TASK 1
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRINCIPALS OF EDITING
A History of Editing
Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean Lumière were born in 1862 and 1864 respectively. The two are considered the earliest filmmakers. The Lumière Brothers were the sons of a famous Lyons based painter Antoine Lumiere. Both brothers excelled in scientific subjects and were subsequently sent to technical school.
Antoine abandoned set up a business supplying and manufacturing photographic equipment. Both brothers began helping him. Auguste was a manager and Louis started to experiment with the photographic equipment being manufactured. Louis, through experimentation, discovered the process that assisted the development of photography. In 1981, at the age of 17, Louis developed the 'Dry Plate' process, which then became known as the 'Etiquette Bleue' process. These new plates improved the plates preceding it, created by Dr. Richard L. Maddox ten years before. The new plates eliminated the process of having the plates being stored in a darkroom before and after they were exposed; making the photographic dry plates gelatinous did this. A factory was soon built to manufacture the plates.
By 1984, the Lumières were producing roughly 15,000,000 plates a year. Now a successful businessman, Antoine was invited to a demonstration of Edison's Peephole Kinetoscope in Paris. Antoine returned and gave Louis a piece of Kinetoscope film. His father was given the piece of film by one of Edison's concessionaires who told him what to make because Edison was selling the equipment at a high price.
In the winter of 1894, Auguste began making the first experiments. They aimed to overcome the limitations and problems of the Kinetoscope. The two significant problems with the device, was firstly, the camera was a large bulky piece of machinery that resigned it to the studio. The second problem was that the Kinetoscope only allowed one person to view the footage at a time.
By early 1895 the brothers had invented their own device combining the camera with the projector and printer. This was called the cinématographe. The cinématographe was smaller and lighter than Edison’s Kinetograph and it was also hand cranked. The Lumières filmed at a speed of 16fps (frames per second), which was considerably slower than Edison’s, which filmed at a speed of 48fps. However, the slower speed meant that less film was used and the clatter and grinding that had been associated with Eidsons camera was reduced. The first footage to be recorded was on March 19th 1895 and it was that of a group of workers leaving the Lumiere factory. This would later become known as ‘La Sortie de l’Usine Lumiere á Lyon’ which translates to ‘The exit from the Lumiere Factory in Lyon’. The footage was 46 seconds long and became known as the first motion picture to ever be made.
On December 28th 1895 at the Salon Indien du Grand Café, the first public screening of the films were shown. The presentation featured ten short films including their first ever recording. The brothers went on tour with the cinématographe in 1986 and visited Bombay, London, New York, Montreal and Buenos Aries. The tour and short films had an immediate effect and in early 1896; the first cinemas began to open, showing the brothers short films, in London, Brussels, Belgium and New York.
Another pioneer in the film industry was Iwan Serrurier. He was responsible for the creation of the Moviola device, which became essential to the editing process. Originally, the device was invented to be a home video projector. But due to the $600 cost, which was high in 1920, not many were sold. It wasn’t until an editor at ‘Douglas Fairbanks Studios’ suggested he sell his device to film editors. It was in 1924 that Moviola became a device for film editing and the first device was sold to Douglas Fairbank himself.
Warner Brothers and Universal were just a few of the studios to use the Moviola and the high demand for editing devices that were portable during World War 2, expanded the market for the device. The Moviola, despite the various inventions of modern technology, is still used today. Editor Michael Kahn used the device to edit the 2005 Steven Spielberg movie ‘Munich’, winning him the Academy Award for Best Editing.
In 1899, Edwin Stanton Porter became the first filmmaker to experiment with editing, when he was hired by Edison and made the head of his New York Studio. Edwin experiment with editing footage before making ‘Life of an American Fireman’ in 1903. The film was revolutionary in terms of it having a plot, action and featured flowing narrative over 7 scenes rendered in 9 shots. This was the first time that audiences had seen a motion picture that cut between scenes and had a structured plot. Porter further amazed audiences with his 1903 film ‘The Great Train Robbery’. The film featured the first use of visual effects that included, double exposures, split screen and miniatures, making it a milestone in filmmaking.
What is Editing?
Film Editing is a post-production process that involves cutting together scenes, shots and footage together to make sequences that will become the final film. Before computers were used to digitally edit film footage, films were originally cut together by physically cutting the film using a splicer and then threading the film on a machine called a Moviola. The Moviola device is a tool that allowed the editor to view each individual shot, making the cuts more precise. The problem with the original method of editing was that the original footage was destructive which would be destroyed during the editing process. Computers and digital software has allowed for footage to be cut and edited without destroying the original film allowing the editor to experiment with scenes and shots.
During the Post-Production process, there are stages editing goes through. The first stage is the Editors Cut. This cut is the first cut produced and the first overall look of the film before it reaches picture lock. The director and editor meet and either view or discuss ‘Dailies’ (Dailies is the raw footage shot that day). This meeting will give the person editing an overall and idea of what the directors envisions about the sequence or scene. This cut of the film maybe longer, shorter or contains scenes that won’t appear in the final motion picture. Editing can last several months to a year, depending on what type of film it is. The 2011 film ‘Red State’ was presented at the cast wrap party because director and Editor Kevin Smith cut it together on the same day of shooting, whereas ‘Apocalypse Now’ took two years to edit because of numerous delays in post-production.
From here, the film is sent to the MPAA or the BBFC, for rating approval. Either will view the film and decide whether the contents shown in the film is suitable for the films desired ratings. If the film contains scenes that were inappropriate for the age rating requested, then it will be sent back for editing of that footage. Hitchcock had a famous argument, as the MPAA wanted Hitchcock to cut out a scene of the main character flushing a toilet in ‘Psycho’. He had to explain how it was important to the story before it was finally allowed to be shown. It was controversial because it was the first time a flushing toilet had been shown on screen. Once the MPAA or BBFC has approved the film, it is then released.
