•Porter’s skill with editing and methods of projection were used
to great effect in some of his earliest films. He combined documentary footage
with his own footage in films like 'The Execution of Czoyosz' (which he made
with actor and set painter George S. Fleming); in 'Life of an American Fireman'
he adopted a documentary style of filmmaking.
Sergei Eisenstein
Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. He and his contemporary, Lev kuleshov, two of the earliest film theorists, argued that montage was the essence of the cinema. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage", starting from Metric, Rhythmic, Tonal, Overtone and Intellectual.
D.W GRIFFITH
Griffith's was famous for the film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its immense popularity set the stage for the dominance of the Feature length film in the United States. The film has been extremely controversial for its negative depiction of African Americans, white Unionists and reconstruction, and its positive portrayal of Slavery and the Ku Klux Klan. The film was widely criticized and subject to boycotts by anti-racist organizations such as the NAACP. The film was not a financial success but was praised by critics. Several of Griffith's later films were also successful, but his high production, promotional, and roadshow costs often made his ventures commercial failures. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of early cinema for his command of film techniques and expressive skills.
Lev kuleshov
Lev Kuleshov was a Russian director who used the editing technique known as the “Kuleshov effect”. The Kuleshov effect is an editing where a subject is made to look at multiple photos or videos and with each of them he has a different reaction/ facial expression. Although editing innovations, such as crosscutting were used by directors in Hollywood before him, Kuleshov was the first to use it in the Soviet Russia. Openly pro-American and quietly anti-Soviet, he was driving a Ford sports car amidst Soviet poverty and Stalin's purges, and remained a controversial figure who joined the Soviet communist party and destroyed archives of rare silent movies during his experiments, thus clearing way for his own works.
George melies
George melies was a French illusionist and film director who led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Melies was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time lapse and jump cuts . He was also one of the filmmakers to use a storyboard.
Parallel editing
Parallel editing is the technique of alternating two or more scenes that often happen simultaneously
but in different locations. If the scenes are simultaneous, they occasionally
culminate in a single place, where the relevant parties confront each other.
Also known as cross
cutting, parallel editing gained prominence with Edwin S. Porter in
his acclaimed movie The Great Train
Robbery (1903). In this early picture, cross
cutting is used to show what occurs in two different places but not much else.
Though Porter didn’t use the technique to its full potential, he was
responsible for introducing the concept to the American cinema, allowing others
to build on it.
Parallel editing example:
In this example
from “The silence of the lamb”, parallel editing joins together the opposing
forces: the FBI and the criminal Buffalo Bill. Often in parallel editing the
two parallel scenes intersect and culminate in a climax. In this example
parallel editing is used to mislead the viewer, this big revelation puts the
main character, Clarice starling,
in a dangerous situation. It also develops a stronger character arc, as it
evinces that Clarice was right,
whereas the FBI and her boss were wrong. When Jack Crawford realizes his
mistake, he immediately understands the danger clarice is
in yet there is
nothing he can do to warn her.
Continuity editing
Continuity editing is the process, in film and video creation, of combing more or less related shots, or different components cut from a single shot into a sequence so as to direct the viewers attention to a pre-existing consistency of story across both time and physical locations. With continuity editing it makes the narrative clear and the shot sequences flow seamlessly onto each other and it makes the film easy to watch. There are different types of cuts that make continuity editing for example: establishing shot, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule, cross cutting, 30 degree rule, match on action, eyeline matching and re-establishing shot.
Match on action
Match on action
or cutting on action is an editing technique for continuity editing in which
one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first
shot. This creates an impression of a sense of continuity – the action carrying
through creates a visual bridge which draws the viewers attention away from the
slight cutting or continuity issues .This is not a graphic match or match cut,
it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two
separate things.
Match on
action example
In the screen shots below is shows a frontal shot of one of the
characters then he turns and walks away. The camera cuts to show the character
from behind from inside the apartment, just as he turns around making the
movement and shot seem fluid and masking the cut.
The 180 degree rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. The angle between any two shots should not exceed 180 degrees, in order to maintain spatial relationships between people and objects given sequence or shots. This is a principal which underpins all TV and film production. Its also important not to cross the line of vision between two characters, otherwise the viewer may not be able to make sense of the scene, the same rule applies to a moving subject.
A jump cut is a cut in film editing In which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly if at all. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forward in time. It is a manipulation of temporal space using the duration of a single shot, and fracturing the duration to move the audience ahead. This kind of cut abruptly communicates the passing of time as opposed to the more seamless dissolve heavily used in film predating, when jump cuts were first used extensively. For this reason, jump cuts, while not seen as inherently bad, are considered a violation of classical continuity editing which aims to give the appearance of continuous time and space.
