HISTORY OF FILM EDITING
Film began with 'Thomas Edison', an inventor and businessman best known for inventing the lightbulb. He invented the kinetoscope. The kinetoscope was a peep show devise mainly shown at circuses around America. It could show 50 foot worth of continues viewing which made the illusion of a moving image. This would have been the first time people would have seen a moving image at the time making it revolutionary. This was around 1888.
After 'Thomas Edison', around 1895, two brothers in Paris were inventing something similar mainly however for commercial purposes. They were called the 'Lumeier brother', Lumeier being French for light. The first film recording on this devise was called 'Arrival of a Train at the Station' and was once again shown around American circuses as an oddity. (4)
In 1903 the medium of film grew further when French theatre director 'Georges Melies' directed and produced the first motion picture feature length film. The film was based roughly on two novels and was called 'A Trip to the Moon'. Georges realised the potential with film and instead of filming a train like everyone else he wrote and directed a story with a full plot. This involved editing. It was the first film to have cuts, dissolves and some post production special effects. This has been parodied a lot in modern pop culture.
Also in 1903 came 'The Great Train Robbery'. Directed by 'Edwin Porter' it also featured a plot, special effects and editing. The special effects at the time involved drawing on each individual frame to gain a super imposed object in the scene. The great train robbery was also shown in American circuses and has many iconic scenes. The themes also explored by 'The Great Train Robbery' were a new concept explored for film; the theme was dark and involved criminals, guns and death. (5)
The first film to be shown in theatres around America was 'DW Griffiths' 'Birth of a Nation'. It was a documentary as such exploring Americas history. Shown in 1915 it is seen by many as the first respected film. Modern directors call 'Griffith' the godfather of film. Many say it set the guidelines for narrative filmmaking creating the concept of genre. It was also controversial however glamourising the religious racist group, the KKK. This shown how the medium of film can impact and change views for people proving the powerful medium. Instances like this continued to be used in the Nazi propaganda movement.
1925: Seen as Hollywoods golden years. They were known to churn out film mostly for the money benefits Genres included Western, Film Nior and Gangster. This was because people liked to know what they were going to get when going to the cinema. Across Europe and Russia however directers were trying to be more creative. Eisenstein, situated in Russia was exploring ways of portraying meaning through editing and film without offence or speech. His most famous piece of film was 'Battleship Potemkin'. Highly praised for its amounts of symbolism used throughout, it follows the events witnessed during a riot at 'Battleship Potemkin'. What started of with rotten food ends with the sailors raising the red flag trying to ignite the revolution in their home town.
The whole film uses a montage a scenes expressing feelings toward death, revolution and suffering. An example of it using montage is by showing a scene of a cow getting slaughtered following a riot scene. He saw symbolism as being similar to Japanese letters; two together would make a completely different word. This all required him to have high amounts of quality editing throughout.
In 1941, 'Orson Welles' directed the revolutionary film 'Citizen Kane'. At the time and even now 'Citizen Kane' is seen as one of the best films ever produced. It involved techniques people hadn't seen before like fades and experimental angles. The end scene saw the protagonist pronounce his last words before he passed. Last work being 'Rosebud'. While there are many theories based on the last words spoken before his death nobody really knows the reason for the words being added in such a important directed way. Orson believed in film editing being one of the main process in producing a film saying "films are not just made on the set. Editing is the last stop between an idea and the final product".
Orson also produced "The Magnificent Amdersons" and "A Touch Of Evil". Both films also considered ground breaking films for the time.
Orson didn't just direct films. He also acted. One of his starring roles was in 'The Third Man' in 1949. Directed by 'Carol Reede' it is also seen as a revolutionary film due to the camera angles and lighting effects used throughout. It is often called 'the best British movie ever'. The editing used was also ahead of its time; using fades and wipes still under the restraints of a manual editing.
