History of Editing
Cameron Males
Horse in Motion
Edward Muybridge, Photographer and
scientist applied many images of a horse
running on a racecourse. Parallel to the
racing track, he aligned a series of fifty
cameras, each with a specially designed
rapid shutter, and by connecting them to
trip wires lain across the track he
ensured each one automatically took its
own picture as the horse
sped by and the strings broke.
Lumiere Brothers
Manufactured early motion cameras
and made some of the first motion
pictures. Their first film, Sortie de
l'usine Lumire de Lyon, shot in
1894, is considered the first true
motion picture.
Le voyage dans la lune
A 1902 French silent film directed by
Georges Mlis. At 18 minutes it was
extraordinarily long for the time and
was pirated by many other film
companies, The film is a very well
made piece of film, considering the
time it was made.
Continuity editing
Continuity editing is the predominant
style of film editing and video editing
in the post-production process of
filmmaking of narrative films and
television programs. The purpose of
continuity editing is to smooth over
the inherent discontinuity of the
editing process and to establish a
logical coherence between shots.
Edwin Porter
Editors had to be very precise; if they made a wrong cut or needed
a fresh positive print, it cost them money for the lab to reprint the
footage and push the editing process back farther. With the
invention of a splicer and threading machine with a viewer such as
a Moviola (developed by Iwan Serrurier) , the editing process sped
up a little bit and cut came out cleaner and more precise.,
The Great train robbery Porter's sixth film, (1903) took the
archetypal American Western story and made it an entirely new
visual experience. The one-reel film, with a running time of twelve
minutes, was assembled in twenty separate shots, along with a
startling close-up of a bandit firing at the camera. It used as many
as ten different indoor and outdoor locations and was groundbreaking in its use of "cross-cutting" in editing to show
simultaneous action in different places. No earlier film had created
such swift movement or variety of scene.
Edward Dmytryk
Edward was a director during the red scare and created
many 1940s Film Noir Pieces, He created a set of 7 rules for
filmmakers, and these are those 7,
Rule 1: Never make a cut without a positive reason.
Rule 2: When undecided about the exact frame to cut on,
cut long rather than short.
Rule 3: Whenever possible cut in movement.
Rule 4: The fresh is preferable to the stale.
Rule 5: All scenes should begin and end with continuing
action.
Rule 6: Cut for proper values rather than proper
matches.
Rule 7: Substance firstthen form.
Alfred Hitchcocks Rope
A film directed by the master of
suspense Alfred Hitchcock, this film
has only 10 cuts overall and only 5 of
them visible, Hitchcock used zooms
the hide the transitions, by zooming
in on an object stopping the camera,
changing the reel, starting the
camera and zooming out, this
is because the film takes place
on one day, in one
Lev Kuleshov
One of the first Film theories as he was a
leader in Soviet montage theory. For Kuleshov,
the essence of the cinema was editing, the
juxtaposition of one shot with another. To
illustrate this principle, he created what has
come to be known as the Kuleshov Effect. In
this now-famous editing exercise, shots of an
actor were intercut with various meaningful
images (a casket, a bowl of soup, and so on)
in order to show how editing changes viewers'
interpretations of images.
Walter Murch
Worked on George Lucas THX-1138 and
American Graffiti, and Francis Ford Coppolas'
Godfather.
While he was editing directly on film, Murch
took notice of the crude splicing used for the
daily rough-cuts. In response, he invented a
modification which concealed the splice by
using extremely narrow but strongly
adhesive strips of special polyester-silicone
tape. He called his invention "N-vis-o".
Clapperboard
Clearly one of the most recognisable objects when
talking about film, a clapperboard is a device used
in filmmaking and video production to assist in
the synchronizing of picture and sound, and to
designate and mark particular scenes and takes
recorded during a production. The sharp "clap"
noise that the clapperboard makes can be
identified easily on the audio track, and the
shutting of the clapstick can be identified easily
on the separate visual track. The two tracks can
then be precisely synchronised by matching the
sound and movement.
Compositing
Compositing is the creative process
of assembling and combining filmed
or rendered elements from multiple
sources, to create a final lifelike
illusion or fantastical visual effect,
delivered as a set of still or moving
pictures.
Non Linear Editing
A non-linear editing system (NLE) is a video
(NLVE) or audio editing (NLAE) digital audio
workstation system that performs nondestructive editing on source material. The
name is in contrast to 20th century methods of
linear video editing and film editing
Non-linear editing is the most natural approach
when all assets are available as files on video
servers or hard disks, rather than recordings on
reels or tapeswhile linear editing is tied to the
need to sequentially view film or hear tape.
VHS
The Video Home System (VHS) is a
standard for consumer-level use of
analog non-linear recording on
videotape cassettes. It was
developed by Victor Company of
Japan (JVC) in the 1970s.
Digital Editing
Today, most films are edited digitally (on systems such as Avid, Final Cut Pro
or Premiere Pro) and bypass the film positive workprint altogether. In the past,
the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do
as much experimenting as he or she wished, without the risk of damaging the
original. With digital editing, editors can experiment just as much as before
except with the footage completely transferred to a computer hard drive;
losing the original footage is an only one computer crash away.
When the film workprint had been cut to a satisfactory state, it was then used
to make an edit decision list (EDL). The negative cutter referred to this list
while processing the negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which were then
contact printed to produce the final film print or answer print. Today,
production companies have the option of bypassing negative cutting
altogether. With the advent of digital intermediate ("DI"), the physical
negative does not necessarily need to be physically cut and hot spliced
together; rather the negative is optically scanned into computer(s) and a cut
list is conformed by a DI editor.
Motion Picture Editors Guild
The Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG) is the guild that represents
freelance and staff motion picture film and television editors and
other post-production professionals and story analysts throughout
the United States. The Motion Picture Editors Guild (Union Local 700)
is a part of the 500 affiliated local unions of IATSE (International
Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), a national labor organization
with a 115-plus year old history of bargaining for better wages and
working conditions for its 104,000-plus members. Currently there are
more than 6,000 members of the nearly 75 year old Editors Guild.
The MPEG negotiates collective bargaining agreements (union
contracts) with producers and major motion picture movie studios
and enforces existing agreements with employers involved in postproduction. The MPEG provides assistance for securing better
working conditions, including but not limited to salary, medical
benefits, safety (particularly "turnaround time") and artistic
(assignment of credit) concerns.
Foley Sound
Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound
effects that are added to film, video, and
other media in post-production to enhance
audio quality. These reproduced sounds can
be anything from the swishing of clothing
and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking
glass. But probably the most famous is the
Wilhelm scream, a sound effect found in over
225 films and counting. Here is the definitive
list! http
://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm.html
