DOCUMENTARIES
LO1: Research
Brief
My chosen specialism this year is video editing. I will produce a documentary that focuses on the history of video editing and how it can be used to create an effective production.
video editing
Aims of video editing |
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History
Video editing is a process that manipulates raw film footage and rearranges shots/scenes into a new piece of work. In 1895 the Lumiere brothers invented the Cinematographe which recorded and projected motion picture. Before film editing came around novels had different chapters and theatre audiences were used to scene changes; however, film makers were afraid that straight cuts of film would confuse the audience as the scenes/settings/shots would show a different image in a snappy cut. In 1901 Edwin S. Porter showed that film did not have to be one long still and created productions that used various images to tell stories unrelated to the original footage.
In the early days of film, jump cuts were created by the cameraman; they would stop cranking the camera at the end of the scene, and continue to crank on the same film real in the next scene or where the film needed to continue. This meant early video effects could be achieved such as re-positioning of characters and props.
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The Great Train Robbery (1903) shows primitive instances of this style of editing. Jump cuts are used in this film to change location and move the story forward. The film uses a range of shots in real life settings like when the robbers climb out on top of the train. This differs from traditional films that would be similar to theatre in the sense that they were filmed on a single set that undergoes changes during the production.
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This video shows some very early video effects of the 1900s, like at 1:47 where the magician disappears and the other characters appear on the ceiling. These productions were ahead of their time because audiences had never witnessed video effects as they could not be achieved in theatre productions. This was an innovation for the film industry as it meant the possibilities on screen were endless.
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While productions of this period were filmed in black and white, video editors had techniques that could integrate colour into their films. Film colourisation was hand done by individuals, meaning once a film was finished and colorised, it was one of one. French illusionist and film director Georges Méliès had some of his films hand painted by a studio of 200 people directly onto film stock in colourist Elisabeth Thuillier's colouring lab. On average, Thuillier's lab produced about sixty hand-coloured copies of a film 'A Trip to the Moon' by Georges Méliès, but only one copy is known to exist.
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Image from 'A Trip to the Moon' by Georges Méliès
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The images taken from The Great Train Robbery (1903) show how Edwin S. Porter got artists to colourise parts of the film creating a surreal effect that audiences of the time period would have not seen before. Artists would have had to paint each frame individually which proved very difficult and is shown when the colour shades fluctuate in the film. However, these methods to introduce surreal colour into a motion picture were effective as practical colour filming cameras were not invented until the 1920s.
D.W griffith
D.W Griffith was an American director that introduced the techniques of a motion picture utilising cross cutting, close-ups and fade outs. Griffith believed that emotions could be portrayed through different camera angles and his work created a distinctive effect, cultivating an emotional atmosphere in his work. Griffith was credited for the narrative of film, the production of the first American feature film an the discovery of the close up shot. Griffith's 1915 film 'The Birth of a Nation' follows his new refined style of film making including panoramic long shots, iris effects, still s
shots, cross cutting an panning shots however the films racist nature drew in a negative response. |
russian Montage editing
By 1918, there had been 2 revolutions in Russia and Narkompros, controlled the film industry. Film stock was very hard to find and new filmmaking techniques started to emerge. Filmmakers imported and cut foreign films to fit the countries Communist ideology. Vladimir Lenin knew cinema is an effective medium for propaganda and education and saw it as the most important art. One aspect of Russian Montage films is the downplaying of characters who would usually be the centre of attention. Individual characters are shown to represent general type of class within a society of different social classes. The main characteristic of Russian Montage style was the method of editing. Cuts should stimulate the audience and keep them focused on the film. Overlapping and elliptical editing techniques were used throughout it's era. Overlapping editing slows up the action by repeating it through different shots. Elliptical editing creates the opposite effect by cutting out parts of the action skipping it forward. In modern day films elliptical editing is often used to fast forward through long journey or lengths of time. Around 30 films were made in this style and were very influential. In 1919 Narkompros opened the world first film school where this style was studied. One of the schools pupils was Lev Kuleshov.
Kuleshov effect
Lev Kuleshov was a Russian filmmaker, who found that the organisation of shots (montage) is what made film stand apart from other arts such as theatre, photography and literature. Kuleshov was among the first to dissect the effects of juxtaposition . In 1921, Kuleshov demonstrated that depending on the order of which shots are assembled the audience will draw from it a specific meaning or emotion. He shot an image of an actor, and then cut to different images that changed the audiences impression of the actors emotion. An example of the Kuleshov effect is shown here. The actors expressionless gaze is replicated 3 times yet the 3 images shown after create different emotions for the audience to interpret. It should also be added that there is no establishing shot between the actor and each object however the audience makes the connection that they are in close proximity with each other. The effect of juxtaposition creates the concept that two separate places seem to be one continuous location to the audience which is a result of successful video editing.