Forward to the 1970s - 'Blondie', 'Fleetwood Mac' and 'The BeeGees' ruled the radio. This time period for film was often seen as the golden age of editing. It was a time when norms changed. Directors didn't simply copy and paste films. Directors defied the normalities people had grew so familiar with; it was exiting. Films were now high concept. People called this new Hollywood. Films like 'Jaws' and 'Star Wars' saved the medium of cinema. New Hollywood was dictated by directors such as Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg and Kubrick with the force of acclaimed films like 'Goodfellas', 'Godfather', 'Jaws' and '2001 - A Space Odyssey' backed behind them. While the directors were the first In fire for the blockbusters the editors were the people planning the operation. They were highly respected through this time. Bring in 'Apocalypse Now', directed by 'Francis Ford Koppela' (same director as the widely praised 'The Godfather') and contextually more important it was edited by 'Walter Murch'. 'Walter' was known mostly for 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Godfather' films. His style was refreshing for the time doing things never done before. The opening of 'Apocalypse Now' saw him fade 5 clips over one another with different audio. At the time this was a really difficult thing to do. 'Murch' increased the prowess of his talent by being able to boast emotion through the editing of the opening. He did this through the fades and sounds. When understanding the technology the feat is highly creditable.
'City Of God' was released in 2002 and is the visual definition for modernism. Modernism being used to break away from the modern traditions used in film creating something new and different. This is seen in 'City Of God' frequently and is shown through the editing. One aspect of this is the abandonment of chronological conventions when portraying a narrative. The film is non-linear. This is an important editing feat as it shows different scenes in different order edited in a way that it doesn't give anything away eventually revealing to the audience the editing feat they had just watched.
Daniel Rezende, the editor of the film identifies heavily with Martin Scorsese in his editing techniques. Its fast paced heavily reminiscent of the favela life the film is based on. This editing also makes the film feel shorter than it is. Backing up to the fast paced life of the Brazilian favela you could also mention that semantically this links to the high number of premature deaths also in the favela the fast editing could reprisent.
'City Of God' creates a sense of urgency and panic with its editing. It does this through POV shots of animals soon to be slaughtered, worm shots and heavily POV of chase scenes.
After 'Thomas Edison', around 1895, two brothers in Paris were inventing something similar mainly however for commercial purposes. They were called the 'Lumeier brother', Lumeier being French for light. The first film recording on this devise was called 'Arrival of a Train at the Station' and was once again shown around American circuses as an oddity. (4)
In 1903 the medium of film grew further when French theatre director 'Georges Melies' directed and produced the first motion picture feature length film. The film was based roughly on two novels and was called 'A Trip to the Moon'. Georges realised the potential with film and instead of filming a train like everyone else he wrote and directed a story with a full plot. This involved editing. It was the first film to have cuts, dissolves and some post production special effects. This has been parodied a lot in modern pop culture.
The first film to be shown in theatres around America was 'DW Griffiths' 'Birth of a Nation'. It was a documentary as such exploring Americas history. Shown in 1915 it is seen by many as the first respected film. Modern directors call 'Griffith' the godfather of film. Many say it set the guidelines for narrative filmmaking creating the concept of genre. It was also controversial however glamourising the religious racist group, the KKK. This shown how the medium of film can impact and change views for people proving the powerful medium. Instances like this continued to be used in the Nazi propaganda movement.
1925: Seen as Hollywoods golden years. They were known to churn out film mostly for the money benefits Genres included Western, Film Nior and Gangster. This was because people liked to know what they were going to get when going to the cinema. Across Europe and Russia however directers were trying to be more creative. Eisenstein, situated in Russia was exploring ways of portraying meaning through editing and film without offence or speech. His most famous piece of film was 'Battleship Potemkin'. Highly praised for its amounts of symbolism used throughout, it follows the events witnessed during a riot at 'Battleship Potemkin'. What started of with rotten food ends with the sailors raising the red flag trying to ignite the revolution in their home town.
The whole film uses a montage a scenes expressing feelings toward death, revolution and suffering. An example of it using montage is by showing a scene of a cow getting slaughtered following a riot scene. He saw symbolism as being similar to Japanese letters; two together would make a completely different word. This all required him to have high amounts of quality editing throughout.
