Development

 In-camera editing (km)

This is a film making and video production technique of shooting shots in the exact sequence that they will be seen on the cinema screen or a television programme. This means you have to plan in advance what shots will tell the desired story and then shooting shots only in that order.

 Following the action (km)

The technique following the action is where the camera follows in event that is taking place. Instead of the camera staying at one angle the camera follows the action around to show you more of the action.

 Multiple points of view (km)

Multiple points of view is where you get each character showing there point of view. This is where the character will show what he/she is doing then will switch to another character.

 Shot variation (sh)

Using different shots within a scene makes it more interesting for the audience. With different shots you can see the characters, environments or events from different angles.

 Manipulation of diegetic time and space (km)

Manipulation of diegetic time and space in where a person the environment or an object is changing over a period of time, this could make it appear older or younger.

In this video you see the two main characters go back in time, around them you see everyone moving and changing while the two charaters stay the same. 

Film (sh)

Film over many years has gone from simple moving images to animation and visual effects. In early films there were no sound a side from the music played by live musicians. The picture was in black and white, and lasted not as long as the films today. In the 1860s there were mechanisms that were invented called a zoetrope, a mutoscope and a praxinoscope. These mechanisms made still images look as if they were moving when placed in a certain way.

In 1880 the first motion picture camera that could capture images and store them in a single reel. In the early 1900's cinema became very popular, but was put on hold due to the first world war. In the 1920 new technology was introduced making film makers be able to put sound or music in their films. They were called talking pictures. Around 1960s 'natural colour' films were slowly introduced.
Films today are coloured and digital technology has changed the film industry dramatically. 3D has been introduced in the last few years making cinema more enjoyable.

Video (sh)

A video is a captured image sequence representing motion. Video can hold information such as frame rate, apspect ratio and sound. In 1951 the first video tape recorded the first piece of footage.

Analogue (km)

Analogue in film is when its exposed to light, plastic-based film creates an "analog" of the actual scene. Analogue is film that stored of a video.

Digital (sh)

Digital is the process in which an image is captured as digital image. Digital is a higher quality than analogue and can be edited on a computer.

Purposes

Story Telling Within a Film (sh)

A story is essential to a film to make the film flow and keep the audience interested. Like in story books, films have a beginning, middle and end. A story can be told in various different ways, such as through a narrator. Cut scenes can be used to tell the audience about the characters or even show time has passed in the story. Throughout the film the story would tell the audience about the different events, characters and actions, that revolve around the main characters and how it effects them.

Narrators in a film talk to the audience to give them information about the events in the film.

Development of drama (sh)

The development of drama within a film is essential to make it dramatic and interesting for the viewer. A drama usually happens in the middle of the film. An event happens to a character(s) that changes the story completely and can shock the audience. Some drama stories touch upon subjects that would not usually be considered when making a film. Drama within film can effect the audience also; bringing shock, laughter or even tears.


Relationship to genre (sh)

Genre means the type of film; from horror to romantic. The genre reflects the characters, the music, the types and length of shots. In horror the characters tend to be a range of different people. The music is usually eerie and slow. The shots range from close ups to make the audience feel claustrophobic to point of view shots to make the audience feel like they are in the character's shoes.

Creating motivation (km)

To create motivation in a film you have to make the continuity look smooth, and that each shot doesn't look jerked and that the position is the same place each time. You have to keep the audience motivated and interested in the film you have made, if the editing is jerky and not smooth the audience will notice this and wont be as interested if the editing is not good.


Combining shots into sequences (km)


Combining shots into sequences is where you put together all the shots you have filmed and edit them in to make them flow. Once all the shots have been edited they can all be placed together in the sequence in a successful edit, this means the sequence will look good and the edit will look invisible so the audience can only see one long unedited sequence.



Creating pace (sh)

Pace within the a film is very important to keep the audience interested. A slow pace may throw off some viewers, but in some cases a slow pace will help the audience keep up with the story line. The pace also depends on the genre. In some films the pace of the film is really fast, this occurs in action and adventure films. Some films start very slow to introduce a character, but as the story goes on the pace will get faster as events in the film happen.

