2. An introduction to film editing...
• Today, film editing is at its best. Editors use all
of the top technology to help create a film that
is as realistic and enjoyable as possible. But was
it always like this?
• The first films were very basic and hardly any
editing was used. This was because technology
was not as advanced as it is today.
• Throughout this slideshow, we will look into the
history of film editing and how it has influenced
some of today’s movie features.
3. Lumiere Bros’
• The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were sons of well known Lyons based
portrait painter Antoine Lumière.
• Antoine, noting the financial rewards of new photographic processes, abandoned
his art and set up a business manufacturing and supplying photographic
equipment. Joining him in this venture was Louis who began experimenting with
the photographic equipment his father was manufacturing.
• By early 1895, the brothers had invented their own device combining camera with
printer and projector and called it the Cinématographe. It was much smaller than
Edison’s Kinetograph, was lightweight (around five kilograms), and was hand
cranked. The Lumières used a film speed of 16 frames per second, much slower
compared with Edison’s 48 fps - this meant that less film was used.
• The Lumières held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in
1895. Their first public screening of films at which admission was charged was held
on December 28, 1895, at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris.This history-making
presentation featured ten short films, including their first film, Sortie des Usines
Lumière à Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory).
4. Edwin S Porter
• Edwin S. Porter joined the Vitascope Marketing Company in 1895
where his experience with electrical engineering was called into use.
• Whilst at Vitascope, Porter was central in the organisation of the first
projected movie show in New York on the 23rd April 1896. He
continued to use his engineering skills in the laboratory at Edison’s
Manufacturing Company but left to become a freelance projectionist
at the Eden Musee Theatre in 1898.
• Feeling determined to go that step further, he attempted to create his
own camera and projector but his efforts were in vain and in 1900 he
returned to Edison’s Company. However, this time as a producer and
director at Edison’s East 21st Street Skylight studio.
• A fan of the films of Georges Méliès, Porter tried to emulate the trick
photography which Méliès had introduced to the world and had
proved incredibly successful, in films such as 'The Finish of Bridget
McKeen' (1901) and 'Jack and the Beanstalk' (1902). Porter was also
one of the first directors to shoot at night in his 'Pan-American
Exposition by Night'.
5. The Moviola
• Iwan Serrurier's original 1917 concept for the Moviola
was as a home movie projector to be sold to the general
public. The name was derived from the name "Victrola"
since Serrurier thought his invention would do for home
movie viewing what the Victrola did for home music
listening. However, due to high costs ($600) , very few
were sold.
• An editor at Douglas Fairbanks Studios suggested that
Iwan should adapt the device for use by film editors.
Serrurier did this and the Moviola as an editing device
was born in 1924.
6. D.W Griffith
• Griffith began making short films in 1908, and released his first feature,
’Judith of Bethulia’, in 1913. His 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.
• Several of Griffith's later films, including Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down
East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1921) were also successful .
• By the time of his final feature, The Struggle (1931), he had made roughly
500 films. Griffith is considered among the most important people in the
history of the film industry for his pioneering techniques and early
understanding of cinema.
7. Did you know?
• The very earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit film shots together because they
assumed that splicing together different shots of different things from different
positions would simply confuse audiences.
• Early on the cuts were made in the camera, so that the cameraman would simply
stop cranking at the exact end of a shot, and begin cranking again when it was
moved somewhere else, or when something else was put in front of it. This kind of
editing could allow for some early special effects.
• Films were originally edited on "flatbeds," or KEMs--machines that looped the
developed film through sprockets and mini-screens. Editors would make cuts onto
the actual film first, by noting where they were going to cut with white grease
pencils. Then they actually cut the film with a razor-loaded editing device called a
"splicer," and taped the cuts together with editing tape that contained sprockets.
• The artistry of film editing involves choosing the most impactful
materials (i.e., the "best takes"), and assembling them in a way that's
logical, expeditious, rhythmic, then putting them together in a way that best
suits the context of the story being told.
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