History of Editing

History of Editing

Primitive Cinema

Eadweard Muybridge 

Eadweard Muybridge, also known as the 'father of motion picture', is the person who started it all off. He started it all off by making a bet that when horses gallop they left all of their legs of the floor. He wanted to prove this by going down to the race track and setting up a series of fifty cameras parallel to the race track and by connecting their electrically controlled shutters to trip wires lain across the track, he ensured each one automatically took its own picture as the horse sped by. This worked and Eadweard put the pictures in a form of a movie and this was called 'The Horse in Motion' and it was the first ever moving picture.
This is what the race track looked like when Eadweard Muybridge was making 'The Horse in Motion' in 1878.

Muybridge worked at the University of Pennsylvania between 1883 and 1886, producing thousands of photographs of humans and animals in motion. During the remaining years of his life, he published several books featuring his motion photographs and toured Europe and North America, presenting his photographic methods using a projection device he'd developed, the Zoopraxiscope.










Lumiere Brothers 

The Lumiere Brothers, Aguste and Louis, are sons of well-known Lyons based portrait painter Antoine Lumière. The Lumiere Brothers where the first people to make the first public screening of a movie which was in December 28 1895 and it the films where 'Workers leaving the Lumiere factor and arrival of a train at LA Ciotat' They showed these films by using a 'Le cinematographe' which they invented. 


This is what the 'Le Cinematographe' looked like. Most of their films consisted of mainly moving images from scenes of everyday life. Such as people coming out of work and a tree pulling into the station. That film had reports that their audiences screaming and ducking for cover as they believed that the train itself was about to plow into the theater.










Georges Melies 


Georges Melies is the person that discovered jump cuts. He did by accident when he was trying to film a bus coming out of a tunnel. While he was filming the bus his camera broke when he was half way through the film. When he got the camera working again the bus was gone and there was a hearse there instead of a bus and he continued to make the film with the hearse. When he finished the film he had discovered the the jump cut effect. After he discovered jump cuts he started to use them in his films such as the haunted castle in 1896. He used jump cuts in this film to make disappearing and reappearing effects in the films.




This is a scene from Haunted castle. Georges Melies used jump cuts in this film.










But jump cuts weren't the only effects Georges Melies used . He introduced the Fade in and Fade out effect, Overlapping dissolves and stop motion photography. He used all these effects in his film such as A trip to the moon(1902), The Man with the Rubber Head (1901), The Conquest of the Pole(1912) and many more.

The Birth of Edit

The first projector was made in 1896 and it was in Edison's greatest marvel the Vitascope in Koster and Bials Music Hall in April 1896. 

Edwin S. Porter


Edwin S. Porter was an American early film pioneer, most famous as a director with Edison Manufacturing Company. Of over 250 films created by Porter, the most important films include Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery(1903). He was also the head of production in Edison Skylight Studio at 21st street, New York City. When Edwin was creating Life of an American Fireman (1903) he used stock footage and spliced it together with staged scenes to create the film. In Life of an American Fireman Edwin used the temporal overlapping technique which is shots with overlapping action in the film. He used this technique in Life of an American Fireman  when the fireman are coming down the pole then it went to a shot before they came down the pole and then a couple of seconds later they came down the pole.


This image shows some scenes from Life of an American Fireman. The 4 scenes on the bottom left corner are the scenes when the fireman are coming down the pole and when Edwin used the temporal overlaps technique.







These images are of Edwin's most famous films which are Life of an American Fireman and The Great Train Robber










D.W. Griffith

D.W. Griffith worked as an actor and playwright before turning to cinema, creating highly innovative film making techniques He directed the 1915 feature-length work Birth of a Nation, which was a blockbuster but was also highly racist in content. He independently directed Birth of a Nation, released in 1915 and telling the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Adapted from the book The Clansmen, the work was seen as the first U.S. blockbuster and has been lauded for its pioneering storytelling forms, greatly influencing modern movie making and shaping ideas around audience cultivation.

