Unit 16: Film And Video Editing

The History Of Editing

Editing is a fundamental part of cinema, from the cut to the montage, editing helps to tell a story in a movie better than just a static image would. There are many different aspects to editing that will be detailed here, so I will start where all good stories begin, at the beginning.

Thomas Edison And The Static Camera



Thomas Edison

Back in 1888 the world famous inventor Thomas Edison, shortly after creating the light bulb, enlisted the help a young inventor to help in creating the first motion capture camera, a camera that would capture moving pictures. Crazy. He envisioned it as a sort of home theatre type thing in which pictures that moved would be accompanied by sound and displayed upon a screen. Unfortunately the device he created was large and cumbersome and only viewable by a single person at a time. Enter the Lumiere Brothers, Auguste and Louis. Antoine, their farther, went to an art exhibition at which he saw Edison's peephole kinetoscope and showed a piece to his sons. They worked all through the winter of 1894 trying to overcome the limitations of Edison's device. By early 1895 they had created their own device called the cinematograph. This was the start of the cinema age.

The Lumiere Brothers



Auguste and Louis Lumiere

The Lumiere brothers started by projecting their films onto a rented café in the Grand Café in Paris. Their films, called ''actualities'', where incredibly basic compared to today's standard of film. In very basic terms, they would set up the camera at a given point and just set it off to record whatever happened in front of it. Their most famous piece, 'Arrival Of A Train At A Station', was just that, a train arriving at a station. In terms of editing, there was next to nothing to show in this piece. The camera just records whatever happens in front of it, which just happened to be a train arriving at a station. This early in the history of cinema, the fundamental part of the film was not a cut, but rather a scene, one continuous shot of a place. While this kind of camera work is no longer used as much, it can still be found in modern films of the experimental variety, albeit these are few and far between, mainly due to how outdated this kind of filming is.

Edwin Porter



Edwin Porter

Edwin Porter is usually credited with creating the 'shot' as he was the first person to actually 'cut' the film before each scene could come to a logical close. He was also the first person to not use a dissolve to go from scene to scene, instead using hard cuts. This has obviously become a staple in modern, and almost certainly future, films. Edwin realized the potential in the narrative side of film also, and used this to his advantage. In the film, 'The Great Train Robbery', Edwin uses these cuts instead of dissolves and cuts from the scene before it reaches its logical end, a first in the world of cinema. The film may only contain 14 cuts in total but that's 14 more than any films before it. It is also the first time a panning camera is used in a film, as in shot 8 the camera moves to follow the action, again a first in the world of film. It also featured the first ever close up, although histories believe it to be mainly be used as a gimmick instead of trying to further the story. Using an actual script and a cast of around 40 people, this became the standard of filmmaking from this point on, as Porter had discovered, while he may not have realized it, how powerful the narrative side of film is.

DW Griffiths And The Birth Of A Nation



Griffiths is commonly considered the father of modern film. He brought the world the first instance of cutting the time between shots to build tension and using parallel editing to show two separate scenes that happen at the same time. In his film 'The Birth Of A Nation' he uses parallel editing to cut between one part and another that is happening elsewhere but keeps the tension very much alive. He also used close ups and mid shots in the same scene to show emotion on the actors face and to keep the audience in the know as to what was happening. During the scene in which Abraham Lincoln is assassinated, he used 55 shots between the president, his bodyguard and the assassin to create a massive amount of tension. This has obviously stuck around since then and is only being used more and more as more films are being released. This just goes to show how impactful this kind of editing can be when it's done right, and how much of an impact it had on the world of film. Cutting the shots shorter creates more tension than would be seen on a longer cut as the film builds up to a climax

Sergei Eisenstein And Lev Kuleshov



Sergei Eisenstein

The Kuleshov Experiment

Sergei is considered the father of the montage, as he used it very well before anyone even knew what it was. Being heavily influenced by Griffiths' work, he can be said to be the king of juxtaposing or using parallel imagery. Using two different shots cut together to create an image in the viewers mind, such as in his film 'Strike!' in which he uses images of cattle being slaughtered alongside images of soldiers gunning down factory workers. While these two things may seem completely different at face value, combining them creates the idea that one represents the other. The soldiers are massacring the workers. This is called the Kuleshov effect. Lev Kuleshov thought that by combining seemingly different pieces of film he could fabricate an idea into the viewers mind. In his famous experiment, imaginatively named 'The Kuleshov Experiment', he took film of the emotionless face of a man, but cut it with three different pieces of film. Each time the face was the same, but the audience saw a different emotion on it. This has once again become a staple of modern films too, implying instead of saying.

Why Do We Use Editing?

Editing has many uses in TV and film, from helping to tell a story to forcing emotions on people; it can be one of the most powerful tools in a filmmaker's arsenal. Editing has been used from the very beginning of films life. Even if it was just as simple as literally cutting the film the movie is on to create a cut to the next scene, it was still edited. As films grew and became more popular, filmmakers started to use more experimental techniques in their movies. Editing can be a make or break thing when it comes to films or TV. Editing is used to combine different shots into a sequence; this is the main use of editing, cutting out the fat and slimming the footage down into one film. One primary use of editing is to engage the viewer and keep them watching. Basically, if you use long boring static shots of the same thing over and over, people get bored. Take the film 'The Great Train Robbery' for example, this film only uses long drawn out static shots, granted they didn't know any better at the time, and this makes the film incredibly hard to watch, just because it's boring. Compared to films like 'Taken 3', which uses fast cuts and quick shots to build up the action in a scene, and you can see the difference.

