Editing Theory Assignment
Moviola
Moviola was a device that let you view your film while editing and it was made by Iwan Serrurier in 1924. Moviola still exist today and the company is located in Hollywood. this device was designed to allow editors to carefully place their cuts and view the footage back to let them know if they placed the cut in the right place.
Iwan first concept in 1917 was to use it for home movie viewing until an Editor that worked for Douglas Fairbanks Studio's suggested to Iwan to change the idea of the Moviola and make it for to let Film Editors view their footage while they edit.
Video History
The earlier Film were made in one big locked- down shot. that was all enough to amuse the audience watching. The first films were like filming moving traffic which there was No Story and No Editing involved and each film ran as long as it did on camera.
- Edwin Porter - was a famous film pioneer and he was most famous working for the Edison Manufacturing Company which he first work for Thomas Edison in 1899 very soon afterwards Edwin Porter took charge of one of the Edison Company in New York. He first entered the Film Industry at 1896. Edwin Porter made his first film in 1903 and it was called The Great Train Robbery.
- Lumiere Brothers - Louis and Auguste Lumière was a famous pioneer and they were known for the Cinématographe in 1895 which shot at 16 frames per every second in comparison to edisons original version which shot as 42 frames per second but the Edison version was bulky and heavy. Lumeire brothers first short film was the film when the workers are leaving the factory and that was made in 1895.
- Georges Méliès - George Melies was a pioneer of film and he was famous for the film called The trip to the moon and the invention of Stop motion animation. Méliès discovered from this incident that cinema had the capacity for manipulating and distorting time and space. He expanded upon his initial ideas and devised some complex special effects.
- Eadweard Muybridge - Eadweard Muybridge was another film pioneer and he was famous for the discovery of the horse motion. he discovered it by getting different camera and taking pictures of a galloping horse in a sequence of shots which he started to perfecting his horse motion theory that all four hooves leaves the ground when the horse is running.
- Wilhelm Steenbeck - Steenbeck invented a editing machine which would allow you to edit your clips while you are recording like Moviola and it became very successful. Steenbeck continued as a specialist for Film Editing. Many companies around the world still use this technique but most of the big companies in film industry use editing on computers like Sony Vegas and Adobe Premier Pro..
Soviet Montage
Soviet Montage is you film something and then you film something completely different and then you go back to the first part for a reaction of what randomly happened
Continuity Editing
- D.W.Griffith - created the 180 degree rule - and the 180 degree rule is when you can only have camera on one side of the scene, you cant have camera's on both sides
- Different Shots - there are lots of different kinds of shots when you are shooting films and they are Establishing Shots, Close up, Medium Shot and Long Shots, Third Rule which was to make the audience focus on the important stuff in the scene.
The Purposes of Editing
Editing can set up the meaning of the film.
The Editors determines how long each shot is on for, also he or she can also decide what goes in and or out of sequence.
The editors can make a decision based on the speed of each single shot. On a
dissolve you can leave the viewer watching lingering and waiting for a few seconds or you use quicker dissolves like in the Dissolve example I found on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47TYz78vgFQ
or you can have slow motion shots like in the Film "Wanted 2008" where he hits a man over the head with a keyboard and it goes in slow motion..
Cross Cutting
You can use
cross cutting editing where it goes cuts back to different action parts of the movie like in "Inception" when there is 2 action packed scenes back to back and the editing cuts backs quickly so the viewer watching can get engaged when watching both fighting scenes because it doesn't get boring because its switching through each fighting scene that is happening at the same time
Video Example-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmptU7vEkNU
Fast Cuts
You can use
Fast cuts in editing like in "Shaun of the dead" where Shaun gets up of the chair to get ready for work.. it quickly cuts from the correct order which is Zipping us his trousers then flushing the chain, brushing his teeth and washing his hands and the final fast cut when he puts on his work badge.
Video Example -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YY6mymW4oA
You can use slower cuts at first then if you quickly use faster cuts to build up excitement to make the viewer think that something good is about to happen then it will engage the viewer and make the viewer interested and it could make him enjoy that particular scene and keep him away from the stop button. Also using sound to build up excitement in the film to make interesting make the viewer engage and make him/her think either that something exciting is about to happen for Example the last fight scene of the film Never Back Down where the Character Ryan McCarthy puts Jake Tyler into a submission forcing him to fall asleep and then it cuts slowly into the Memories of Jake and then the cuts gets faster and fast faster to build up excitement so people know that the fight isn't gonna end.
Video Example -
http://youtu.be/ooO6KcbMlTY?t=3m55s
Shot Reverse Shot
Shot Reverse Shot is a common and popular filming technique and it is were Character 1 is shown looking at Character 2 and then it is showing Character 2 looking back at Character 1 and sometimes since the characters are shown and shot facing opposite directions to each other the viewer assumes that they are talking to each other.
For example like in Hunger games when the boy character is on his own and the Female character comes in and talks to him and the camera is switching between characters when each character talks which tells the audience watching that they are talking to each other.
Video Example -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Ey0a6LJRA
Soundtrack
First your selection of your background soundtrack is very important when you are choosing the soundtrack because it could change the atmosphere and the mood of the scene for example a up beat techno beat is not a good choice for a Love and Romantic movie unless there are at a party but depending on the scene or the genre of your film. If your movie is a horror film then you would use dark and scary sounds to build up tension and excitement for the viewers watching.
Make sure that the soundtrack you have asked permission before you use it otherwise you could get into trouble also there are some free soundtrack on the internet so you can get some basic sound effects and music of your film for free but you will have to see if it has copyright and make sure if you use that particular soundtrack that you reference the song name and who made the music you are using in your film.
Video Example -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkhz8kYo8Ug
Balance is important to have because you have to take both sides and make sure when you film the two sides like a debate you have to make sure that they both get treated the same and have to same time to speak so their is no biased and no favouritism to any of the sides, also when editing the footage you have to make sure you edit it fairly do they can't complain about you giving them more time and saying that you are biased towards the other groups involved.
Objectivity is the opposite of Subjectivity, Objectivity is based of the judgement of observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices/opinions. Objectivity is more facts instead of your own personal opinions
Fox news is a good example of Subjectivity because Fox news talk and they give false information most of he time and they always are biased and sometimes they only give out they own person opinion of the news subject that they are talking about. Fox News isn't a good news channel because of that reason because they mostly give their own opinions instead of telling us the facts of the matter.