In 1941, 'Orson Welles' directed the revolutionary film 'Citizen Kane'. At the time and even now 'Citizen Kane' is seen as one of the best films ever produced. It involved techniques people hadn't seen before like fades and experimental angles. The end scene saw the protagonist pronounce his last words before he passed. Last work being 'Rosebud'. While there are many theories based on the last words spoken before his death nobody really knows the reason for the words being added in such a important directed way. Orson believed in film editing being one of the main process in producing a film saying "films are not just made on the set. Editing is the last stop between an idea and the final product".
Orson also produced "The Magnificent Amdersons" and "A Touch Of Evil". Both films also considered ground breaking films for the time.
Orson didn't just direct films. He also acted. One of his starring roles was in 'The Third Man' in 1949. Directed by 'Carol Reede' it is also seen as a revolutionary film due to the camera angles and lighting effects used throughout. It is often called 'the best British movie ever'. The editing used was also ahead of its time; using fades and wipes still under the restraints of a manual editing.
Forward to the 1970s - 'Blondie', 'Fleetwood Mac' and 'The BeeGees' ruled the radio. This time period for film was often seen as the golden age of editing. It was a time when norms changed. Directors didn't simply copy and paste films. Directors defied the normalities people had grew so familiar with; it was exiting. Films were now high concept. People called this new Hollywood. Films like 'Jaws' and 'Star Wars' saved the medium of cinema. New Hollywood was dictated by directors such as Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg and Kubrick with the force of acclaimed films like 'Goodfellas', 'Godfather', 'Jaws' and '2001 - A Space Odyssey' backed behind them. While the directors were the first In fire for the blockbusters the editors were the people planning the operation. They were highly respected through this time. Bring in 'Apocalypse Now', directed by 'Francis Ford Koppela' (same director as the widely praised 'The Godfather') and contextually more important it was edited by 'Walter Murch'. 'Walter' was known mostly for 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Godfather' films. His style was refreshing for the time doing things never done before. The opening of 'Apocalypse Now' saw him fade 5 clips over one another with different audio. At the time this was a really difficult thing to do. 'Murch' increased the prowess of his talent by being able to boast emotion through the editing of the opening. He did this through the fades and sounds. When understanding the technology the feat is highly creditable.
'City Of God' was released in 2002 and is the visual definition for modernism. Modernism being used to break away from the modern traditions used in film creating something new and different. This is seen in 'City Of God' frequently and is shown through the editing. One aspect of this is the abandonment of chronological conventions when portraying a narrative. The film is non-linear. This is an important editing feat as it shows different scenes in different order edited in a way that it doesn't give anything away eventually revealing to the audience the editing feat they had just watched.
Daniel Rezende, the editor of the film identifies heavily with Martin Scorsese in his editing techniques. Its fast paced heavily reminiscent of the favela life the film is based on. This editing also makes the film feel shorter than it is. Backing up to the fast paced life of the Brazilian favela you could also mention that semantically this links to the high number of premature deaths also in the favela the fast editing could reprisent.
'City Of God' creates a sense of urgency and panic with its editing. It does this through POV shots of animals soon to be slaughtered, worm shots and heavily POV of chase scenes.
Bibliography
- Mastering film . 2007. Good Video Editing Techniques to Consider. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.masteringfilm.com/good-video-editing-techniques-to-consider/. [Accessed 27 September 2016].
- Clark, V., Baker, J. and Lewis, E. (2002) Key concepts & skills for media studies (Hodder Arnold publication). 7th edn. London: A Hodder Arnold Publication.
- film/editing terms . 2012. Film/Editing Terms. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.zerocut.com/tech/film_terms.html. [Accessed 27 September 2016].
- wikapedia . 2016. History of film editing . [ONLINE] Available at:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing. [Accessed 27 September 2016].
- InfoPlease . 2015. History of editing . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/fade-brief-history-editing.html. [Accessed 27 September 2016].
- Mark Ramey (2014). Media Magazine. Compton terrace London : emagazine. 23
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