Watching the cutting edge - the magic of movie editing documentary
with my understanding of the documentary and my own knowledge from reaserch i was able to answear some questions on editing and its history
founding fathers of cinema
i found that the person credited for founding cinema is Louis Lumiere as he was the inventor of the first motion picture camera in 1895 but there is some disagreement with this as in 1891 the edison company successfully demonstrated the kinetoscopewere being the first ever to project film this allowed one person at a time to view moving pictures and then in 1896 edison presented a vitascope projecterwhich had been inproved
Why Edwin S Porter is important
Porter was one of the first to discover editing as a whole he thought by intercutting two shots that weren't from the same place together he could build a story he found that by using this technique he could get his film to be entertaining with much more depth rather than before where films where much more dull with not much of a story line.
some of Edwin S Porters films
The great train robbery (1903)
Life of an American fireman(1903)
Dream of a rarebit fiend (1906)
The purpose of editing
editing which is cutting and placing different shots and frames together in a sequence to form a film one of its main purposes are it creates a story making a film interesting to watch as well as bingning a feel of tension and other emotions that would not be felt other wise as well as this different effects can be added to shots to inforce the disired effect for example slow down or speed up for example in the film 'The vow' in the car crash scene it is slowed down so that the audience is able to see all that happenes in the shot and nothing is missed as well as show how time has stoped for the people envolved making the audienece feel more connected to the characters as well as thins timing of cuts can startle or amuse audience
The first modern editior was D.W Griffith (Born January 22 1875 - Died July 23 1948)
Some of D.W Griffiths films
Way down east(1920)
Orphans of the storm (1921)
Dream street (1921)
What did he do that was special or different:
D.W Griffith new very different special techniques he used in his films are what made him unique in his time. Griffith was the first to use a close up in his film before this people were very used to seeing actors whole body in each shot and when he did bing his idea forward as stated in the The cutting edge documentry people found it to be a very starange idea and would rather see actors whole body rather than a close up of their face but after this was put into context in film it began to make sence to many people and dfilm makers and this is how this technique was born. he then went on to also create the flashback which also seemed like a very starange concept at the time but was slowly accepted and as the close up brought a depth of emotion that perviously wasnt available in film.
another one of Griffiths ideas was the invisible cut this is the technique where there is a shot of some one and then there is a cut to a different angle although this is not visible to the viwer as the action is idential to the previous shot this is one of the key techniques used in film as it makes sure that the film is smooth and looks very effortless to the viewer the way in which it works is the the action takes away the attention of the change of shot from the audience and so they do not notice the cut. for example a there is a long shot of a character walking down stairs and there is then a cut to a medium shot and because the action is fitted to match the audience does not take notice to the cut another example is this video where there is first a longshot of the person sitting at a computer this is then cut to a medium shot as he is in the same position and has not moved the change in shot looks very natural and the cut will not be visible to the viewer.
D.W Griffith new very different special techniques he used in his films are what made him unique in his time. Griffith was the first to use a close up in his film before this people were very used to seeing actors whole body in each shot and when he did bing his idea forward as stated in the The cutting edge documentry people found it to be a very starange idea and would rather see actors whole body rather than a close up of their face but after this was put into context in film it began to make sence to many people and dfilm makers and this is how this technique was born. he then went on to also create the flashback which also seemed like a very starange concept at the time but was slowly accepted and as the close up brought a depth of emotion that perviously wasnt available in film.
another one of Griffiths ideas was the invisible cut this is the technique where there is a shot of some one and then there is a cut to a different angle although this is not visible to the viwer as the action is idential to the previous shot this is one of the key techniques used in film as it makes sure that the film is smooth and looks very effortless to the viewer the way in which it works is the the action takes away the attention of the change of shot from the audience and so they do not notice the cut. for example a there is a long shot of a character walking down stairs and there is then a cut to a medium shot and because the action is fitted to match the audience does not take notice to the cut another example is this video where there is first a longshot of the person sitting at a computer this is then cut to a medium shot as he is in the same position and has not moved the change in shot looks very natural and the cut will not be visible to the viewer.
action are aways continuous to achieve a smooth movement that looks natural and real
