Development in Editing Technology

"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." [1] As the technology progressed, editing became more common and film makers wanted to be able to cut together different shots, simply by taking the film reel and cutting up each shot and splicing them back together in order to make a continuous piece of cinema. [2] Antoine Lumière was an artist who became a photographer and his son would experiment with it. He discovered that if you put lots of pictures side by side at a fast pace it would then appear to have moving objects similar to a zoetrope. This fits perfectly with the continuity of editing and how things are in oder and replicate real life. However, a film can't be days long which is why jump cuts take place in doer to skip time that the audience doesn't need to see. 

George Melies had a similar idea but rather than to skip jump cuts he wanted his theatre performances to appear as though they include magic. What he would do is that he would cut out the footage that would include where things would need to be taken out. For example how he edited using cuts for someone to be holding a treble clef then the he would throw it up into the air, the next shot, the clef would on the wall behind them but what the audience wouldn't see is that the background would change from one where the wall would have the clef painted on and the other one would [3]. He would include an orchestra to play against his work as the videos would have no sound. 

[4] The Soviet Montage was an invention so that a wide range of footage would be able to fit into a narrative, more commonly shown with music, but at the same time; have the ability to show lots of shots that an audience might want to see. These are commonly found with music videos or used to skip time but rather than a jump cut it would show the process of how something is made or to get a character ready for an event. Examples of this would be Rocky, most tutorials that would also include sped up footage and videos without a pronounced narrative. 

Film makers then started to wonder about the position of the camera and how that could effect the audience. Using multiple cameras, [5] D. W Griffith would use this technique to adapt on continuity. For example one camera would be positioned outside of a room, someone would start to open the door and the next shot would be on the other side of the door as it continues to open but now of course the scene is set inside the room and the audience is not confused as to how they got there. Rather than the camera staying in one place, just like it did for George Melies films, they would feature different shots to manipulate the audience and to give them a better understanding of the surroundings. This would also use on-location filming rather than just filming on a 2d set/theatre. These shots range from close up to establishing shots and these are used to allow the audience to get a better look at somethings. A close up on a persons face would be used to show their emotions and an establishing shot would be used, for example, at the start of a scene to show the audience where they are. Even more so outside so that they can see the background and setting of the foreseeable scene. 

Much later until about the 1960's is when film makers would get a little bit bored of the formula of making a film. They wanted to break the rules and ventured into doing things like seeing the camera on reflective surfaces, or a hair on the lens, or the sound quality to be bad. However this would all be done on purpose. Films such as Heat by Paul Morriesy and Andy Warhol would fit easily into this category. 

From then on editing technology changed from film to digital and software would be used to edit videos rather than cutting film in the right place to add a cut to the finished product. This is when you could do more with multiple cameras and their footage in order to create music videos and more recently promotional videos i.e. commercials or adverts for the TV. I personally use Apple's software to edit footage which is Final Cut Pro X. Other brands such as Adobe would use software called Premier Pro. Granting endless possibilities for film making. 

Bibliography

1. https://prezi.com/oz0xeipwl9hu/development-and-techniques-of-film-and-video-editing/
2. http://www.history.com/news/the-lumiere-brothers-pioneers-of-cinema
3. https://youtu.be/Paneo9Urjc4
4. https://youtu.be/JYedfenQ_Mw
5. https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%20W.%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%20W%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D%2E%20W%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22D.%20W.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22D.%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22D%2E%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22D.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22D.%20W.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22D.%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22D%2E%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22D%2E%20W.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%20W.%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%20W%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D%2E%20W%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D%2E%20W.%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22D.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%22%20OR%20title%3A%22D.%20W.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20title%3A%22D.%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20title%3A%22D%2E%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20title%3A%22D.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20description%3A%22D.%20W.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20description%3A%22D.%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20description%3A%22D%2E%20W%2E%20Griffith%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%20W.%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%20W%2E%22%20OR%20description%3A%22D.%20Griffith%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Griffith%2C%20D.%22%29%20OR%20%28%221875-1948%22%20AND%20Griffith%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29