Film editing – The art of the invisible
History of film editing – Film editing originally was very simple and was
done by shooting the footage and stop cranking the camera exactly when the
action ends. One of the earliest special effects involved stopping the camera
after detonating a “magic” puff of smoke in front of the actor. Instances of
filmmaking of this kind can be seen in films such as the great train robbery.
The great train robbery was also one of the first films to use effects such as
transitions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEti-UpWrGk (1903) and Rescued by
Rover http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFkZ5rC3uZI (1904). In 1915 a man called
D.W. Griffins used some now very famous filming techniques such as tracking
shots and flashbacks in the film “Birth of a nation.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Z8A4lzUOQ Around the time of 1916 a man called Sergei
Eisenstein created a new kind of editing technique called a montage that is a
collection of pictures or videos put into a sequence. On 27th May
1940 green-screen was first used in the film “The Thief of Bagdad. However
although this was the first proper use of green-screen it was actually
developed in 1930 and called blue-screen instead. In 1941 the film “Citizen
Kane” became the first film to use the dissolve transition. Also this film was
one of the first to make use of dark shadows and dark colours to create quite a
haunting mood. In 1960 the film “Psycho” became the first film to make use of
the montage technique. Psycho is particularly famous for its shower scene where
a woman taking is a shower is stabbed repeatedly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4
In January 1971
the first non-linear editor the CMX 600 was put to use. Non-linear editing is a
method of being able to access any frame in video footage regardless of
placement.
At around 1981 a
new program called MTV started broadcasting and in a slightly different style
to other movies and TV shows. The differences include there is sometimes more
than one plot line, A lot of MTV style movies also make quite good use of jump
cuts which are cut which remain in the same frame with only a slight movement
such as a turn of the head. Movies such as Top gun made quite prominent use of
some of these edits
In the 1990’s
movie editing changed a lot with the introduction of C.G.I. in movies such as
Terminator 2: Judgment day that saw very realistic explosions and more
realistic movements on fictional characters like the Terminator. In the film
Jurassic Park C.G.I. was starting to be used to create very realistic looking
creatures such as dinosaurs. Also in the 2000’s films such as Harry Potter and
Lord of the Rings started using more complicated special effects.These include
spells using which were very bright and detailed, and more detailed C.G.I. also
creatures such as the Balrog, Dementors, Dragons and the like were great
achievements in the area of film-editing.
Principles of film editing – In the area of film-editing there are
various different editing techniques. Famous editors such as Vsevolod Pudovkin,
Walter Murch, and Edward Dmtryk have their own way of describing these
techniques. Edward Dmtryk wrote a book called On filming: An introduction to the art of film construction. These
principles are as follows
1 – Never make a
cut without a necessary reason, which would make the scene more personal and
realistic.
2 – If you are in
a dilemma to cut an exact frame short or long. As a film maker you should cut
long.
3 – When given an
opportunity to cut in the movement you should because it makes the scene fresh
and easier to cut.
4 - The ‘new’ is more responsible than the
“old.” Experimenting with different editing techniques can often be helpful as
it allows people to discover new and in some cases better methods of editing.
5 - All
films should start with jaw-dropping action scenes and end with action pact
sequence or montage, to create a dramatic effect and keep the audience
interested.
6 - When Editing, cut for the
right reasons e.g. the girl turns around ‘’cut’’. You would cut to show a close
up of her face, to express the emotions. Unlike, cutting just for the reason to
cut and speed the process.
Walter Murch also
has his own set of rules and principles also which is called Walter Murch’s rule of six.
1. Emotion - How will this cut affect the audience
emotionally at this particular moment in the film?
2. Story - Does the edit move the story forward in a
meaningful way?
3. Rhythm - Is the cut at a point that makes rhythmic
sense?
4. Eye Trace - How does the cut affect the location
and movement of the audience's focus in that particular film?
5. Two Dimensional Place of Screen - Is the axis
followed properly?
6. Three Dimensional Space - Is the cut true to
established physical and spacial relationships?
Vsevolod Pudovkin
also wrote his own set of principles
01. Contrast: cutting between two different scenarios to highlight the
contrast between them. As an example, Pudovkin suggests moving from scenes of
poverty to someone really rich to make the difference more apparent.
.02 Parallelism: here you can connect two seemingly unrelated scenes by cutting
between them and focusing on parallel features. For example if you were
shooting a documentary about fish stocks in the Atlantic, you could cut from a
trawler being tossed about in the ocean to a family chomping down on some
fish’n'chips – in both scenes drawing our attention to the fish: the
object that connects them. It creates an association in the viewers’ mind.
.03 Symbolism: Again, more intercutting, you move from your main scene to
something which creates a symbolic connection for the audience.
Pudovkin (living in Soviet Russia) suggested cutting between shots of striking
workers being shot by Tsarist police and scenes of cows being slaughtered: in
the audience’s mind, they associate the slaughter of the cattle with the
slaughter of the workers.
.04 Simultaneity: This is used lots in Hollywood today: cutting between two
simultaneous events as a way of driving up the suspense. If you’re making a
film about a politician on election night, you might cut between shots of the
vote being counted to shots of your main subject preparing to hear the result.
This extending of time builds anticipation.
.05 Leit motif: This ‘reiteration of theme’ involves repeating a shot or
sequence at key moments as a sort of code. Think how Spielberg uses a ‘point of
view’ shot in Jaws showing the shark looking up at swimmers. The
first time he does it creates a visual code for “the shark’s about to attack”.
Every time we see that underwater POV we know an attack is imminent. He has
allowed us to participate in the decoding.
The purposes and elements of film
editing – Video
editing is very important and is still used today as the wide variety of
different film-making techniques make valuable assets for filmmakers. Some
films would be lost without film-editing techniques, For example in fantasy
films a lot of the environment is obviously fictional and requires the use of a
green-screen. Also techniques such as fades are very handy as if fades weren’t
around films wouldn’t switch to different scenes and the whole film wouldn’t
feel right as it would be like one big long scene.
Film-editing terms
Cut
– A direct transition right from one shot to another.
Fade – A fade is a transition where the current shot
fades from whatever’s in the shot to black.
Dissolve
– A transition in which one shot gradually disappears and another one slowly
appears.
Wipe
– A wipe is another transition where the current shot is literally wiped over
by the next shot. They are sometimes used in older cartoons but rarely in films
today.
Editing
– Editing is the process of making additions or changes to a film to make it
better or to help it run smoother.
Establishing
shot – An establishing shot is a shot that helps to establish a scene or film.
For example the TV series Sherlock sometimes uses shots of London to show where
it’s set.
Jump
shot – A jump shot is a shot of slight movement of a something. A tilt of the
head is a good example of the jump cut as there is movement in the shot but a
very minimal amount.
Montage
– A montage is a compilation of various different bits of audio, pictures, or
video. Often everything in a montage is related to other things in the montage
in some way but in some cases it can be very random.
Rough-cut
– A rough cut is the Editor’s first attempt at assembling all the footage
together before the proper process of editing begins.