Kuleshov declared montage to be the central principle that defines film as an art on its own and was a pinical moment for the developing film industry. |
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french new wave
'La Nouvelle Vague' or 'French New Wave' is a film movement started in the late 1950's by various young French film-makers who were tired of the old Hollywood-esque film-making. A group of critics, who wrote for a French film journal called Cahiers du Cinema, created a film movement that rejected traditional storytelling methods in film and revolutionised cinema by creating a new language of film. The movement was based on 'auteur theory', a concept that acknowledges film as a product of the director’s absolute imaginative and inspired aesthetic vision, New Wave filmmakers represented the spirit of their era by using different techniques to create a new style of film-making; that style was to make the audience aware that they were watching a film.
Cahiers du Cinema |
André Bazin, a theorist of cinema and renowned film critic, was the founder of the French movie magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Founded in 1951, the magazine was responsible for establishing film as the seventh art and reviewing the mainstream films of France that followed the Hollywood format and how they could be improved. Bazin emphasised how important a directors roll is in creating his/hers own aesthetic and narrative vision in film and this was debated in the magazine.
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BREATHLESS (1960)Breathless (1960) , directed by Jean-Luc Goddard, tells the story of Michel, who steals a car, kills a cop, and then hides out in Paris with his American girlfriend waiting for fate to catch up with him. Shot on a handheld camera, Breathless contradicted Hollywood's film format,; cutting when the rules said it shouldn’t; filming on the streets and in natural lighting; inserting sudden, disruptive music cues; throughout the audience is constantly reminded they are watching a film.
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Tape Editing
In 1956, Ampex Corporation introduced the first practical black-and-white videotape recorder, the VR-1000. 3M Company introduced a videotape that used two inches wide and had a four-part record pattern, and was therefore known as two-inch quadraplex tape which could be used in the VR-100. The machines played at one speed only, meaning the editor had to stop the machine as close as possible to the point where they wanted to make the edit. The tape was then pulled out of the machine and laid it onto a channeled splicing block. The editor then brushed a solution of fine iron particles and Freon TF, a solvent used to clean the videotape machines, over the magnetic oxide coating of the videotape. Once the solvent evaporated, the iron particles left a clearly visible pattern of the electronic signal on the tape. The editor then needed to located the edit pulse, which showed up on as a very thin white line on the tape. Then using a steel ruler and lining it up with the edit pulse, the editor would press firmly on the ruler and carefully cut the tape with a razor blade. In 1963, Ampex introduced the Editec, the first electronic videotape editor, giving the editors the ability to set edit points that were almost frame-accurate. This process eliminated physical splicing and the editor created an edit master by electronically splicing one shot to the next onto a blank edit master.
Analogue editing
In 1924, the Moviola was invented by Iwan Serrurier. This device allowed the editor to see the film on a small screen while in the editing process and was the first motion picture editing device. With it, one could manage a thousand-foot eleven-minute 35 mm roll. It was difficult to use compared to later machines, because it did not have high-speed operation. The steenbeck flatbed editor was developed in 1953, which included optical sound and playback of 16mm perforated magnetic tape, a new media at that time. These machines meant precise cuts could be made in the films creating clean jump cuts.
Digital editing
Today filmmakers use computer programs to edit their digital footage. This can be imported into the programs from cameras and hard drives, and gives the user non-linear editing abilities. Non-linear editing is a method that allows you to access any frame in a digital video clip regardless of sequence in the clip.
In 1989 Avid produced the computer program Avid 1, the first digital non linear editing system. This meant parts on the media they were editing could be accessed at any point with the click of a button. Since then, companies such as Apple and Adobe, have produced their own editing software which is used by the professional filmmakers of today. and is the industry standard.
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How has editing DEVELOPED?
In the past century, the world has made all sorts of technological advances which has effected industries over time. Film editing is prime example of how technical innovations such as digital cameras and computers can change the process of how films are made. In the earliest days of cinema, films consisted of only one shot with no cut. Over time, filmmakers such as D.W Griffth and Lev Kuleshov have shown how a jump cut can influence emotion and gain different reactions from the audience. The evolving desire of filmmakers and audiences for longer and more elaborate story films has lead us to a format where jump cuts are essential in moving a story forward.
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Film editing and Video editing are two very different processes that aim for the same out come. 16 mm and 32 mm film was cut on a guillotine tape splicer; a device used to splice and join films together by using a chemical called film cement. This was a slow process and required clean gloves and steady hand. The collection of cut film would then be copied and released as the complete film itself - this is similar to exporting all your clips to one video in an editing program such as Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro.
