How Editing Has Developed Over Time

The history of film has had many changes up until today, which inevitably means that editing styles have changed. Film first started out in the 1800's with no editing at all. Today we would look at these films and think of them as almost home videos if we were to film them ourselves. You can see this style of filming in this video of L'Arrivee d'un train a La Ciotat by the Lumiere brothers in 1895. At this point the audience knew nothing about film and therefore were afraid when they saw this as they thought the train was actually coming towards them.

After all of these one-shot short films were around they eventually thought that cinema didn't have a future since people were just filming things that they could go and see first hand for themselves. They then came to the realisation of cutting the footage to change between shots. To do this they would physically cut and paste together pieces of film using a splicer and threading the film on a machine with a viewer. This was the first sign of editing. You can see in the video below of The Great Train Robbery by Edwin Porter made in 1903 how the use of cutting was used in early film.

It was editing that allowed film to take off as it allowed the film to transport between any two shots. For example, a setting like a train station to someones face. Editing also allows shots to be sped up or slowed down, which is interesting because this obviously can't be done in real life. This in fact is the reason why people generally like film as they would like to be able to edit their own lives as is done in film. Editing can also be used to make the audience have a certain reaction. For example, it can startle the audience or can make them laugh.

Editing also went on to add colour to film, this was the process of film colorization. To do this, each shot was individually coloured by hand. You can see this in the video below of Greed from 1924 where certain parts of the film have had colour included.

D. W. Griffith was the first editor. He invented and popularized specific techniques which included introducing narrative to film. He was also the first man that used the close up in a big way. The audience didn't understand this shot at this point as they said that they wanted to see the whole actors body since they had paid all of this money to see the film. The video below shows a trailer by D.W. Griffith for Birth of a Nation, in this clip you can see the use of different shots.

They wanted the cut to be so smooth that it was barely noticeable so that the viewer stays involved throughout the film. Jimmy Edward Smith was Griffith's film cutter. He basically lived with Griffith in the film studio when they were working since the amount of time they were spending on it. Smith was virtually unknown like all other editors at that time. It was the directors that got all the glory for the film but the work of the editors weren't recognized.

Film makers started realising that they could use specific techniques to make the audience react in a certain way. For example, they would use flashbacks, parallel action and close ups which would create a specific reaction from the audience. The filmmakers realised that they could use this to their advantage. They also realised that they could create a certain psychological effect through certain ways of cutting, which again shows how the audience can react in certain ways. For example, certain ways of cutting can make the audience nervous or in shock. The 1956 film Carousel is an example of the early use of flashback, a clip from the film is shown below.

Editing can be essentially seen as the start of the making of the film as this is the point where the film is actually put together. At this point you can actually physically see the film and decide what changes need to be made.

In the film The Man With A Movie Camera you can see every modern editing technique that we now know. The film is shown below.

Hitchcock was the master of suspense, he used editing to do this. Below is a video from his film Psycho. I chose to show the shower scene as i feel that this is a perfect example of how he used his editing to build up suspense.

The film Bullitt has a large chase scene. In a chase scene you want to accentuate that something is going on whether it is good or bad, this is shown through the rhythm in the scene. When watching a car chase scene is like being in a cardiac simulator which runs when watching the scene as it feels as though you are there, you feel excited and nervous about what is going on.

Terminator 2 uses a slow tense build up in slow motion, then it has a cathartic break where it then kicks into gear where the action happens. This makes the audience feel tense about what is going to happen as throughout the film they have become involved in all the characters etc which inevitably means that they will be emotionally evolved in this scene too. When the audience comes into the cinema they already know their own fears, they want to be surprised, they want to feel nervous etc. This clip below shows this.

A lot later on in the history of editing Tarantino wanted an editor that was a woman for Reservoir Dogs as he felt that they were more nurturing and would give his film exactly what he wanted in the best way they possibly could. This was very different and slightly controversial as men are mainly the editors in the film industry. This shows how the change in time effects our views differently. The video below is the opening scene from Reservoir Dogs which shows Tarantino's editors work.

Visual effects have also changed through time, there is now a lot more things that is possible to do. For example, CGI has also come about allowing the animation world to have become a lot more advanced.