Editing also has many uses that aren't as massive as this, such as simply taking out the parts of footage you don't need. By placing your footage into a piece of editing software, you can cut it up and remove things you don't need. This allows you to cut down the time it would take to go through all the footage. It might sound simple, but even this is an incredibly important part of editing. A more prominent use of editing is to add emotion to a piece of film. By using different cuts and techniques you can sort of push the viewer to feel a certain emotion. During a sad scene the editor might slow down the cuts to make it feel sadder or slow music to sort of make the viewer feel these emotions, when in actual fact it's just some people pretending, but it couldn't feel more real. A great example of a scene being made sad would be Wilson's ''departure'' in the film 'Cast Away'. While it is just a volleyball with a face painted on it and some sticks for hair, floating away from a makeshift boat, the use of long shots of the ball getting further away from the boat to show it floating away from Tom Hanks, as well as the only sound being Hanks calling out to him and the water lapping the camera, it creates a sad, panicked feeling on the viewer. It doesn't just show a volleyball floating away however, as all throughout the film, Wilson represents Tom's humanity, and this scene asks him if he is willing to forgo his safety, the raft, to rescue his humanity. If the editor had done it differently, then we may not have got this feeling. They might also use fast cuts in time with the beat of the music, or whatever is happening on screen, to make the audience feel alive and excited. The editor can use a whole range of different editing techniques to help tell the story or get a point across to the viewer. This is the true power of editing and where it is at its most useful. Editing can be used to form a narrative and sometimes save a poorly written film from bombing. It can be used as a way to create a narrative in someone's mind. It can enforce a feeling or an emotion in a person's mind and even win awards if it is done well.

The Different Techniques

There are many different techniques to be used when editing. One of the more cliché techniques would have to be the montage. Often used to tell the passage of a long time in a short time, they are often attributed with American and English films, but were actually created by the French. It literally translates to 'putting together' and is used in French films instead of saying editing. There are 2 more types of montage, however, and these come from different parts of the world. The Russian form is oftentimes just called juxtaposition, and is used to gain a meaning from a shot that didn't have that meaning, see 'The Kuleshov Experiment'. The final use of a montage is the cliché one, and derives from Hollywood. It is used to tell a whole narrative in a condensed space of time. A montage can be used to incredible extent when it is done right, however. The most famous use of an American montage would be in the film ‘Rocky’, in which the titular Rocky character begins his training to become a boxer. Training for this type of thing can take weeks, even months; however it only takes a few moments in the film, through the use of a montage. It cuts through him running, to him doing push-ups, to him sparring and finally, the most famous scene in the montage, him running up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum Of Art. This montage was used purely to show the passage of time during his training. Combined with the iconic track ‘Gonna Fly Now’ the entire montage scene has become an iconic part of film history, but imagine what would have happened if John G. Avildsen, the director, had used, say, a jump cut instead. It wouldn’t have had the same kind of impact and feel that it does to this day. Editing can make or break a film, and this just goes to show that, seeing as this is the most iconic scene of all the Rocky films. And that's just one technique of editing. Another would be 'Multiple Exposure' editing, in which different pieces of film are laid over each other so that the viewer sees them all at once. This can be used to create some pretty unique looking films. One of the first films to feature this was the French film 'The Four Troublesome Heads'. There are many different kinds of editing techniques that are commonplace nowadays, but back in the early 1900's, this was as unusual as it got, simply putting 2 bits of film together to create a narrative. Another common use of editing is to enhance the continuity of a scene, though this can sometimes fall to the wayside. This involves making sure that every shot follows on continually from one another regardless of when it was actually shot. This is used to create a continuous flow from scene to scene and is essential for telling any story, though it is only seen during the editing. For example, during a car chase in 'The Matrix Reloaded', one car's windshield is shot in, however in the next shot; the same window is fully repaired, breaking up the continuity of the scene. Making sure an actor’s makeup and costume don't change in between shots also helps to keep the continuity in place. Continuity is one of the biggest deal breakers for a film.

