HNC course materials

1. HNC Unit 31: Development and Techniques of Film and Video Editing
18th Jan 2018

2. Assignment 1
Assignment 1 illustrated report on the development of film
and video editing technology and practice
• Part 2. Write a section to account and show an understanding
of the history and development of editing practices in fictional
films’.
Approx 500 words
‘Film editing is now something almost
everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it,
but to take it to a higher level requires the
same dedication and persistence that any art
form does’.
Walter Murch Editor

3. First edits
• Early films had no editing style at all and featuring a
single wide shot
• 1898 Robert W. Paul 1 min comedy Come Along Do!
Contains one of the first edits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbje9K0KsBQ

4. Multiple Exposure
• Experimentation in early film can also be found
• Scrooge or Marley’s Ghost 1901
• Features 12 scenes in wide shot
• Uses Multiple exposure
• First film to use intertitles
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILDHYYsC-g0

5. Single cuts
• Films featuring short cuts started to develop
• George Albert Smith Seen through the Telescope 1900
• First example of a cut as we move from a wide shot
• To a point of view shot
• 1 min film containing 3 shots
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC8RvcJXohk

6. Reverse Shot
• 1900 Attack on a China Mission James Williamson
• Features more than one perspective of the same action
• We see a sequence from one angle and then from
another point of view. One of the foundations of
filmmaking
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz3Fe_H9LgE

7. Close Ups
• James Williamson The Big Swallow 1901
• Character approaches the camera and appears to
swallow it
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF2wlRWaMa4

8. Edwin Porter
• Edwin Porter pioneered some early examples of
‘Continuity Editing’
• One action is repeated in each shot of filming and then
joined together across the editing
• In Life of an American Fireman 1903 we see continuity
used to connect characters across time and space
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ym7-QW_GWo

10. The Great Train Robbery
1903
• Porter went on to develop continuity editing further
• Lots of locations are used and switched between
including indoor and outdoor

11. Crosscutting & parallel
editing
• In The Great Train Robbery editing is used to make events
in different places appear as if they are happening
simultaneously
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XVOisZVB_I

12. 1898 -1903
• Early silent era can be seen as a major time for the
advancement of film editing
• First examples of combining scenes mainly in wide shot
• First examples of continuity editing
• First intercut scenes with different shots
• Reverse shots
• Different shot compositions (Close up, Medium shot, wide)

13. D.W. Griffith
• Moved film from the scene/tableaux (wide shot) style to
the shot combination structure

14. The Birth of a Nation 1915
• Established the beginning of Narrative film
• Its lengthy and multiple plot lines use editing to create
connections between events
• Combines wide shots and close ups

15. Coverage
• Griffith embraced continuity editing and formulated the
system by which film is shot and edited today

16. • Crosscutting (parallel editing) between scenes to create
relationships
• Tempo – Can influence the emotional intensity of the
scene. Quicker cutting helped to heighten drama
• Short documentary on Griffith’s editing style
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bENHBfh0lpE

17. Soviet Montage

18. Soviet Montage
• Soviet Russia in the 1920s was home to a number of film
theorists and filmmakers that established another key
area of editing
• Montage Theory: The way in which shots are edited
rather than the content of the shots alone constitutes the
force of the film
• Editing creates meaning. Shots combined together
synthesise a new meaning

19. Lev Kuleshov
• Fascinated by the editing system of DW Griffith
• Set up experimental screenings for audiences to prove
the associative powers of editing
• The Kuleshov experiment proved images juxtaposed
together created new meanings and emotions

20. Sergei Eisenstein
• Best known Soviet Montage theorist
• Developed Kuleshov’s ideas and put them into practice
• Used the rhythm and meter of editing
• Shot collision - two unrelated shots produce a new
meaning
• 1925 Battleship Potemkin About a mutiny of the crew of a
battleship against their officers
• Propaganda film
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufU8wtEPsBM
• Odessa Steps scene (Unarmed crowd runs from soldiers)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps-v-kZzfec

21. Odessa Steps
• Uses many different types
of shots and angles
• Long shots, Medium
shots and close ups
• Jump cuts
• Shots with movement

22. • Eisenstein shows close ups of the faces of the civilians as individuals
• The faces of the soldiers are not shown
• The soldiers are shown on mass rather than as individuals
• A conflict is created between the two
• Montage is also used in this sequence to stretch time as the civilians
descend the steps

23. Opposing systems
• Hollywood’s continuity editing – creates meaning
• Soviet Montage editing – creates new meanings through
colliding shots
• Both hugely influential and both are now combined
together in modern editing.

24. Sound
• Early films were silent
• Difficulties in syncing sound to picture
• Creating high quality audio
• Projecting audio back in theatres
• 1927 The Jazz Singer (First synchronised
speech)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22NQuPrwbHA
• 1928 – First all talking feature Lights of New York
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QN5aTaXPJU

25. Sound systems
Sound on Disc
• Recorded using a Vitaphone
• Recorded on Records
• Synchronised to the film on
Production
Sound on Film
• Sound recorrded onto
• photographic film
• Magnetically or optically

26. Sound
• Took a while for the sound on film method to be integrated
• Silent and sound versions of films were made initially
• Editors started to experiment with sound as a key part of the
film
• 1929 – Blackmail Alfred Hitchcock
• Knife scene from Blackmail uses creative editing with sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvlyQaJbJgs

