his
experimentation, Louis discovered a process which assisted the development of
photography. By early 1895, the brothers had invented their own device
combining camera with printer and projector and called it the Cinématographe.
Patenting it on February 13th 1895, the Cinématographe was much smaller than
Edison’s Kinetograph, was lightweight (around five kilograms), and was hand
cranked. The first films created with these cameras were not edited; they were
usually one single shot, from a single point of view. The Lumières used a film
speed of 16 frames per second, much slower compared with Edison’s 48 fps - this
meant that less film was used an also the clatter and grinding associated with
Edison’s device was reduced.
 |
| The Luminere Brothers |
 |
| Thomas Edison |
Edited in
camera
Edited in camera means that the film is created shot by shot
in the camera, editing in a camera has allowed film-makers to do more than just
show the world from one point of view. Here is my own example of editing on the
camera:
Another example of editing in camera:
(my original idea wouldn't go onto this page here is the link:
A historical example of editing in camera would be the 1902
history of an American fire fighter:
The Invention
of Video Editing
Video editing is the method of editing pieces of motion video production footage, special effects and sound
recordings in the post-production process. Motion picture film editing is like video editing in seven ways,
video editing mimics motion picture film editing, in theory and the use of linear video editing and video editing software on non-linear
editing systems. The original video editing systems were also linear editing
systems. However instead of physically cutting the video tape the data was
copied from one tape to another via a control deck which would control the in
and out points (start and finish) of the clip you wanted to copy across.
Here is an example of an in and out point:
Non-Linear
Editing systems
Non-Linear editing means that its not straight forward it
goes back and forth a lot. The first attempt to create a non-linear editing
system was in 1970. Lucasfilm started to develop a system in the 1980’s; with
their EditDroid (a system based on laser disc technology) the first
commercially successful, expert NLE systems were produced in 1989, when AVID
released Avid 1 Media Composer editing system. The Avid editing system was a
hardware and software system based on Apple computer technology. The thing that
changed editing systems from linear to non-linear was the idea that the on
either film or video, could be transformed into digital information and that
information could then be altered without destroying the original file, this is
known as ‘Non Destructive Editing’.
Story-Telling
If its news, drama or a documentary the purpose of editing is
the same it all has to have an effective story. It is important to edit your
video to control the audience’s point of view, if it’s a sad drama for example
you want the shots to be long and usually dull looking because it emphasises
the depressing storyline. Basically
editing is just trying to make the actors come alive and move the audience, to
pull the actors out of the screen and let them sit on our lap; it makes you
feel like you’re involved. Here is an example of a drama were one of the actors
dies, it’s fast pace at the start when the accident happens and then it get
slower and shows only the sad faces of the actors.
Genre
Genre is how film is defined by either its content or style.
The different types of genres are:
- · Horror/Thriller
- · Mystery
- · Fantasy
- · Comedy
- · Rom-Com
- · Romantic
- · Action
Pace &
Rhythm
The pace of cutting is important to build up the tension in a
scene which makes the viewer’s sit on the edge of their seats. Usually when
it’s an action type film its fast pace with more cuts per minute, compared to a
romantic film. For example the action clip below is faster pace than the
romantic scene underneath it which is really slow and drags the scene on.
Combining
shots into sequences to engage the viewer
The movie ‘The Impossible’ has a scene which is a gripping
and makes the audience shocked because they know what’s going to happen. Before
the big natural disaster you see it all building up it shows the mother looking
worried, then she looks up to the trees and they are shaking, it shows all
nature either shaking or small animals hiding and also a few people stood in
shock. Before the tsunami happens it’s all slow pace as it shows a lot of close
up shots of the actors shocked and worried faces right up until the tsunami
happens and then there is a mid-shot of the trees slowly coming down while all
the actors are stood next to them and the water rising over everyone.
3
Conventions and Techniques
Shot reverse shot (180 degree rule) this is used mainly in
dialogue sequences, the way the point of view moves from the face of one person
to the reverse view of the person they are talking to.
Montage is a sequence of different film clips/images together
to form a characters development through time. Here is an example of a movie
montage throughout the years:
Editing has been a huge factor in film production since it first emerged in the world of film, around a century ago (1903) it included camera panning and crosscutting. But modern film editing has come a long way since thenIn 1924, the invention of the Moviola—a machine allowing film to be run back and forth, sequence by sequence this provided a breakthrough in film industry technology.