The Purposes of Editing

Editing is used to piece together all of the footage into the correct order that is wanted by the editor. The correct order is generally the chronological order but this isn't necessarily the case for everything. For instance, the film Memento is shown backwards. It is made so well that in the viewers eye everything is revealed to them in the right order as when looked at in the chronological order it doesn't create the same impact as it does as being shown this way. The fact that it is shown backwards links very strongly to the storyline which works well. Below is the trailer for Memento.

After filming there would be a lot of footage that isn't needed like different takes of different scenes which wouldn't be used for the film so these would need to be edited out.

Editing is also used to create a certain effect to the film that is wanted by the film maker; you can use different transitions between shots, edit the colour tones of the footage, the brightness etc. You can also see the footage in a much clearer form to see whether any other filming is needed to create the effect that is wanted. It can also be used to edit the timing of the footage, it can be made shorter or longer. This works with the editing of timing of the film itself. It can also be used to create special effects like speeding up a scene or slowing it down. The video below shows both of these effects.

The Principles of Editing

When editing these principles are generally taken into consideration to get the best out of what is being edited. They can be used as "rules" but are not unbreakable as it is possible for it to work very well by going against these conventions.

Continuity Editing

This refers to arranging the sequence of shots into a progression of events.

It is used a lot in both television and film as it allows the story to progress in the right order making it easier to understand. Confusion could appear if it was not the case although in some cases this works really well by fracturing the narrative.

Continuity editing aims for the editing to be virtually invisible, it is now universally used but was previously associated with Hollywood.

It uses a smooth and seamless style of narrating the story which is done through a variety of techniques.

The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline that states two characters or elements in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects would be shown from the opposite side and therefore in reverse angle. Sometimes so that the audience doesn't get confused by the position of the characters the camera doesn't cross this line.

This is an example of the 180 degree rule. It is a video from Youtube that someone has posted specifically to inform about this rule.

Sometimes this rule can be broken, for example in this clip from the Shining you can see how the camera crosses the imaginary axis.

This creates a really interesting effect as it breaks the conventions of the 180 degree rule. It creates almost a fractured view as the editing is a lot more obvious, which is the opposite effect that is sought after when following this rule.

Continuity editing makes sure that the editing isn't visible which makes the shot consistent which makes sure that the viewer doesn't feel confused.

The eye-line match technique is used as well during continuity editing. One shot shows a character looking off screen and then the next shot shows what the character or subject that it is looking at. This is used to help make cuts smoother as the viewer expects the cuts to happen and is eager to find out what is next. The video here shows this.

Cross-cutting is also used in continuity editing. Like the previous two techniques (180 degree rule and the eye-line match technique) it is used to establish smooth continuity. During cross-cutting the camera will cut away from one action to another action. Through doing this it suggests that both of the actions shown are happening at the same time. During these shots, the viewer will generally compare them for this reason. Cross-cutting is mainly used to build up suspense. During the cross-cutting the viewer will form expectations which will eventually be shown or fulfilled.

Other Types of Editing

Jump Cuts

These are confusing cuts as they go from one shot to the next which do not follow the obvious form of cause and effect which makes this confusing for the viewer as it would not be what they are expecting. They are generally used to disrupt the audience's attention to create shock.

You can see an example of the jump cut bellow from Godard's Breathless. This film is a perfect example to see how the jump cut works best.

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.

Both fading out and fading in can be used to suggest an amount of time passing, this can also be used to give the audience a short break to allow them to prepare for the next scene. It is also used in some films at the ending. You can see an example of this here at the end of this clip of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator which shows both a fade out from the image and a fade in to some text.

Dissolves

This is when the image on screen slowly disappears as the new image appears. Dissolves are generally used to indicate the end of a shot or scene and to introduce the beginning of the next one. Below is an example of this.

Wipes

These are when one part of the screen literally wipe over the rest of the screen. These aren't generally used in film of television as they look comic-bookish and so do not necessarily fit with a lot of film and television. You can see in the clip below a montage of the wipes seen in Star Wars III. This film uses a lot of this transition for the relation to the comic-book themes that this transition gives off. It works well with this film because of the comic-book origins of the film.

Development of the Principles of Editing

Introduction

Editing is initially putting the footage into the order you want it to be in. Even though it sounds so simple, there is so much you can do with it. There are different types of editing and many "rules" and things you should look out for when editing.

In this blog I will be looking at the principles and purposes of editing and how editing has developed over time, which will help you in your film production skills.