Development and principles of editing.
The
primary tool for any filmmaker for telling a story is editing. Central to the
creation of meaning is a film is the ability to manipulate source material. The
manipulation of primary raw footage, known as ‘rushes’, Cutting up the footage
and assembling it, adding colour grading and special effects can change the audiences
perspective on the film. Editing gives the filmmaker the power to also play
with time, enabling the filmmaker to speed up or slow down the footage and even
make it go backwards rather than forwards. Finally the footage can be broken up
or erased. This allows more freedom to the filmmaker to manipulate the
perception of time and spac
In
early film (1895 – 1905) Pioneers of film-making soon discovered the camera
could do much more than record a simple moving image. Soon all over the world
they were experimenting with camera angles. Thus the technique of ‘in-camera’
editing was produced. In camera editing is the film-makers ability to stop the
camera recording precisely at the end of a shot to move the film to start
recording the next shot straight away. This way of shooting means the film is
completed as soon as the shooting is finished. Some disadvantage of this method
of shooting is the requirement to start and end the action at the exactly the
same point and must be, without fail, shot perfectly. The best examples of in camera
editing can be viewed in Rescued by Rover (1905) and more famously The Great
Train Robbery (1903).
George
Melies is always a name to be mentioned when thinking of film in general. He
was one of the great pioneers of the earliest forms of cinema to begin to create
fantasy worlds. One of Melies’ earliest forms of special effect films was his
own The Vanishing Lady (1898) where he created the illusion of a woman
disappearing. He did this by sitting a woman on a chair and the covering her
with a large cloth. Stopping the shooting and removing the woman then carrying
on shooting. Here then, he exploited the jump cut to produce and early special
effect of the woman did in fact disappear.
Melies
pioneered many more special effects techniques such as stop motion animation
which involved models, slow motion, freeze frames, multiple exposures, fade and
dissolve transitions which were to become central to practice and language of
editing. The most famous of his many, many films is A Trip to the Moon (1902).
A Trip to the Moon is based on two popular novels at the time of release. The
books From the Earth to the Moon by Julie Verne and H.G Wells’ ‘The First Men
in the Moon’. The film runs for a total of just 14 minutes and it’s memorable
for its bizarre footage.
Continuity
editing is the editing audiences are most familiar with, dubbed as ‘classic
Hollywood continuity editing’. This type of editing attempts to hide the fact
the editing is even happening. Attempting to make it as life-like and
free-flowing as possible so audiences are blissfully unaware it is happening.
Continuity editing has three basic shots linked to it. Using LS (Long shot) for
an establishing shot, MS (mid-shot) for exchanges and CU (close-up shot) for
reactions. Yet films weren’t always edited this way. For example in Neighbours
‘Iris Editing’ is used (Buster Keaton, 1920).
A round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene
(iris-out) or emphasize a detail, or it can open to begin a scene (iris-in) or
to reveal more space around a detail. For instance, in this scene from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the iris is
used with the comic effect of gradually revealing that the female protagonist
is 1) ready for her wedding and 2) ready for her not-too-luxurious wedding.
Another
example of editing is Superimposition The exposure of more than one image on the
same film strip. Unlike a dissolve, a
superimposition does not signify a transition from one scene to another. The
technique was often used to allow the same performer to appear simultaneously
as two characters on the screen. For example also in Neighbours (Buster Keaton,
1920) the resentful father of the bride looks at the wedding ring and
immediately associates in his mind with a five and dime store. The subjective
shot gives us a clear indication of his opinion of his soon to be son-in-law.
The
form of editing which is montage is arguably one of the most important forms of
editing. Significantly developed in the Soviet Union, (now known simply as
Russia), in the 1920’s, the first theory of montage was developed by a massive
influential pioneer of film in 1918 named Lev Kuleshov. The first film
presented was The Kuleshov Effect by Lev Kuleshov in 1918. The idea that
individual shots need not have meaning by themselves; their meaning is created
by juxtaposition with other shots. For example the Kuleshov effect shows filmed
footage of an actor looking down followed by shots of a plate of food which in
turn makes the audience believe he is hungry then followed by a dead body which
is then thought as he is sad. There is a certain amount of debate whether or
not Lev Kuleshov actually Pioneered the technique but he certainly was the very
first to identify its theory.
Following
on from Kuleshov, the next big pioneer was actually a student of his named
Sergei Eisenstein. Sergei Eisenstein furthered the development of montage in
his book The Film Sense (1942) where he identifies several different forms of
montage. His early films indicate several forms of montage in his film
Battleship Potemkin (1926), the famously known ‘Odessa Steps’ sequence, footage
of people running frantically down the steps and juxtaposed against footage of
soldiers shooting down on them are cut rhythmically. Also, in 1927 his film
Strike the workers oppression is cut against the slaughter of a bull. Giving
off the feeling, to the audience, that what is happening is really bad and
effects either party greatly. Although in present day it seems entirely
naturalistic, it was the very height of pioneering at the time. To really
appreciate the significance of montage to modern cinema one should watch an
earlier film for comparison.
Another
form of editing critically named ‘The French New Wave’ was brought to attention
in the late 1950’s and early 60’s. Several film movements emerged at a global
scale. These were groups of like-minded film makers who shared a common
creative purpose. Groups like the Italian Neorealist movement 1944 – 1952 and
the Indian and Japanese new wave. The most significant to film making was the
French New Wave movement. Directors such as François Truffaut and Jean Luc
Goddard were acknowledged greatly from the film industry as they wanted to
change the ways of the conservative conventions of the classic film. These
directors sought to merge an iconoclastic style (Jean Luc Goddard famously said
“all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun”) with a radical rejection of
the seamless, invisible style of the mainstream Hollywood film. They wanted the
audience to know the editing was there to let them know it wasn’t real, the
total opposite to continuity editing. The most famous example is Jean Luc
Goddard’s Film Breathless (1960).
Film: The Great Train Robbery
1903
Film: Rescued by Rover 1905
Film: The Vanishing Lady by
George Melies 1898
Film: A Trip to the Moon by
George Melies 1902
Film: Neighbours - Buster Keaton
1920 – Example of Iris Editing and superimposition http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/htmfiles/editing.htm
Film: The Kuleshov Effect by Lev
Kuleshov 1918
Book: The Film Sense 1942 by
Sergei Eisenstein (Read on Google Books) - http://books.google.co.uk/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp
Book: Notes of a film director
Sergei Eisenstein page 62+
Film: Battleship Potemkin 1926 –
Example of Montage by Sergei Eisenstein
Film: Strike 1927 – Example of
Montage by Sergei Eisenstein
Famous speech quotes from Jean
Luc Goddard – Journal entry - http://mg.co.za/article/2010-06-25-all-you-need-is-a-girl-and-gun
DVD: Breathless 1960 – Example of
French new wave
Image: A Trip to the Moon - Taken
from en.wikipedia.org
Image: Breathless DVD cover 1960
– Taken from en.wikipedia.org
Image: The great train robbery
still image – taken from screeninsight.blogspot.com