Another famous type of editing is the jump cut, often used to show the passage of time in film, but it can also be used to give a sense of speed to the situation. It isn't used very often these days, as it is often said to be not a very good use of editing, but it can be very useful when used right. It is often used to show a leap in time that happens in a film, so if a film needs to skip ahead through the night or skip a few days ahead, they will use a jump cut, however it can mess with the continuity of the film. In the film 'Royal Tenenbaums', one character is shaving in the bathroom, and cuts his arms with a razor in a suicide attempt, all of this taking place over about half a minute. The jump cuts are used to show him cutting his hair to cutting his beard, and then to shaving and ultimately the suicide attempt. This was done to show that it was all done in one single event, but over a longer period of time than is shown in the film. This film was directed by Wes Anderson, who is known for his symmetrical shots in his films, and he could have very easily used just a lowly 3 total cuts in this scene, going from the hair cutting to the shaving and finally to the suicide attempt. Not only would it have made the whole scene shorter, but it would also have been more concise. The only thing the audience can gleam from this is that he chose to use this type of edit in the final cut of the film, probably to emphasise the whole point of the scene. The jump cut is often referred to as not being very good as it feels very jarring, jumping forward that far that fast, it really takes the viewer out of the film. But they can also be used just to jump to a different location or characters perspective; they don't need to be used to jump forward through time. Maybe this is why people still use it. Maybe it was supposed to represent the suicidal characters thoughts at that moment, quick and sudden. Wes Anderson is known for not using many cuts at all, evidenced in ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ where he opts to use sweeping cameras and long shots with zooms to build a narrative rather than cutting often, so him using a simple jump cut must have been for a reason. I believe that it was to show the suicidal characters thoughts and emotions at the time of the suicide attempt. Similar to the previously explored edits in ‘Cast Away’, directors often chose to use certain edits for a reason in big, impactful scenes. Jump cuts can, however, be incredibly good looking in the right situation. Jump cuts can also add a nervousness to a scene of a film as they do in the famous film ‘The Blair Witch Project’, where the use of shaky cam and an excessive amount of jump cuts really add to the film.

In this film, a group of teens go searching for the 'Blair Witch' in a forest, until one of them goes missing. They find a house in the forest and search it, leading to an incredibly intense and terrifying scene, but since it is a hand held camera film, it constantly cuts between the two characters perspectives, adding a nervous and frantic feel to the scene. This works to engage the audience in what would otherwise be a very awkwardly shot scene. This adds to the overall feel of the movie; as it is supposed to terrify the audience, and using jump cuts accomplishes this to an amazing degree, as they are unexpected and jarring, but work to keep the audience in the film. The 180 degree rule is another use of specific editing, and says that a camera should never move more than 180 degrees around someone. It should always be showing opposite sides of 2 characters and is often used in conversations. This leads into another editing technique called 'shot-reverse-shot'. This is when we see opposite sides of two characters in the same scene. Often times it is used in conversations, as we only see one character at a time, and they are looking in opposite directions, it is assumed that they are looking at each other. It can also be used to great effect when there is only one physical character in the scene at all as in this scene from the first 'Spider-Man' film. During this scene we see Norman Osborne talking to himself in the mirror, but the persona in the mirror is that of the Green Goblin. This is to show that his mind is cracked, fractured after his lab accident, and his darker side is coming out to try and take over the body and kill Spider-Man. This scene perfectly portrays how broken Norman is at this point in the film, showing an almost Freudian use of the id and ego battling it out to see who will take full control of Norman's body, using the mirror to portray his mirrored personalities. The scene also ends on a shot of the mirrored personality, showing that it has taken full control of the body and is now in charge, the fear shown on the normal Normans face. The shot-reverse-shot technique can make for some really good scenes if it is done in a creative way like this, and this scene shows the different reasons a director could use this technique.

Another editing technique is called parallel editing. This is basically where the editor uses shots from 2 different scenes happening at the same time, parallel to each other, but cuts them together to either build tension or show the viewer a particular thing. In 'American Sniper' right at the start of the film, it shows the titular sniper about to shoot a child, but cuts away to a large group of soldiers dealing with a car bomb. As the sniper takes the shot, it cuts back to the car exploding to emphasise how it would feel for the sniper, instead of showing it directly to the audience. This can also allow for some mystery, as the audience doesn't know if he has actually taken the shot, until it cuts back. Just like in ‘Royal Tenenbaums’, the director could have used a lot less shots in the sequence, but opted to use this kind of editing in the final cut for the purpose of this scene. I believe that this, along with the slow-motion used, was used to try and make the audience feel like they themselves had taken the shot instead of the sniper, in an attempt to make the audience feel like they were actually at war. This is the power of editing when done right; it can make the audience feel a whole range of emotions.

One final type of editing technique would be the lesser known wipe. This technique isn’t use almost at all these days, because it is seen as amateur and low budget, but it can be seen in some older films. Wipes are often considered to be tacky, too. They can, like most types of edit, be used extremely well if they are used properly. The most famous use of wipes would be in the original trilogy of the ‘Star Wars’ films. George Lucas used it to make the film look like it had turned a page when it entered a new scene. They were also used in the Laurel and Hardy film ‘Thicker Than Water’ and are actually the most expensive part of the somewhat low budget film. They have been parodied more than once too, further going to show how unused they are these days. In the Laurel and Hardy film, when it is time for a scene change, one of the main characters will go over to the side of the scene and ‘pull’ the next scene into frame, making it look like it has wiped, but also keeping the audience and the actors involved in the film, and not making it look too tacky. I think doing this really added to the film and made it feel a lot more modern, considering it came out in 1936, it was definitely an experimental use of editing. Unfortunately wipes aren’t used anywhere near as much these days as they were back then, but there are still the odd film or two that make use of them to the best of their abilities.