Task 4 – From Analogue to Digital Editing

Editing has developed overtime due to new technology being invented.

Analogue editing is the cutting together of pieces of celluloid film. Traditionally films are made up images printed on to acetate negatives. These are then 'spliced' together to form a reel of film. These are then feed through a projector at a constant speed of 24 frames a second which makes the picture appear to be moving. This is known as analogue. A Moviola was the first device that allowed a film editor to view film while editing. It was invented in 1924 by Iwan Serrurier. It was the first machine used for feature length motion picture editing.

Video Editing - Before digital technologies became available magnetic tapes were used to store information - these are known as video tapes. Video editing is the process of editing segments of these tapes using a device that mechanically puts pieces of video tape together. The film has to be edited in the correct order. This is called linear editing.

Linear editing is a  video editing post-production process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a predetermined, ordered sequence. Regardless of whether it was captured by a video camera, tape less camcorder, or recorded in a television studio on a video tape recorder (VTR) the content must be accessed sequentially. For the most part video editing software has replaced linear editing.

Digital Editing - Digital media is a form of electronic media where data are stored in digital (as opposed to analogue) form. Digital editing is the use of computers to order and manipulate this digital data. There are many different editing programs such as; Adobe Premier, Avid, Final Cut Pro. Digital film making uses bits and bytes (strings of 1s and 0s) to record, transmit and reply images, instead of chemicals on film. The whole process is electronic so there is no printing or 'splicing' involved. Digital Editing soon over took Video Editing as it is much quicker and therefore cheaper. The biggest pro is that you can edit digitally in any edit.

Non-linear Editing - Editing in any order is called non-linear editing. You can edit a sequence from the end of the film before you have started editing the first scene. The process uses electronic files so it makes it as easy as cutting and passing text in a word document. 

Pros of Traditional Methods (splicing or video) - thinking the editing through leading to better results, more accurate and successful film. 

Cons of Traditional Methods - Big and heavy to carry, expensive, if you something wrong you can't undo it, time consuming and hard to transport.

Pros of Digital Editing - cost effective - cheaper, easier and less time consuming.

Cons of Digital Editing - technical difficulties, not thinking it through enough may not lead to better results.

Task 5 - Montage

The term montage has a slightly different meaning when referred to in the following three contexts:
- French film
- Hollywood cinema
- Early soviet filmmaking

The French Montage - In French film practice 'montage' simply has its literal French meaning - Assembly. Therefore, in French film the term simply identifies the process of editing. 

Hollywood Style Montage - Used to condense a long narrative sequence into short compact sequence. E.g. weeks of training condensed into two minutes.  e.g. Rocky

Soviet Montage - In early Soviet filmmaking in the 1920s, 'montage' had a different meaning. Film makers started juxtaposing shots to create new meaning that did not exist in either shot alone.

Lev Kuleshov (a young Soviet film maker) did an experiment in around 1920. He took an old film clip of a head shot of a noted Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with different images. 

An example of this would be Strike! (Eisenstein). Strike Sergei Einstein 1925. At first the two scenes seem unrelated. The butcher is working in a slaughter house. The striking workers being pursued by Russian troops

Task 6 - Creating a Montage

Task 6 - Creating a montage



Style of montage - Hollywood 
Intention behind montage - the intention behind this montage was to portray a normal school day within a short period of time.
How our montage made meaning - we chose shots that showed us going in and out of the school. In one of our scenes, we hear a voice shouting "Sarah, pay attention!" which shows a classroom environment and makes it more meaningful  as to why it portrays a school day. We also showed a group of us talking together which shows break time or lunch time. This is a successful example of a Hollywood montage because it clearly shows a full school day because of what the actors were doing.




This style of montage is Soviet. The intention behind this montage was to portray bullying and show a dominant figure over another. Our montage made meaning because we filmed shots of a person getting paper thrown at her and she was covering her face with a book which showed her sadness. We also filmed shots of the person being bullied sitting in the corner in the dark which further shows her upset feeling of being bullied and depression. We also got some shots of wildlife which shows a lion attack on his prey. This creates meaning to our montage because it represents the bullies as the lion and the prey the person getting bullied. It also represents the bullies being a more dominant figure than the person getting bullied as the lion is dominant more than anyone. This Soviet montage was successful because it clearly demonstrated a person getting bullied by the ways the person getting bullied was reacting and the added shots of wildlife increased that because it reflected on what we were creating the montage for.

Task 7 - Understanding Continuity Editing

Continuity editing is what became known as the popular 'classical Hollywood' style of editing. It was developed by early European and American directors, in particular D.W. Griffin in his films such as The Birth of a Nation. The classical style ensures temporal (time) and special (space) continuity as a way of advancing narrative, using such techniques as the 180 degree rule, Match on Action and Shot, Reverse Shot. It's important because it helps retain a sense of realistic chronology and generates the feeling that time is moving forward. It doesn't mean you can't use flashbacks or flash forwards, as long as the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way.