By 1908, Griffith had entered the fledgling world of movie making. He did acting work for the New York City film companies Edison and Biograph and went on to become a director of hundreds of shorts for the latter company, working with actors like Lionel Barrymore, Mary Pickford and the Gish sisters. While he was working for Biograph he made over 450 films from 1908-1911. He started to develop two-reel works and eventually made the four-reel film Judith of Bethulia. ("Four-reel" meant the movie could play for an hour.) At Biograph, Griffith was highly innovative with his film making techniques utilizing cross-cutting, close-ups and fade outs to distinctive effect, cultivating a deeper emotional milieu.

Iwan Serrurier

Around 1917 Serrurier developed a home movie projector, which he called the "Moviola" since it was a similar concept to a Victrola. The device was hard to sell to home users since it cost $600 in 1920, a very large sum. An editor at Douglas Fairbanks Studios suggested that Serrurier should adapt the device for use by film editors. So he decided to listen to the editor and he did adapt his device and then the Moviola as an editing device was born in 1924.

This is what the Moviola looked like. The Moviola is a device that allows a film editor to view film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924.












Modern Non-Linear Editing 

Non-Linear Editing started in 1971 with the first truly non-linear editor, the CMX 600, was introduced in 1971 by CMX Systems, a joint venture between CBS and Memorex. It recorded & played back black-and-white analog video recorded in "skip-field" mode on modified disk pack drives the size of washing machines. These were commonly used to store about half an hour of data digitally on mainframe computers of the time. The 600 had a console with 2 monitors built in.

Non-Linear editing is also known as Digital Editing. Digital editing is editing with a computer is much faster and more efficient for film. Many different programs can be used such as FinalCut Pro, Adobe Premier and iMovie. Footage is put onto the timeline and is then cut and pasted into an order and then the effects are added in.

This image shows the editing software for non-linear editing which is done on a computer.










This image shows what one of many non-linear editing systems looks like.







Editing Techniques

D.W. Griffith created a lot of editing techniques that he used in his films and that we still use today. One of these techniques is Cut In which was first used in Greaser's Gauntlet(1908). The cut in technique is transition which is where a visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantaneously replaced on screen by another.

Continuity is a style of editing that requires the director to try to make the film reality as much like the audience's reality as possible. This means the film is trying to recreate what the world around us is and trying to make it easier on the audience to comprehend and understand the action happening on screen.
A jump cut is a transition between two shots which appears to "jump" due to the way the shots are framed in relation to each other.


The 180-degree rule of shooting and editing keeps the camera on one side of the action. As a matter of convention, the camera stays on one side of the axis of action throughout a scene; this keeps characters grounded compositionally on a particular side of the screen or frame, and keeps them looking at one another when only one character is seen onscreen at a time. The technique allows for an expansion of the frame into the unseen space offscreen. It is referred to as a rule because the camera, when shooting two actors, must not cross over the axis of action; if it does, it risks giving the impression that the actors' positions in the scene have been reversed.

This image shows what the 180 degree rule looks like as a diagram and it also shows what the 180 degree rule is by showing the right and wrong sides.







A dissolve is a transitional device in which one scene fades out while the next scene fades in, resulting in some overlap between the two scenes. Dissolves can occur slowly or quickly.

Shot-reverse-shot is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer unconciously assumes that they are looking at each other.


Cutting to soundtrack is the technique where each cut is influenced by the style of music heard in the background. So if the scene is a sad one, perhaps at a funeral, a slow song will be heard and the scenes will by cut to fit the slow song by keeping the scenes on for a longer time. But if there is a car chase scene, the music will be fast and upbeat so the scenes will be cut to fit the fast song by keeping the scenes on for a shorter time.

Editing my Film

Editing my Film

This screenshot shows that the first thing I did was copy all of the scenes from my film from the camera to my Folder on the D drive.

This screenshot shows that I have ingested all of the scenes from my film onto Adobe Prelude. This also shows the file structure of my project folder on the D:Drive.

This screenshot shows that I have put all the scenes that I want from Prelude and I sent them to Premiere Pro.