Histroy of Editing

Lumier Brothers(sh)



The Lumiere Brothers invented the first photographic equipment, they also made the first ever motion picture camera, in France. Their equipment consisted of photographing and it project 16 frames per second. Their first public screening was in 1895. Each film strip was 17 meters long. In the film above the Lumiere Brothers filmed simple long shots and the cuts are very simple.

Edwin Porter (sh)

Edwin Porter was one of the first American Film pioneers in the early 90s. He introduced cross cutting and narrative to his films. His Most famous film are The Great Train Robbery and The Life of an American Fireman. All techniques Edwin has used, are used today. He tended to take ideas from other people and adapted upon them.




DW Griffith (Birth of a Nation) (km)

D.W Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He was born January 22, 1875 and died July 23, 1948. He is well known for directing the film The Birth of a Nation in 1915, and the subsequent film Intolerance 1916.  Griffith’s film ‘The Birth of a Nation’ made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of early cinema for his command of film techniques and expressive skills.

Flashbacks (sh)

Flashbacks are parts of a story similar to cutaways in which a character remembers an event on screen, whereas cutaways are often off screen.


Parallel action (sh)

This is where the character does something and the different shots show it simultaniously. This gives the effect that the shots are taken at the same time.


Alfred Hitchcock (sh)

Alfred Hitchcock was born 13th August 1899 and died 29th April 1980. Hitchcock introduced editing that built suspence and enjoyed working an the genre of thriller. In his films he made the camera move in a way that mimics a person's gaze. Many of his films featured; crime, violence and murder. He created 50 feature films in his career. He made shots designed to scare the audience at the time. The film below is one of Hitchcock's best films, The 39 Steps.






Used editing to build up suspense (km)

Using editing to build up suspense in a film is where you make the editing seamless and make the shots simultaneously appear one after another. This builds suspense because the shots get shorter and faster making the audience wonder whats going to happen.



Eisenstein (sh)

Sergei Eisenstein was born 23rd January 1898 in Russia and died 11th February 1948. He was a film pioneer who directed film and had many theories about film. Sergei first worked in theatre and then went on to working in cinema. He travelled through Europe, Mexico and America collaborating and making films. He concentrated on camera angles and montages within his films.

Jean Luc Gordard

Jean Luc Gordard was born in France 3^rd December 1930. Jean is a film critic, director, actor, screenwriter, editor and producer. In Gordard’s films he used jump cuts and character asides, these techniques were somewhat new to the film industry. In his films he was very political and tried to keep with new cultures. His ideas were to redefine film and change people’s views about making films.  Breathless (1960) was one of Jean’s first feature films and it attracted a lot of attention in that year.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was born August 6th 1928 - February 22nd 1987. He was an American artist who was a leading figure in the Visual Art Movement also known as Pop Art. After a successful career as a commerical illustrator, he became a renowned controversial artist.

Conventions and Techniques

Seamless Editing (km)

Seamless editing is where you dont see the editing and you dont get distracted to much by the editing. This makes the film flow smoothly.

Continuity Editing (km)



The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots. This is so the film sequences seem to flow, uninterrupted, from shot to shot, so that it makes the scenes look more naturel. 180o Rule (km)

The 180o rule is where you have a invisible line while filming and you cant cross it, this is so that the characters don't switch places in the film and distract the viewer.

For example in this photo the camera has to stay on the green line. So in this shot the blonde haired guy is on the left and the brown haired guy is on the right, but if the camera man breaks this rule and goes over the imaginary line the characters will switch places, so the brown haired guy is on the left and the blonde hair guy is to the right. This just makes the shot more confusing because the characters keep switching places.The green line is where the camera man can film and the red line is where he cant film.


Montage (km)

Montage editing is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space,time and information. It is usually used to suggest the passage of time. The video bellow shows clips from various films within a montage, this is not a good example but it shows how a montage works well.




