The History of Film Editing
In
Camera Editing:
What is In Camera
Editing?
In-camera editing is
the technique in filmmaking and video production of
shooting shots in
the exact sequence that they will be seen on the movie theatre screen
or television program. This means planning in
advance what shots will tell the desired story and then shooting only those
shots in that order, as opposed to the usual filmmaking technique of shooting
multiple takes out
of sequence, then editing them
into order to tell the story.
Why was it used?
It was primary
used in the very early days of filming (black and white with heavy cameras)
where you didn’t have
Pcs or Macs to edit on.
Example:
The Lumiere
brothers 1895
This was to show a
scene of workers leaving their workplace with no story line
Then there was;
The Devil's Castle 1896
These are very
early movies in which all editing was done in camera and used no editing
software it was all done on a film strip that you used to get in old
non-digital cameras
The Great Train
Robbery 1903
Then people
started using it in more modern films:
There looks like
there are some cuts where it goes black but this is because when he made it you
could only fit 10 minutes of film onto a film reel so he had to find a black
background to film for when the clip stopped. This film wasn’t very well liked but Alfred was just
experimenting as he liked to do.
Shot
Variation
close-up
A close up is a
shot which fills up most of the frame to show specific detail e.g. facial
expressions.
This scene from
psycho shows the shower scene where she is dead on the floor and moves from an
extreme close up to a close up shot
mid-shot, (or
medium shot)
Mid shot (medium
shot) is where the body is framed from the knees or waist to show specific body
language.
Ghostbusters
(1984)
The part where
Venkman says “Come in Ray”
long shot
Long shot (full
shot) is where the camera is at a long distance from the object/subject. The
standing person is however fully visible.
Forrest Gump –
Life is like a box of chocolates scene
Wide shot
Wide shot is where
the camera places large areas of space within the frame. Extreme wide shots
become ‘fisheye’ images.
Ghostbusters – First Call at the Sedgewick
hotel http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=byiGKBzIu-8#t=72s
Ghostbusters 2 –
Zapping Yanosh
Two-shot
Two shot (American
shot/Plan American) is where there are two people within the shot to show
conversation or interaction with each other
Ghostbusters – Ray
and Winston talk about passages from the bible
The Dark Knight
Rises – Bane Introduction
Aerial shot
Aerial shot is
where a shot is taken from a plane or helicopter to give a distant perspective.
Ghostbusters –
Releasing the ghosts
The Shining –
Intro
Following the
action:
What is Following
the Action?
Following the Action" is when there are movement or an
action scene; the camera would follow the event that is taking place.
It is used mostly
in action scenes to build suspense.
Example:
Expendables 2 – I
now pronounce you man and knife
This is from
Expendables 2 where Jason Statham poses as a monk to fend off the enemy goons
from a local village in this fight scene the camera follows the action
V for Vendetta –
Final Fight
This is from V for
Vendetta a film adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel this is the last scene in the film before the death of
the main character.
From The Matrix
Multiple points of view:
This is where
different people see different points of view of the same story or event,
sometimes not told in order.
Why is it used? To
show a deeper understanding of the story and see how it all fits together.
This can be seen
in a very early Japanese film: Rashomon
It’s about these guys who are taking shelter from
heavy rain and they’re talking about this event that they saw and how differently they saw
it
Another film is
like this called Vantage Point (2008) it’s about the assignation of a political figure and it shows you the
shooting from a certain time from 8 different peoples perspectives.
Altering time and
story:
Pulp Fiction is a
great example of this, it shows you the same story but different pieces of it
and how it all comes together
Over the shoulder
shots:
a shot with an
actor’s shoulder in the foreground, out of focus.
Good over-the-shoulder shots are some of the most time-consuming to shoot
correctly, because you need to make sure that there is neither too much nor too
little shoulder in the frame.
Examples:
The Godfather
1:06 – 1:14
The Dark Knight
Even though it’s a tiny bit of his shoulder and mostly his
head it still counts and this is the effect they are talking about
First person Shot:
First person shots
are commonly found when someone has been stunned or is under the influence.
Here is a clip
from the movie DOOM it’s based on a popular video game so you can see why the shot is like a
video game perspective of a FPS (first person shooter)
Manipulation of
Diegetic Time and Space
There are 2 types
of sound in film, diegetic and no diegetic
The main
difference is what sound is in the frame and what sound is outside the film or
the sound the characters can hear and what sound the characters cannot hear.
The diegetic sound
holds the role of realism to make the scene feel realistic.
It is used usually
to build tension or to make the scene more dramatic (realism)
Example:
This scene has a
mix of diegetic and non-diegetic elements
The speech,
movement sounds and sounds of pain when hit are all diegetic and natural to the
scene where as “Duel Of The Fates” (the music) is not and this is non-diegetic
The increasing
music in the scene is non-diegetic whereas the sword sounds and the Balrog
groans are as well as the dialog between the characters Gandalf and Frodo
How it can work in
reverse
Notice that
Morpheus and Neo are the only ones talking in a city full of people and the
music this is kind of like a dream scene but this is a simulation this is how
you know this is not real
Cubist Editing:
Cubist editing is
where a scene is taken with a considerable amount of cameras and is pieced
together in editing as one scene, it has the cameras spinning around the point
of interest.
Examples
The Matrix
House of the dead