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my first scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my second scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my third scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my fourth scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my fifth scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my sixth scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my seventh scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my eightieth scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my ninth scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my tenth scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my eleventh scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have added a title and credits at the beginning and the end of my film. The title is 'ADVENTURER REX' and the credits are 'Rex-Adam Miller, Camera Man-Sam Turley and Lighter-Jack Crooks'. 

This screenshot shows that I have inserted my last scene onto the timeline. I have also added effect onto the scene which was the brightness and contrast effect. I have made the scene brighter because it was too dark. I have put the brightness to 21 and the contrast to -14. 

This screenshot shows that I have took out all of the sound from all of the scenes on the timeline.

This screenshot shows that I have added some sound effects onto the timeline. The fist sound effect is a single gun shot which I downloaded from soundbible.com and the second sound effect is Heavy Machine Gun Fire which I also downloaded from soundbible.com.

This screenshot shows that I have added some music onto my timeline. The music is the Indiana Jones theme music. I have picked this music because it fits with the scenes in my film.

This screenshot shows that I have added a film dissolve effect at the end of my film on the last scene. I have also deleted one of my scenes from the timeline because if I left it in then my film would have been on for over 1 minute so I had to delete it. It also shows that I have shortened most of the scenes of my film to make my film less than 1 minute.

  

This screenshot shows that I have saved and exported my film as a H.264 (Vimeo) file. [pmd3].

This screenshot shows that I have finished exporting my film and I have uploaded it onto YouTube.

Pre-Production Theory

Film Script

A film script is a written piece of work that is a story that people have written for a film, TV show, or a video game. You will need to write your own script if you want to make a film, TV show or a video game because the script is one of the most important things that you need when you want to make one of them. A script is the thing that says what will happen, where it will take place, who the characters are, when it will take place and why what is happening is happening in the film, TV show or video game.

The purpose of the script is to tell the actors what they will be doing, who they will be playing as, what they will be saying, where they will be and when they will be doing what they need to do in the film. So it is very important that you make a script for the thing you are going to make if it needs a script. Also it is very important that you have a script for your film so that the actors in the film will know what they will be doing in the film.

This is an image of the script from Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost ark. This script is one of the greatest film scripts of all time.














I have made some of my own scripts for some short films that I will be making for my media course in collage. I have made these scripts on adobe story. Adobe story is a free programme that anyone can use to create their own scripts for films, TV shows or whatever they want. The programme is very simple and easy to use  so anyone will easily be able to use it.

Story Board 

A story Board is a sheet of paper that is split up into to usually 6 or more boxes that have some drawings in them. The drawings in the boxes are images that people have drawn to help show what their story will look like. People most times do a story board after they have written a script for a film, TV show or a video game that they want to make.  A story board like a comic book version of what your film would look like as a comic book. Story boards are a visual aid  which make it easier for you to show and share your ideas. It also makes it easier to explain your ideas to people and it gives you a better understanding of what your film can look like.

The purpose of story board is to give people a better understanding of what your film will look like so that they will know what it will be. Also it tells a story, provides instructions or shows the flow of action so that it will make it easier for people to understand what your story is about. Story Boards are very important when you are going to make a film because creating a storyboard for any creative production can be useful, but for a video production or animation it is vital. By planning each shot beforehand, directors and crew can understand what they are aiming to achieve and have something to build on.

This is a story board from The Lion King. This is what a very professional story board looks like.








This is what a very basic story board looks like that someone has drawn.

Script Breakdown 

A script Breakdown is where you get your script and break it down bit by bit identifying the main parts of your script and explaining it or breaking it down to make it easier to understand. In the script Breakdown you print off your script to breakdown your script so that you and anyone the reads your script can easily understand your script so that they will know what will be in your film. When you do your script breakdown of your script then you will know what props you will want to use, what time you will want to shoot, where you will want to shoot, the type of day you will want to shoot on, who your characters are called, who you want to play your characters, what sound effects/ music you will want to use, what special effects you will want to use, what stunts you will have, what the wardrobe will be, what the hair and make up will be, when the speaking and silent roles are and what vehicles and animals you will use in your film.