Jump cut example
An example of jump cuts being used is in a movie called royal Tenenbaums. In the scene it starts of with an establishing shot of three characters in a room then it cut cuts to a close up shot of one of the characters in the bathroom . He slowly takes off his accessories for example, bandages on his hands and a sweat band on his forehead, after that there are multiple cut of the subject with each cut his hair and his beard get shorter eventually revealing his face too show how he really looks. This was used to compress time so the viewer does not get bored or lose interest. Jump cuts are used even after the main protagonist cuts his hair the next scene if of his cutting his wrist, the scene cuts to him in a hospital in a hospital bed being pushed across the hallway then the scene cuts again multiple times to show different characters from different locations learning about the incident and rushing to the hospital, this is used to compress time and space.
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationships between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme long shot at the beginning of a scene indicating where and when the remainder of the scene takes places. Establishing shots were more common during the classical era of filmmaking than they are now. Today's filmmakers tend to skip the establishing shot in order to move the scene along more quickly in addition, the expositional nature of the shot may be unsuitable to scenes in mysteries where details are intentionally obscured or left out. Establishing shots may use famous landmarks to indicate the city where the action is taking place or has move to, such as the empire states building or the statue of liberty to identify Newyork city, the London eye or the big Ben to identify London.
An example of an establishing shot used in film is in the movie lord of the rings. In this movie the first scene is a long shot showing the scenery/location of where the action is taking place.
Another example of an establishing shot is in another movie called they came together the scene starts with a extreme long of Newyork city. This tells the audience that the movies location is based in Newyork city.
Another use of an establishing shot is in the movie kingdom of heaven. There are three establishing shots used in the beginning scene, the first one is a log shot from inside a castle that pans to the right to show you the surroundings, the second use of an establishing shot is another long shot of a dessert, this is used to show the viewers how much of a waste land it is. And the final establishing shot is from outside the castle showing the viewer the castle from the front so we know its location and its size. All these shots are to indicate/tell the viewer where the action is taking place.
Two shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation. Usually characters in one frame look left, and in the following frame look right. It may not be filmed in the right order but will be edited together during the post production. You have to ensure that the right amount of shots are filmed to make the shot reverse shot work . This technique is used to tell the viewer that two characters are staring at each other or having a conversation.
Shot reverse
shot example
One use of shot reverse shot is used in the movie “The hunger
games”. In this scene from the film it shows two characters having a
conversation, you can tell that they are talking to each other because the
camera shot cuts back and forth from one character to the other. This show and
tells the audience that the two character are directly talking to each other.
Montage
editing
Montage is a editing technique used in film in which a series
of short shots are edited together into a sequence to condense space, time and
information. The term has been used in various contexts. It was introduced to
cinema by Sergei Eisenstein and early soviet directors used it as a synonym for
creative editing
Montage
example
A good example of montage being used is in the movie hot fuzz.
At the beginning of the movie it shows the protagonist going through different thing in a short
amount of time, for example, there is a scene of him punching a punching bag
then the scene cut to him at a shooting range this is used to compress time,
space and information.
Transition
A film transition is a technique used
in the post production process of film editing and video by which scenes or
shots are combined. Most commonly this is used through a normal cut to the next
shot. Most films will also include selective use of other transitions, usually
to convey a tone or separate parts of the story. There are multiple types of
transitions for example, fade in/fade out, dissolve and wipes. These techniques
are used to save time and space also information to keep the audience entertained
so they don’t lose interest in the film.
symbolism
Symbolism is a technique used in film where objects or symbols
are used to represent other objects, human being or creatures. For example a
knife could be used to represent the
fangs an animal, the height of a mountain could be used to exaggerate someone's
height or the image of a bird soaring
through the sky could represent someone's freedom.
Symbolism example
All of the films we've seen in the past few weeks hold simple
objects that represent the ideas of their creators, some of the best examples
comes from Stanely Kubrick's 2001: space odyssey One such object that becomes a symbol was an ordinary leg bone.
This simple leg bone was used to bring our ape ancestors meat and take down
their enemies. But as in the scene bellow, we can see the bone become so much
more, it changes from being a simple tool to become the symbol of mankind's
giant leap forward to no longer humbly accept evolution's slow pace but to
shape the world around them and to build ambitions that reach toward the stars.
The symbolism of the bone becomes pretty apparent with the triumph rent tossing,
representing that leap forward for man especially with the match cut/graphic
match taken place with the satellite (bomb).
Leitmotif
A Leit motif is a recurring musical
idea, melody, chord sequence and rhythm. Film music composers often use
leitmotif to help build a sense of continuity and leitmotif are manipulated to
match the action and mood of a scene, it can also be used for anticipation or
for adding humour.
An example of leitmotif being used is in captain
America. In this scene captain America emerges
from a body showing the viewer that he went through a transformation.
This technique is used to show the audience that the experiment was a success
and a hero has emerged
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