Eye-line Match - This technique links two shots together. We see a character looking at something off screen and then we cut to a shot of what they are looking at. This allows the audience to experience an event in the film just as the character is experiencing it.

Match on Action - This technique links two shots together. We see a character start an action in one shot, the camera then cuts to a different angle and we see the character finish the action in the second shot. This technique ensures that the action seems like one natural and realistic movement even when the actor may have really performed it twice.

Shot, Reverse Shot - This technique links two shots together. The first shot reveals one character and then the second shot reveals the second character. This allows the audience to connect the two characters and realize that they are interacting with each other.

180 Degree Rule - The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.

Task 8 - Using Continuity Editing Techniques

In this video, we see an Eye-line Match when I look up and in the second shot, it shows the clock which tells us I was looking at the clock. We see a Match on Action in the scene where Cara walks into the room from the outside and then her walking inside the room is shown. A Shot, Reverse Shot is showed when I ask Cara "Why are you late?" and in the next shot, she is shown saying "because there was traffic." We have carried each of these out well as you can clearly see which technique is which.

Task 9 - Non-Continuity Editing

French New Wave - Non-Continuity editing is a style of film making that was made popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Filmmakers such as Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffant pushed the limits of editing techniques and created a new style "French New Wave".

 French New Wave films used a carefree editing style and did not conform to the traditional editing etiquette of Hollywood films. 

French New Wave editing often drew attention to itself by its lack of continuity, its self-reflexive nature (reminding the audience that they were watching a film).

They often used material not often  related to any narrative which kept the audience surprised and intrigued.

The gap in action (when Seberg picked up the mirror) is emphasised by the use of a jump cut. This is used for startling the viewer and draw attention to something.

Breaking the 180 Degree Rule - Lots of modern film makers still use this technique when they want to create a startling effect. If you cross or break the line characters will appear to swap positions on the screen - often used to convey something is going wrong. E.g. The Shining and The Hunger Games Catching Fire.

Task 10 - Understanding Pace

Speed of Editing - Ina film each scene may last a matter of seconds, or it could continue for minutes but the length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action along. The speed of editing will help to determine the mood of what is taking place on screen. If the audience is to feel anxiety and suspense the editing will be quick - the scenes/shots changing frequently. E.g. in an action sequence. The Bourne Ultimatum shows this. If a relaxed mood is desired, the scenes last longer and change less frequently. E.g. in a romantic comedy like The Notebook. Nevertheless a film need not have any editing. The film Russian Ark was filmed in one take using a steadicam and a digital camera. This camera split-second timing and organisation. A trailer for a film needs to pack in detail from throughout the film. Therefore the editing will be very fast. 

Developing Drama - Cross cutting can be used to very effectively  develop a sense of drama. The death of Casey in the opening scene of Scream is made more dramatic by the cross cutting to her parents approaching and almost making it home in time to save her. 

Task 11 - Creating pace with Cross Cutting

Task 12 - Transitions and Effects

Style of Editing - the movement from one shot to the next is called a transition. Different transitions suggest different ideas to the audience.

Straight Cut - A straight cut is the most common and 'invisible' form of transition. One shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audience's attention. Straight cuts help to retain reality. They are used in continuity editing as they do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

Dissolves - Fades one shot off the screen while another shot is fading in. The audience will be able to see both shots at the mid-point of the dissolve. It suggests that the shots are connected in some way. It might be two characters, places or objects. it might suggest that some time has passed between the two shots.

Fades - is a bit like a dissolve but instead of dissolving one shot into another. A fade is a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until the screen becomes black and white. A fade indicates the start or end of a particular section of time within the narrative. 

Wipes - is quite an unusual transition. It is when one image is pushed off the screen by another. Images can be pushed in any direction but it is more common for the image to be pushed off the left-hand side. This movement is more consistent with the sense of time moving forward. A wipe signals to the audience that they are being shown different locations that are experiencing  the same time. A visual equivalent of saying 'meanwhile'.

Graphic Match - Psycho - matches the circular image of the plug hole with the next image of Marion's eye. A graphic match is a very specialised type of transition. It is not something an editor adds between two shots but more a decision about which two shots to put next to each other. A graphic match is created when two shots similar in shape are placed next to each other. It tells the audience that there is a very important link between whatever it is they are seeing in the two shots.

Manipulation of Diegetic Time and Space
They allow a film maker to very effectively manipulate of diegetic time and space. For example: To show that a time period has changed in a flashback/forward. To show a location is different, to show that time is moving quicker or slower than normal. An effect can be something really simple such as using a colour filter. Or it could be altering the saturation of an image to either enhance the colour or remove it. Making an image black and white is often used for flashbacks. There are many different effects that can be added in the post production stage (editing). One common technique is alter the speed of the footage. A film which uses this technique is The Time Machine. The time traveller enters the machine and the environment changes as he travels through time. A more modern version of this effect is seen in the third Harry Potter film. The sequence using layering and altering the speed of the image. 

Task 13 - Manipulating Time and Space