The purpose of a script breakdown is to make it easier for you to know what you will need in your film. Also it helps you to easily identify the important things that you will need to know about your film. Also when you do a script breakdown of your script then it makes it easy for some one else to know what you are going to use and the main things about your film. It is very important that you do a script breakdown because so that you can easily identify the main things in your script such as what props you will need and when the speaking roles will be.

CAST – SPEAKING ROLES	RED	UNDERLINE
EXTRAS – SILENT ROLES	YELLOW	UNDERLINE
EXTRAS – ATMOSPHERE	GREEN	UNDERLINE
STUNTS	ORANGE	UNDERLINE
SPECIAL EFFECTS	BLUE	UNDERLINE
SOUND EFFECTS/MUSIC	BROWN	UNDERLINE
VEHICLES & ANIMALS	PINK	UNDERLINE
PROPS	PURPLE	UNDERLINE
WARDROBE	BLACK	CIRCLE
MAKEUP & HAIR	BLACK	ASTERISK
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT	BLACK	BOX AROUND

This is a guide of what you do when you do a script breakdown of your script so that can pick out the key things in your script each thing with a different colour which makes it quicker for you to find the thing that you are looking for.

This is what a part of a script looks like when it has been broken down. This image shows that they have highlighted the main things that they need from this part of the script. The words highlighted in blue is the props that they will need. The words highlighted in purple are the characters. The words highlighted in yellow show the different scenes. So this script has been broken down correctly which means if someone wants to know what props they will need then they will just have to look at the words in blue which are the props.

Budget

A budget is the amount of money that you have to spend when you are going to make your film. A budget can be a big budget such as £1,000,000 or more or it could be as small as £1000 to spend to make your entire film. The Budget money you have is used to spend on the equipment, cast, props, location and other things that you will need to make your film. So if  you want to make a really good film that you think will be expensive then you will need a lot of money. But it is possible to make a good film on a low budget. An example of this is Paranormal Activity which was a low budget film and they only spent $15,000 to make it and they took in a worldwide gross of almost $197 million.

The purpose of a budget is to make people understand how much they haver to spend on their film. The budget also sets the limits of what they will be able to use in their film which means that they shouldn't go crazy with money and get the best actors, equipment, props or special effects. The budget is very important because every film needs a budget so that the people that are making the film know what they can use and who they can use in their film and to not use all of their money on the film just in case the film doesn't make as much money as they think it will.

 
This is what a budget sheet looks like when you are going to make a film. On this budget sheet it has the cost of the all the things that they will need to make their film such as cast, camera, lighting wardrobe, film editing and many other important things that they will need to make their film. The grand total of the cost to make this film is £5,999,999.








When I do my budget sheet I do it on the software called Microsoft excel. I do the budget sheet on Microsoft excel because it is easy and simple to use to make a budget sheet

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is an assessment of all the risks and hazards that could happen when you shoot the film, how to prevent them and what to do if the risk or hazard does happen. The risk assessment should be laid out as a table because it is easier to understand in the form as a table. The risk assessment will make sure that the person responsible ( the director) when on location has considered the safety of everyone involved in the filming from the contributor, the crew to the general public. To do a risk assessment you will have to consider everything that could damage or course harm to someone then write them down on the risk assessment table. Then you write how to prevent the the risk or hazard and then you write what to do if the risk does happen. You will have to do this for each thing that can damage or course harm to someone so that nothing bad will happen when you do your film.

The purpose of the risk assessment is to make sure that you get rid of all the risk and hazards when you do make your film so that no one will get harmed or damaged when you do make your film. It is very important that you do a risk assessment because  if you don't do a risk assessment for your film and someone gets hurt then it will be your fault and you could get sued. So it is very important that you do, do a risk assessment every time you want to make a film.

This is an image of what a risk assessment looks like when you are going to make a film. On this risk assessment is says what the hazard is, who could be harmed, what property could be damaged, the risk controls that are already in place, how high the risk is and the further actions required to control the hazard.

