What is editing?
Editing or Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging videos in different places to your liking and creating a brand-new piece of work. Editing is a big part of the post production process, other parts include titling, color correction and sound mixing. Editing is key in the success of the production if done very well. Some positive factors of editing are removal of unwanted clips, usage of best clips, creating a flow, adding effects, graphics, style etc. Editing can be very simple or can get complicated when computer generated imagery (CGI) is introduced as the amount of time spent on editing increases immensely such that it can take up to 1 year to complete the editing, this is common in big budget films. It can be tricky sometimes when it comes to making the correct use of sound and in most cases making the audio match the video. Some famous editing software’s which are used are Adobe premiere pro and Final cut pro, these software’s are designed really well as they are both effective in terms of editing and easy to use for a beginner. Some great editors who have edited blockbusters are Kirk Baxter for “The Social Network”, William Goldenberg for “Argo” and Chris Dickens for “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Development of editing
Edwin S. Porter
Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer who was notably
famous for his editing, producing and directing skills. In his early life he
was working in the electrical department of William Cramp & Sons, a
Philadelphia ship engine building company, at his time working there
he showed a lot of hard work and interest in creating devices which
would help in communication. He entered the motion pictures industry
in 1896 and joined the Edison manufacturing company in 1899, he soon
took charge of film production and over the next few years, he became
one of the most influential film makers of the decade.
In 1903 he made his first film “Life of an American fireman”. The film was about the rescue of a woman and her child from a burning building, the film portrayed his film making skills very well with the types of shots he used such as Point of view (POV), Temperal overlaps and many more shots which were not normally used at the time.
His next film “The Great Train Robbery and After” which was released in 1903 was bases on the typical western story which back in the day was very familiar to the audience from Novels and Stage Plays. Porter out did himself again and portrayed his editing skills with the use of cross cutting in editing to show simultaneous actions in different places. In his future films he continued with trying new editing techniques such as close ups and continuity editing which made his films look more complex and improved their quality.
D.W. Griffiths
David Wark Griffiths was an American Director, producer & writer who
pioneered modern cinematic techniques. Born in 1875, David Wark
Griffiths got his first break into the world of film in 1908 when he
submitted an adapted play to Edwin Porter which was rejected and
instead Porter offered Griffiths the lead role in one of his films.
After this Griffiths went to work as a director at the American
Mutoscope and Biograph Co. where he made over 450 films
between 1908 and 1911. During this time, he invented several
editing techniques including the cut in.
He used this technique in his film “Greasers Gauntlet”(1908) when he cut from an extreme long shot of a lynching tree to a long shot of two actors right in the middle of the scene to let the audience feel the emotional impact of an exchange between the couple. This was a new concept and opened the door to more changes in filming and editing.
Griffiths started to experiment using different shot lengths and camera angles to make a scene. He cut between shots to show a smooth sense of continuous space and time which made viewing much more interesting and engaging for the audience. This was known as continuity editing.
He used continuity matchesto smoothly join changes in space and time. For example, he would film an actor coming from outside into a doorway and the next shot would show the same actor entering the inside space from the same doorway, therefore moving the film along smoothly to another time and space.
in 1909 he came up with more editing techniques which he used in his film “The Lonely Villa”. Firstly he used cross cutting to show three action scenes; the woman at home with her children, the thieves about to break into the house and the husband racing back to rescue his wife and children.
D.W Griffiths learnt from filmmakers and editors that had gone before him, but he added a lot and invented many of the conventions of editing that would establish the continuity style that is still used in film today.
Although Intolerance failed at the box office filmmakers in Russia used many of the conventions to create a new style of editing they called montage. One of those filmmakers was called Lev Kuleshov.
Lev Kuleshov
Lev Kuleshov was born in 1899 in Tamov, Russia. He started out as a set
designer and sometimes did a bit of acting but felt disappointed after seeing
himself on screen and decided to pursue a career in directing instead.
A friend introduced him to the American School of Filming and which
had a big influence on him.
After the First World War Russia was a mess. The ruling party decided to use
film to communicate with the country as it was so big. Kuleshov had been a
Bolshevik and a Red Army supporter during the war and during this time he
covered the war with a documentary crew.
Many filmmakers had been capitalists and had been forced out of Russia during the war, so in 1919 Lenin’s wife formed a cinema committee which founded the VGIK - Moscow Film School. One of the co-founders of the school was Lev Kuleshov. The main aim of it was to make films in support of the countries Bolshevik Party through propaganda.
Kuleshov set up a his own study group outside the formal structure of the school and this became known as the Kuleshov Workshop. When Griffiths film, “Intolerance”was released in 1919 it was studied in great depth at Kuleshov’s workshop. Kuleshov examined Griffiths style of editing and practically took shots apart and examined every single one then put them together in a different order to change the meaning.
In 1922 more film stock became available and Kuleshov started to experiment with all the things he had learnt from studying Griffiths work. One of the first experiments he did has become known as ‘The Kuleshov Effect’.
It involved the use of two images to make the audience feel different emotions. First he took a shot of an actor’s expressionless face. Then he made three different clips using that same face with a bowl of soup, a dead lady in a coffin and a beautiful lady. When the audience watched the clips they thought the actor’s face changed and portrayed different feelings. Kuleshov observed that editing had created the meaning. The audience felt different emotions according to which shot was edited with the actor’s face.
Kuleshov stated that the meaning of the film was not just about how subjects were arranged in a frame, but also in the sequence of the shots which could be changed in the editing room. Kuleshov also experimented with creative geography. He edited together shots taken in completely different locations and made them into a believable narrative. This experiment created the opposite effect to the smooth continuity editing created by Griffiths.
Kuleshov believed that films could go beyond the restrictions of space and time and that the audience could put the geography in their own minds as they watched the film. Kuleshov used a much more choppy style of editing and many soviet filmmakers continued this style.
Kuleshov strongly believed that films were made in the editing room and not when cameras rolled. The Montage Theory, which was the making of films in the editing room, was created by Kuleshov and became widely used in the Soviet Union.