Parallel editing (km)

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.
For example if there was a car crash you would see both peoples point of view heading up towards the crash, this will also build suspense because you don't know whats going to happen.




Splicing

Splicing is where editors cut and stick different shots and scenes together when they are using a film reel. This is so the film flows in chronalogical  order. This method means that the film would lack advanced transitions and there would only be simple cuts. 

Cut Aways (sh)

Cut Aways within films are used to show what a character has done previously or what plans to do in the future. It can also be used when a character reminisces about things that have previously not be been shown in the film.

Point of view shot (POV) (sh)

A point of view shot is where the camera takes the place of a character and makes it look as if it is looking through his' or her's eyes. This means that the character is in third person. In some situations the audience is able to see the character blinking. This would be created be a wipe transition. The point of view shot also can be used when the film wants the audience to believe that they are watching it through a camera. Examples of this are CloverFeild, REC and Chronicle.

Shot-Reverse-Shot (sh)

This shot means that when there is a shot on a character that's talking, the person who the character is talking to is normal off screen. When performing this shot the camera person would have consider the 180o rule. This is so when the shot changes to the other person talking.

Providing and withholding information(sh)

Withholding information within films bring mystery and suspense. Some films leak different information which help the audience piece together what is happening, such as investigatory films and police films. Some films black out the image of a character so that the characters and audience don't know who it is. In some case's the audience know more than the character, sometimes giving the audience the feeling of invevitablity.

Editing rhythm   (sh)

The rhythm of the film depends on the genre. Action and adventure scenes have a fast rhythm in parts, meaning fast narrative and even faster shots/scenes. Change in pace of a film makes it more interesting as shots could be slowed down or sped up depending on what is depicted on the screen.


Crosscutting (sh)

Crosscutting is used in editing of a film to show what is happening in a different place, generally at the same time. The cut goes from one shot to the other showing what the the character has done over time or what two or more characters are doing at the same time.



Cutting to soundtrack (sh)

There are various uses to cutting soundtracks within films. Music in films change depending on the character, the environment and situation. Soundtracks are cut completley to bring tension to the film. Music becomes faster when there is an action scene whereas it becomes slower when there is a tradgedy or something ominous happens. Some soundtracks reflect characters moods wich in turn effects the audiences mood. In some cases it is quicker the soundtrack the quicker the shots.

Transitions

(sh)

Transitions are where two scenes combine using editing. There are various transitions, such as dissolving and fading. The transitions are usually used to show that time has passed, the scene is set in a different place or a character is in a dream state.

Cuts

A cut is a transition where there is not much editing involved, it is just a simple change in shot. This often just means a shot change. A staight cut is where the shot is very short and the transisitions are very quick. This would be used to show suspence and peoples reactions. Form Cuts are cuts are similar to normal cuts but the object in each shot are very similar shape.

Jump Cuts

Jump Cuts are usually a continuty error that occur when a shot changes, as does the characters position, this is not intentional. In some cases in films, jump cuts are used to create dramatic effects. In the video bellow the characters movement creates a jump cut. In some of these clips there are combinations of jump cuts and form cuts to keep the film flowing.




Fades In/ Out

Fades are usually used at the begining of a film or at the end. On most ocasions the scenes fades to black, but sometimes it fades into the next scene. The second of the two is much quicker out of the two.

Dissolve

Dissolving is used when a narrator or character tells a story or remmbers something from an earlier scene. It can also be used to show that the character is in some kind of a dream state and the transition shows what the character is thinking about. The transition usually just dissolves to the next scene/ shot.

Wipe

A wipe is a transition in which the new scene comes onto the screen from any direction, covering the last scene. Sometimes the new scene pushes the old scene out of the scene. In the video bellow there are various of examples of a wipe transition within Star Wars III. These wipes were used to show the next scene, that may be set in a different place or time.




In this video bellow, this man discusses the various transition and why they are used.

Introduction

For this assignment, we will be working in pairs to research the principles of editing and how it effects the film. This means we will be covering the different types of development, purposes and the conventions and techniques.