Clearances

A clearances is something that you will need if you want to shoot a film in a area that you do not own or that is private property. The clearance will let you use them areas if the owner gives you permission to use them. So it is important to get a clearance so that you will be able to use the area where you want to shoot the film.  Also if they say you can use their area then it will make you have written permission to use everyone and everything that will appear in your film from the area that the owner has given you permission to use.

This is what a clearance ( location release form) looks like. This is what I will be using when I do my assignment where I am going to make a 1 minute, 1 actor, 1 location film.  You use this by printing this form off after you have put the correct information that you need on the form. Then you go to the area where you want to shoot your film and find the owner of the area. After you find them you give them the form and ask for permission to use their area. Most times they will probably will give you permission to use their area but sometimes they might not.  After they sign it then you can shoot your film when ever you want but if they don't sign it then you will have to go and find a new location and do it all over again until you find a good location that the owner will give you permission to use.

This is what a professional location release form looks like.

This is a actors contract that you will need to get the actors to sign so that you can use them in your film. This is what I will be using when I do my assignment where I am going to make a 1 minute, 1 actor, 1 location film.  You use this the same way as the location release form  but it is a little bit different. On this after you print it off you will need to get the actor to sign it if they want to be in your film and you will need them to sign it if you want them to be in your film. This will have all or most of the information that the actors will need to know if they want to be in your film such as the location and the times they will be acting in.

The main purpose of a location release form is to make sure that you have permission to use someones area that they own so that you can use that area to make your film. The main purpose of the actor contract is that it gives you permission to use them as actors in your film.

It is very important to get the location release forms and the actor contracts signed because these sheets give you written permission to use their area and to use them as actors in your film but if you don't get them signed by the right people then you can't use their areas or them as actors in your film. So they are very important and it is very important to get them signed so that you can do the film that you want to do.

An outline of any legal considerations (copyright - public domain - creative commons - insurance)

A legal consideration in creative media for when making a film is a mixture of things such as copyright, public domain, creative commons and insurance. These are very important to think about when you are going to make a film.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a thing that people can put on their things that they have made or created and they have to own it to put copyright on it. Copyright protects the thing that they own and have put copyright on it from anyone taking it or copying it. But if someone does copy or take the thing that is protected by copyright then they will have to pay the owner of the copyrighted thing civil damages for using their copyrighted thing because it is against the law to use copyrighted material.  So when something is copyrighted such as Sherlock but there is away to use things that are copyrighted and that's when the owner of the thing dies and then after 75 years after the owner dies then the copyrighted law gets lifted an example of this is Sherlock the owner/ creator died in 1930. So then in 2005 the copyright on Sherlock was gone which means Sherlock wasn't copyrighted any more. This means that anyone in the world can use Sherlock or anything from Sherlock in whatever they want with out having to pay a fine. 

What is Public Domain?

Public Domain is a thing that lets people use things such as videos or images that  is copyrighted do not require a license or fee to use them. So they can use anything from the public domain that they want and put it in their film for free and without getting fined for using it which is good. The Public domain status allows anyone unrestricted access and unlimited creativity for whatever they want to use from the public domain in their film.

There are three main categories of public domain works:

• Works that automatically enter the public domain upon creation, because they are not copyrightable:
• Titles, names, short phrases and slogans, familiar symbols, numbers
• Ideas and facts (e.g., the date of the Gettysburg Address)
• Processes and systems
• Government works and documents
• Works that have been assigned to the public domain by their creators
• Works that have entered the public domain because the copyright on them has expired

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is non-profit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools that allows anyone to use things that are in creative commons.

What is insurance?

Insurance is an arrangement by which a company or the state undertakes to provide a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage, illness, or death in return for payment of a specified premium. Insurance is very important to put on everything that you will be using in your film such as your equipment and the actors in your film. It is very important that you get insurance on everything that you will need to make your film because if something breaks for example your camera ,which is very important to make your film, then if you have insurance on it then you can get some insurance money for the damage of your camera and you can use the money to get a new one so that you can continue to make your film. But if you didn't have insurance on the camera then you would have to put the film on hold until you get enough money to get a new camera so that you can continue to make your film. So it is very important to get insurance for everything that you need when you are going to make a film.