Most significant developments in editing history?

Task 3- Due Wednesday 9th October 

Over this unit we have looked at the history of editing form the very beginning where all was done by hand to the future of editing where technology holds the key role of successful editing. We have also looked at different editing methods and how they affect the viewer and the viewing experience overall from this I have been able to reach an opinion on which has had the biggest effect in the history of editing.

the most significant change in the history of editing, would be the transition between digital and analogue editing as it was the biggest step forward the industry had ever taken and improved films to a great extent it not only made the job easier for editors as nothing had to be done by hand and everything was put onto a hard disc or computer making it easily accessible and also very easy to assemble into a great smooth edit but also made the editing look much more seamless improving the overall look of the movie and the viewing experience digital editing means the viewer is able to feel emotion and build relation with the actors because of how realistic its final result is this would not be possible in the past with analogue editing.  

Digital editing is now the technique used in all films made and the advance in technology means that the skill of editing is easier and much more people can be taught even in the comfort of their own home with practice take this video for instance from YouTube teaching people with little to no experience with video editing the simple skills needed to edit a video for example cut out parts they don’t want without professional help or spending any money which would have been very difficult with analogue technology.

 

 Although digital editing has a large amount of positive aspects it  also has its down sides it has a higher production cost and so makes it much more difficult for film makers that aren’t in Hollywood to get a great edit as it can be too costly for an independent movie to hire a professional editor aside from this another disadvantage is that because digital editing consists fully on storing all the cuts onto a computer which is then picked apart by the editor and out into an order which makes sense for the viewer there are chances of the computer crashing which can waste a lot of time when editing another problem could be material being lost which can result to a lot of time and money being wasted and even the film being unfinished which can be very difficult for the director that has worked hard to film it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UMw8NdxXu8

 

In this example of digital editing the technique makes it possible for the editor to achieve fast shots following the tennis ball that would not have been easy or even possible with analogue editing in the past it also allows the editor to produce a smooth finish with no jump cuts which was a very hard skill in the beginning of editing this is a great step forward in the history of editing and was a key point in the future of film.

There are some positives to analogue editing for instance sound has a more natural and warm feel with a hypothetically better audio bandwidth and is much easier to keep safe and to avoid loss of part of a film as it is a physical thing rather than being saved onto a computer which is easier to lose and get deleted. Although disadvantages are much greater for example from the range of cheaper recorders there can be a problem with distortion and hissing noises coming from the tape as well as this the tape must be wound or rewound at the location of the recording to be heard which is very impractical other impractical issues is that tapes very hard to source as no one uses them any longer and lastly it is increasingly difficult to synchronise video with unlike with digital where it Is a much easier skill.

Edwin s porter is thought to be one of the first editors to experiment with film editing in the way that he did for example ‘the great train robbery’ was the first example of dynamic, action editing the world had seen putting different shots at different times and places for emotional impact that was unavailable in a static long shot. As he was one of the first film directors and editors he utilized invented some of the first visual effects.

Eadweard Muybridge was also key in film history and used a group of shots of a horse running at a steady speed and then made this look like an on-going motion of the horse moving and the camera following it as it does and as shown in this image it is clear how he placed the different shots together to form the edit this then had a benefit on film makers as it shows how he did it and encouraged people to gain interest in the craft