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Video editing became common in the 1980s and brought many advantages to to the film industry; shots could easily be repeated, reversed and slowed down. In contrast with film editing, where slo-mo was either something to be done in the camera or a very costly lab process, video editing programs gave the editor the ability to easily search through videos, trim them and assemble them with others. This would have been a time costing process in a traditional film editing studio. Film editing had a cultural shift during this time when editing studios went from their 'workshop' layout with large machines an equipment to suites with powerful computers and comfy chairs.
With the development of Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, ordinary people have been able to teach themselves video editing and suites have moved out of company buildings and into our homes. Pieces of work that would have been achieved by professionals on Steenback flatbed editors can now be created by anyone with a computer system. Today companies still use expensive, powerful stations in video editing suites but the fact that people can learn these key skills in their home shows a larger community of video editor will enter the industry.
Some would say the skill taken to create a visual production has decreased since digital editing because it is easier to cut and rearrange images than film editing, which was more experimental and required more creative decisions. However, digital production has opened lots of new paths and professions that takes knowledge of computer programs and put them to use. These professions include video editor, visual effects, colour correction and ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement). In contrast, some could say these roles could be handled by few people with a large skill set however when films are under pressure to meet deadlines, it makes sense to divide the roles between more staff.
References
Biography.com Editors. (2014). Edwin S. Porter Biography.com.Available: https://www.biography.com/people/edwin-s-porter-21194085. Last accessed 19/09/17.
Wavelength Media, 2012. What is video editing?. Available: http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/tutorial/definition.html. Last accessed 18/09/17.
Mark Winokur, Bruce Holsinge. (2000). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Movies and Film. Alpha Books. Last accessed 18/09/17.
Kramer, F. (2013). The Great Train Robbery (1903) A Silent Film Review. Available: http://moviessilently.com/2013/11/03/the-great-train-robbery-1903-a-silent-film-review/. Last accessed 19/09/2017
https://www.infoplease.com/features/movies-tv-and-music/movies-and-film-fade-brief-history-editing
Robert M. Henderson. (2017). D.W. Griffith. Available: https://www.britannica.com/biography/D-W-Griffith. Last accessed 19/09/17.
Fritts,. E. (2016). The Kuleshov Effect: Understanding Video Editing’s Most Powerful Tool. Available: https://www.videomaker.com/article/c10/18236-the-kuleshov-effect-understanding-video-editing%E2%80%99s-most-powerful-tool. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Moura, G. (2011). The Kuleshov Experiment. Available: http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/kuleshov-effect.html. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Thompson, Kristin and David Bordwell (1994): Film History. An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 128 - 155. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Goodwin, James (1993): Eisenstein, cinema history. Illinois: University of Illinois. p. 37 - 56. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin (1997): Film Art. An Introduction . Fifth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Beal, V. (2016). What is non-linear editing. Available: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/non_linear_editing.html. Last accessed 19/09/17.
Denning, R . (2017). The dramatic ways that technology has changed editing. Available: http://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/3014-the-dramatic-ways-that-technology-has-changed-editing. Last accessed 21/09.
James E Cutting, Kaitlin L Brunick, Jordan E DeLong, Catalina Iricinschi, Ayse Candan. (2011). Quicker, faster, darker: Changes in Hollywood film over 75 years. Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3485803/. Last accessed 21/09/2017.
Westphal, K. (2013). From the Bottom Up: Mostly About Subtitles.Available: http://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2013/02/11/from-the-bottom-up-mostly-about-subtitles/. Last accessed 21/09/17.
Parnell, L. (2015). The French New Wave: Revolutionising Cinema.Available: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/. Last accessed 21/09/17.
Wavelength Media. (2012). Different Types of Video Editing . Available: http://www.mediacollege.com/home/terms.html. Last accessed 21/09/17.
Wavelength Media, 2012. What is video editing?. Available: http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/tutorial/definition.html. Last accessed 18/09/17.
Mark Winokur, Bruce Holsinge. (2000). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Movies and Film. Alpha Books. Last accessed 18/09/17.
Kramer, F. (2013). The Great Train Robbery (1903) A Silent Film Review. Available: http://moviessilently.com/2013/11/03/the-great-train-robbery-1903-a-silent-film-review/. Last accessed 19/09/2017
https://www.infoplease.com/features/movies-tv-and-music/movies-and-film-fade-brief-history-editing
Robert M. Henderson. (2017). D.W. Griffith. Available: https://www.britannica.com/biography/D-W-Griffith. Last accessed 19/09/17.
