THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDITING
Editing is a technique that is over 100 years old, the technique is still being innovative and creative like it was when it was first established in 1900's. In the earliest examples of editing, editing was created all in-camera by simply switching off the camera and moving to the next subject or scene. The camera was also static and could not follow much action so the scenes were played out in one frame. George Melies "A Trip to the Moon" is one of the first examples of a narrative film and considering the only motion pictures that was around that time was The Lumiere brothers short films of workers, it was pioneering.
Edwin S. Porter is considered one of the first American film makers to use the editing technique. Heavily influenced by Georges Melies he created his own films that brought another milestone to film editing in a short space of time. The Life of an American Fireman was the first film he produced after being approached by Thomas Edison to make a film for his motion picture studio. As A Trip to the Moon is considered a science fiction film, The Life of an American Fireman is considered the first realistic film with continuity editing (Georges Melies used transitions like dissolve to edit his scenes from one to another). The film documents a last minute rescue of a mother and child in a fire. However we see this rescue from the point of view of the mother and the fireman, which is called overlapping action. This played with a different kind of narration and showed how film can create its own time and space.
Porter continued being the forefront of editing techniques with his second film "The Great Train Robbery". The film had more modern editing techniques than The Life of An American Fireman and is considered one of the first examples of minor camera movement, location shooting and using a less static camera placement. The film also shows two lines of action or events happening at the same time, also known as parallel editing. Parallel editing was a very new technique at the time so it is also another first example of a new technique. Porter also discovered while making The Great Train Robbery that shots could be filmed at different times and not necessarily in chronological order because when they were pieced together the narrative made sense to the audience.
D.W. Griffith was the next film maker to make an impression on the industry and it was not just for his controversial topics. The Birth of a Nation is still considered a controversial film for its glorifying of the Ku Klux Klan but it also considered one of the first films to use editing techniques that are still being used today. In The Birth of a Nation we see D.W. Griffith using a numerous number of shots at different angles for impact, parallel editing, using close ups to show expression plus using seamless editing.
Digital video appeared around the 1980s. It is a recording system that uses digital video signal rather than analogue. Along with digital video came the discovery of CGI and digital video and CGI has become very important and is still used in film today. The first use of CGI was in the 1973 film "Westworld". CGI allows film makers to create content without actors, props or locations present
Editing is a technique that is over 100 years old, the technique is still being innovative and creative like it was when it was first established in 1900's. In the earliest examples of editing, editing was created all in-camera by simply switching off the camera and moving to the next subject or scene. The camera was also static and could not follow much action so the scenes were played out in one frame. George Melies "A Trip to the Moon" is one of the first examples of a narrative film and considering the only motion pictures that was around that time was The Lumiere brothers short films of workers, it was pioneering.
Edwin S. Porter is considered one of the first American film makers to use the editing technique. Heavily influenced by Georges Melies he created his own films that brought another milestone to film editing in a short space of time. The Life of an American Fireman was the first film he produced after being approached by Thomas Edison to make a film for his motion picture studio. As A Trip to the Moon is considered a science fiction film, The Life of an American Fireman is considered the first realistic film with continuity editing (Georges Melies used transitions like dissolve to edit his scenes from one to another). The film documents a last minute rescue of a mother and child in a fire. However we see this rescue from the point of view of the mother and the fireman, which is called overlapping action. This played with a different kind of narration and showed how film can create its own time and space.
Porter continued being the forefront of editing techniques with his second film "The Great Train Robbery". The film had more modern editing techniques than The Life of An American Fireman and is considered one of the first examples of minor camera movement, location shooting and using a less static camera placement. The film also shows two lines of action or events happening at the same time, also known as parallel editing. Parallel editing was a very new technique at the time so it is also another first example of a new technique. Porter also discovered while making The Great Train Robbery that shots could be filmed at different times and not necessarily in chronological order because when they were pieced together the narrative made sense to the audience.
D.W. Griffith was the next film maker to make an impression on the industry and it was not just for his controversial topics. The Birth of a Nation is still considered a controversial film for its glorifying of the Ku Klux Klan but it also considered one of the first films to use editing techniques that are still being used today. In The Birth of a Nation we see D.W. Griffith using a numerous number of shots at different angles for impact, parallel editing, using close ups to show expression plus using seamless editing.
In the early years of film making, all editing happened in camera but as a new technique was introduced in the 50's called linear editing. Linear editing, which is also know as tape-to-tape editing, is when you have to edit the tape from beginning to end in order. If you wanted to change this sequence, you would have to re-record everything you had just edited.
American programme "Rowan and Martin's laugh-in" is an example of linear video editing.With the invention of computers, a different editing technique was introduced called non linear editing and that was made possible by digital video recordings. The technique allowed editors to upload their footage to a computer and edit film or video footage in any order they want. With non linear editing, if you wanted to add or remove something from your already editing sequence, you can unlike linear editing. Non linear editing is now the main
Digital video appeared around the 1980s. It is a recording system that uses digital video signal rather than analogue. Along with digital video came the discovery of CGI and digital video and CGI has become very important and is still used in film today. The first use of CGI was in the 1973 film "Westworld". CGI allows film makers to create content without actors, props or locations present
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