27. Un Chien Andalou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=054OIVlmjUM

28. Alternatives to continuity
• Artists began to experiment with the new medium
• Dada & Surrealism
• Luis Bunuel, Germaine Dulac, Jean Cocteau, Rene Clair
• Experimental films which rejected mainstream conventions
including continuity
• Explored the subconscious and dreams
• Shocking content and seemingly illogical scenes
• Achieved through the juxtaposition of editing

29. Golden Age of Hollywood
• From the late 1920s
• Development of the Classical Hollywood style of film
• Routed in scripted continuity editing
• Invisibility of the edit one shot flows into the next
• Beginning – middle – end
• Linear structure
Development of Genre films
• Western, Musical, War Film, Film Noir, science fiction,
Musical, drama etc
• Stories centred around individuals or couples
• The vast majority of shots were of people and close ups

30. Editing styles
Casablanca 1942 Directed by Michael Curtiz. Editor Owen Marks
• Classic example of continuity editing and the Hollywood system
• Careful cutting and camerawork makes the edits seem invisible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_uINM_XI6I
Citizen Kane 1941 Directed by Orson Welles. Editor Robert Wise
• Rejected the invisibility of camerawork and editing
• Thoughtful cinematography so that each frame tells a story
• Use of deep focus, camera movement and unusual framings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbGbqRWwC_Q

31. Citizen Kane
• Uses Continuity editing
• Montage editing
• Non-linear storylines
• Creative transitions
• Story goes backwards and forewards in time
• Creative transitions
• Slow dissolves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFSjHBVx-xk

32. Alfred Hitchcock
• Rear Window 1954
• James Stewart plays LB Jeffries a professional
photography laid up in his apartment with a broken leg.
He watches the activities going on in the neighboring
apartments
• Great example of shot sequencing and timing as we see
the relationship between Jeffries and what he is seeing
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5pn48wzBuw

33. French New Wave
• A film movement in the 1950s and 60s
• Key directors Jean-Luc Godard & Francois Truffaut
• These films rejected narrative structure
• Explored current social issues
• Revolutionary shooting and editing style
• Fragmented, discontinuous editing
• Jump cuts and long takes

34. Breathless 1960
Example of use of Jump cuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXbmBJWnV0w

35. Continuity Editing
• Continuity editing is the standard approach to editing used in
Narrative film
• It is the process of combining related shots into a sequence so that
the viewer is able to understand the narrative across both time and
physical location

36. Psycho Dir. Alfred Hitchcock 1960, US

37. Shot/Reverse Shot
• Definition: Two shots edited together that alternate characters,
typically in a conversation situation. Usually characters in one frame
look left, and in the following frame look right

38. Establishing Shot
• Definition: A long shot or extreme long shot that shows spatial
relations between the important figures, objects and setting in a
scene

39. 180 Degree rule
How to achieve it
The angle between any two consecutive shots should not exceed the
180 degree rule, in order to maintain spatial relationships between
people and objects in any given sequence of shots

40. Crosscutting (Montage)
Definition: Editing that alternates between shots occurring
simultaneously in two or more different locations
The Godfather

41. Match on Action
Definition: A cut between two shots that places two different framings
of the same action next to each other, making it seem to continue
uninterrupted

42. Eyeline Match
Definition: A cut between two shots in which the first shot shows a
person looking off in one direction and the second shot shows either a
space containing what he or she sees, or a person looking back in
exactly the opposite direction
Example: Rear Window

43. Jump Cut
Example: Jean Luc Godard Breathless
A jump cut is a cut in film editing where two sequential shots of the
same subject are taken from slightly different positions
The edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time.
This type of edit violates the rules of continuity editing
Stanley Kubrick 2001

44. Rhythmic Editing
Example: Stan Brakhage Dog Man Star
Definition: editing describes an assembling of shots and/or sequences
according to a rhythmic pattern of some kind, usually dictated by music. It
can be narrative, or a music video type collage. In either case, dialogue is
suppressed and the musical relationship between shots takes center stage.
In experimental film rhythm can be used as a primary way in which to
construct meaning and subjective experience

45. Flickr effect
Example: Paul Sharrits TOUCHING
Definition: Clips are edited frame-by-frame to create a rhythmic and
often physical effect. Similar to a strobe the images can act subliminally
on the viewer.

46. Cut up effect
Example: William Burroughs The Cut Ups
William Burroughs unique technique perhaps relates to Soviet
Montage. The technique involves filming or writing in a form of stream
of consciousness. The resulting output is cut in half and joined together
in random pieces. A new meaning is constructed from these chance
interactions of images or words.

47. Montage Technique
Example: Sergei Eisenstein October

48. Superimposition
Example: Peter Tscherkassky Outer Space

49. No Editing!
Example: Wavelength Michael Snow

50. Split Screen
Example: Darren Aronofsky Requiem for a Dream

51. Assignment
Unit 31 Development and techniques of Video Editing
LO1: Understand the development of film and video editing technology and practice
Part 2. Write a section to account and show an understanding of the history and development of editing
practices in fictional films’.
Research and review the key developments in editing practice from the beginning of motion pictures
to digital non-linear editing
You should research, summarise and critically review the following;
Early films, first edits, Edwin Porter, D W Griffith and the development of continuity editing, Lev
Kuleshov and Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Montage, introduction of sound, Classical Hollywood and
continuity editing, alternatives to editing Surrealism/French New Wave
Consider what were the key innovations in style and technique including reference to new
technological developments
Approx 500 words
Submit next Thursday