Fritts,. E. (2016). The Kuleshov Effect: Understanding Video Editing’s Most Powerful Tool. Available: https://www.videomaker.com/article/c10/18236-the-kuleshov-effect-understanding-video-editing%E2%80%99s-most-powerful-tool. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Moura, G. (2011). The Kuleshov Experiment. Available: http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/kuleshov-effect.html. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Thompson, Kristin and David Bordwell (1994): Film History. An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 128 - 155. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Goodwin, James (1993): Eisenstein, cinema history. Illinois: University of Illinois. p. 37 - 56. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin (1997): Film Art. An Introduction . Fifth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Last accessed 19/09/2017.
Beal, V. (2016). What is non-linear editing. Available: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/non_linear_editing.html. Last accessed 19/09/17.
Denning, R . (2017). The dramatic ways that technology has changed editing. Available: http://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/3014-the-dramatic-ways-that-technology-has-changed-editing. Last accessed 21/09.
James E Cutting, Kaitlin L Brunick, Jordan E DeLong, Catalina Iricinschi, Ayse Candan. (2011). Quicker, faster, darker: Changes in Hollywood film over 75 years. Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3485803/. Last accessed 21/09/2017.
Westphal, K. (2013). From the Bottom Up: Mostly About Subtitles.Available: http://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2013/02/11/from-the-bottom-up-mostly-about-subtitles/. Last accessed 21/09/17.
Parnell, L. (2015). The French New Wave: Revolutionising Cinema.Available: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/. Last accessed 21/09/17.
Wavelength Media. (2012). Different Types of Video Editing . Available: http://www.mediacollege.com/home/terms.html. Last accessed 21/09/17.
examples of effective video EDITING
the baptism murders - The godfather
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The montage scene in The Godfather (1972), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is one of the most iconic inter cut sequences of all time. The films climax sees Michael Corleone securing his place of power by orchestrating a series of gang killings which are all inter cut with his baptismal vows to rehouse the evil. The montage style of editing creates a juxtaposition that is haunting. Through the power of association, we see Michael christened as the new Godfather in the blood of his enemies whose corpses lay emotionless by Michaels hand.
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The addition of church music also creates a chilling juxtaposition as they are celebrating life and renouncing evil in the church which contrasts with Michael playing God and controlling who gets to live. The use of parallel editing means the audience has to process all this conflict and drama at the same time which can prove discomforting as a very dark theme is shown.
The shower - psycho (1960)
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The Shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) is an early example of successful montage editing. The scene depicts Marion who is stabbed multiple times and left to die in the shower. For 1960, the scene is very graphic and creates a very believable murder; this is the result of successful video editing. The 3 minute sequence features 77 shots and 52 cuts which play quickly before the audience. The audience doesn't see the stabbing physically take place yet the impression is created.
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After seeing the murderer swing the knife, we assume the next image we’ll be shown is where the knife heads. However our subconscious mind has constructed this image and we see a close up of Marion flinching to the stabbing. Although we have not actually seen the stabbing take place, Hitchcock has allowed to audience to associate these shots creating an effective editing montage.
Anton and Carla: "Call it" - no country for old men
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This excerpt from the film 'No Country for Old Men' (2007) demonstrates how short cuts can create suspense by with holding information from the audience. The style of narrative the director used for this film surrounds how artificial happy endings are and shows between-action shots we would not necessarily see in conventional films. The clip shows Carla arriving home to find Anton Chigurh sat in a chair waiting to kill her. After the short dialogue the viewer is left to decide whether they thought Carla dies. This is due to the close cuts the editors used in the film. As you can see from the video thumbnails, the two scenes contrast with each other. The shadowy brown room in Carla's house cuts to a day lit street while two boys cycle past. Chigurh exits the house, checking his shoes before stepping onto the path.
This can be associated with a previous scene where Chigurh moves his shoes away from a blood of blood yet we are still left wandering what happened in the house. The scene is silent as Chigurh strolls up the path before a smash cut is made to Chigurh driving in his vehicle. The cut is mid step an unexpected; there is no transition in audio creating a cold, subtle violence as the sound of his car hums in the background. The close up of Chigrh is chilling and keeps the viewer wandering what will happen next; we want to see justice but the narrative continues it's dark theme, even when Chigurh crashes his car he still gets away. The result of this style of editing leaves the audience to decipher the narrative as well teach that the universe has no justice and happy endings aren't always the case.
REFERENCES
The Godfather, 1972. [DVD] Francis Ford Coppola, United States: Alfran Productions.
Pyscho, 1960. [DVD] Alfred Hitchcock, United States: Shamley Productions.
No Country for Old Men, 2007. [DVD] Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, United States: Scott Rudin Productions, Mike Zoss Productions.
Pyscho, 1960. [DVD] Alfred Hitchcock, United States: Shamley Productions.
No Country for Old Men, 2007. [DVD] Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, United States: Scott Rudin Productions, Mike Zoss Productions.