Unit 16 - Developing Editing Techniques

In camera editing is a simple form of editing which you can do without any needs of editing software. In camera editing can be effective for some pieces of recording however it can be also be ineffective as you only have one shot at filming the correct shot. Therefore it requires practice and time. The pioneer who was first to use in camera editing was George Melies in his "The Vanishing Lady". Where he makes the women disappear.

To create this video we first of all in a group we planned out what are film would contain, who would be in it, where we were shooting and any props that would be involved. We put all these ideas into consideration and produced a detailed time line of the shoot we would be taking. In the first shot we filmed David going down the stairs. We used this shot in our video as it had a rather good lighting effect as well as the camera angle was good which allowed us to get some of the stairs and David in the clip. We could have improved this part of the clip if there was more space to place the tripod, as there was not much room to get the perfect angle.

In the second shot we then recorded David coming down the stairs, we recorded this shot as a continuation of the first clip. This shot allowed us to show the viewers that David had fully walked down the stairs and helped move on to the next clip.

Thirdly in continuation of the third clip we have David walking out the door. The opening of the door shows the continuation as its automatic it looks like David is opening it as he finishes walking down the stairs. The bad thing about the shooting of this clip was the timing in which David is coming down the stairs and exiting through the building.

Next inline we have a meet up this is where David and Tony meet to journey to the study room. This is the bit of the film where we introduced talking. The thing we could have improved on in this clip is the fact I laughed as I recorded it.

In addition after this clip we have two viewpoints of David and Tony walking down the side of the building. We also have them talking to induce some more sound to the clip. We first show them entering the sidewalk, and then we see them exiting after to then walk onto the next scene.

Next we have a window shot were we see David and Tony walking up the ramp through the building then up the stairs in an orderly fashion. However the shot was limited because of space therefore we could have improved it if we had more space.

More over we have David and Tony walking up the stairs however this shot was a fail as is David overlapping tony on the stairs where as in the clip before we had Tony in front of David.

Then we had a close up shot of David placing the card on the door and the beep mad this clip due to the close up.

Finally the last clip we had the door closing behind as they entered the study room. However this shot was a bit of a fail as you could see Billys arm as he was closing the door. We could try and eliminate this by maybe shooting at a different angle

In this video what i think we done well was the use of continuation of the clips, however to imporve it i think we could have added more sound as well as practice the clips more before recording them. Also control the laughing so it doesn't affect the clip.

The pros of in camera editing are that it is much easier to get the continuation effect. The fact that you can stop the recording and change scene or remove a prop etc makes this effect very effective. As this effect was easy for me as the specific scenes and the way i recorded them. However i am aware if we was recording a conversation the in camera editing would we a con as the conversation would be unnatural.

The cons of in camera editing are that you can only take the shot once. Therefore it requires a lot of practice before achieving the perfect shot. Also the fact you can’t rewind back makes it harder for you to see what you have recorded. But if you do record back for instance to get the clip back where you left of is really hard, therefore what you have recorded may be over written

Task One – Editing in Early Cinema

Task One – Editing in Early Cinema

The concept of film editing has changed over the early years of film making. The first person to start of the concept of film editing was Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison kicked of the film editing era as he was an intelligent scientist which firstly invented light bulbs. However to play an impact in editing and film making Thomas Edison invented the Kinetograph camera and the Kinetoscope. Thomas Edison also played a big role in the film camera industry as he solved the problem of the various film sizes and the fact that many different cameras took different films. There fore Thomas Edison set the industry standard film and the 35 mm roll. Therefore this then allowed people not to worry about spending money on different film for different cameras instead, one size fits all. In the future of setting the industry standard of the film, Edison lately invented the projector to view the film which would have been on the 35 mm roll. 

Thomas Edison

35mm Film

   

Then the concept of editing then advanced with the Lumiere Brothers, who worked alongside Thomas Edison. Edison and the Lumiere brothers worked together to be able to produce short films. These films excited the crowds even though they were rather short and also static. The motion in shot technique allowed the Lumiere Brothers and Edison to be able to amaze the audience. The first film published by the Brothers and Edison was called Sortie d'usine (1895). This was a short film which simply showed people coming out a work house with a static composition.

After the Lumiere brothers, G.A.Smith was introduce into the film editing concept. The film that G.A.Smith produced was called The Miller and The Sweep (1898) This film surprised audience even though it had no specific story, as well as no editing. Smith made the film as long as he could due tho the length of film he had to record with. This film was the first silent comedy to be produced. Later on in the year 1899 Smith introduced a new film which he had 

G.A. Smith

created called The Kiss in The Tunnel. This was the first film set to mark the narrative of creating a story. Smith played a huge impact in Film concept and editing as he stated "Some extra spice is called for." Therefore he introduced the Phantom ride genre. He took this technique and used it very well in his "Kiss in the Tunnel" film, as he showed the train entering the tunnel the kiss in the tunnel and then the train exiting the tunnel.
He did this effect by cutting pieces of film and literally sticking them together to create the different scene effect.



Miller And The Sweep

Kiss in the Tunnel

In addition G.A.Smith, George Meles. Meles was a magician and got his ideas to create a film by watching the Lumiere brothers productions. Therefore Meles thought to himself that there was a possibility of him creating an novelty production. Therefore Meles acquired a camera to be able to record a film, he also set up his own studio and sets to be able to make a better film. What made Meles special is that he used the most basic camera editing techniques to make his film much more exciting for the audience. In 1896 Meles created the film called "The Vanishing Lady" This was a spectacular film for the time as he advanced Smiths Technique to make it look like a lady was vanishing and to bring her back again.

The Vanishing Lady

Next in line for the concept of film editing is Edwin S. Porter. Porter worked as an electrician before joining the film industry of Alva Edison in the late 1890's. Porter and Edison worked together with each other to create longer length films, Which in this case they could make them more interesting. Porter made the next breakthrough in the film editing concept with the film "Life of an American Fireman." This film played a huge role in making audiences entertained, as it was action packed, contained close ups, different scenes, it was longer and also had a close up of a firearm. The next thing that Porter introduced was "The Great Train Robbery". This Film was similar to "Life of an American Fireman" as it was also action packed and contained many Different scenes as well as showing a comical side to it.

Life of An American Fireman

The Great Train Robbery

More over Charles Pathe introduced a new style of editing to advance it. This was called parallel editing. What Pathe did to be able to create this style of editing was cutting between story lines to create the effect. He produced this effect in the film "The Horse That Bolted" (1907).

The final person to bring a piece of film editing to the line was D.W.Griffiths. Griffiths was an US film director which had a passion for film editing. Me made use of several effects such as cross cutting to show parallel action in different locations. The Work Produced by Griffiths was highly regarded, One of his film productions was "Birth of a Nation" (1915). With the works of this film D.W Griffiths inspired early film makers to understand editing.

Birth of a Nation