There are many types of editing and they have evolved over the decades. The early motion pictures were simply ‘one shots’. The camera would remain in a single location and would capture activity going on in front of it. For example, in the Lumière Brothers first feature, the camera remains still and the 46 seconds of footage shows the workers leaving the factory.
Another form of editing is the in-camera cut. This type of edit requires extensive planning and a strict shooting order because the single take is the final take. Therefore, when the film is developed, the edit is already complete because this type of cut occurs in the film itself. Early examples of this editing process are Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’. The 100-minute film was filmed in roughly 10-minute segments and each time a cut was needed, the camera was obstructed or the camera focused on a particular object to hide the cut, giving the illusion the movie occurs in real time. Recently, the Spanish horror film ‘La Casa Muda’ and its remake ‘Silent House’ use this style of editing to give the illusion of real time but the same editing technique was used as in ‘Rope’.
Since the start of film making, technology has developed and advanced greatly. In 1900, when the amount filmmakers grew significantly, the demand for higher quality film stock also grew. It was because of Eastman’s and Luminere’s cameras that 35mm film became to most common and popularly used film stock in the industry. From 1889, film stocks were nitrate based. The problem faced with nitrate based film was that it was incredibly flammable and in 1927 at a cinema in Montreal, the projection booth overheated and caught fire, resulting in the death of 77 children; it was not until 1952 when Kodak created the acetate film base known as safe film that nitrate stopped being used. Acetate film is safer than nitrate as it is not flammable. The problem with acetate film however, was that it melted instead of caught fire. Under the extensive heat, the chemicals used to coat the films base would release acetic acid that smelt like vinegar. The most recent film base to be used is polyester. It was originally used in specialized photography but then in the 90’s it became popular in filmmaking. The polyester film is preferred because of its stability and strength. The strength of the polyester however is sometimes seen as a negative because it is resistant to breaking it was more likely to break the filming equipment if jamming occurred. Also, this type of film does not deteriorate over time.
After shooting on film but before using digital technology to make motion pictures, ‘Video’ was used for a short time. The video format was first developed for the CRT (cathode ray tube) television system. The first live images captured from TV cameras were in 1951. The recorder converted the electrical impulses and then saved them on magnetic videotape. Since the invention of DVD and Blu Ray in 1997 and 2006 respectively, videotape and video recording equipment sales fell which led to the production of VHS tapes to stop being stocked in shops, so that DVD’s and Blu Rays could be focused on.
The industry began moving from shooting on film to shooting digitally. Nearly all-mainstream movies are shot entirely on digital or at least a large portion is shot on digital. It was in the 80’s when Sony began the concept of electronic cinematography but it was met with little success. However, in 1998 ‘The Last Broadcast’ was released which is largely considered to be the first digital film. Then George Lucas blended both film and digital with ‘Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace’. The footage blended well and Lucas announced he would shoot the sequels entirely on digital.
Digital technology also helped advance the way in which worlds were created within the film. Two notable films took advantage of digital technology to help create backgrounds and sets entirely out of computer generated imagery (CGI). ‘Sky captain and the World of Tomorrow’ was the earliest film to have the actors be the only physical element within the film. Sets, locations and many props were created using CGI; this helped the film be shot only in 29 days instead of roughly a year (for this film specifically). ‘Sin City’ was another famous movie for doing this. ‘Sin City’ used the CGI to translate the visual style of Frank Millers comic series to the screen. Filming everything against green screen also allowed for more elaborate travelling shots to be done (most notable is at the start after Marley Shelton has been killed and the camera zooms out and spirals into the air, revealing the city rooftops creating the ‘Sin City’ title).
Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quinton Tarantino are famously known for criticising digital film, through nostalgia but also technical issues. Tarantino famously said that he might retire because he wouldn’t be able to have his 35mm films projected in cinemas. The issues digital film faces are technical glitches, electrical noise, possibility of a ‘Blow-out’ (losing detail in bright parts of the film image) and the possibility of the footage being lost or damaged when transferring it onto a hard drive or computer. But digital footage can be transferred onto film, as it is safer to store on film and archived. The film can then be recovered in the future, provided that the original negative isn’t damaged.
More recently, the industry has embraced 3D technology. Since James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ commercialised the 3D technology and demonstrated what the technology could do if used in a way of telling the story and not as a gimmick or marketing ploy. Many films since then shot their films in 3D, ‘Resident Evil 4’, ‘Final Destination 5’ and ‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’ are examples of films that have used 3D in their films but also how they have helped bring an element of originality to the series. However, many films convert their films to 3D in post-production in order to capitalise on the technology and earn more money because of the increased ticket price. Films like ‘The Avengers’, ‘Prometheus’ and ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ were converted to 3D (the latter eventually being scrapped and released normally). The conversion to 3D has been criticised by critics and moviegoers as it doesn’t add anything to the film and that the film would have benefited more from shooting it in 3D and not converting it.
Technology will continue to advance and change the filmmaking industry for centuries, creating ideas, worlds and narratives that were previously not though off of thought to be unfilm able because the technology was not advance enough at the time.
Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean Lumière were born in 1862 and 1864 respectively. The two are considered the earliest filmmakers. The Lumière Brothers were the sons of a famous Lyons based painter Antoine Lumiere. Both brothers excelled in scientific subjects and were subsequently sent to technical school.
Antoine abandoned set up a business supplying and manufacturing photographic equipment. Both brothers began helping him. Auguste was a manager and Louis started to experiment with the photographic equipment being manufactured. Louis, through experimentation, discovered the process that assisted the development of photography. In 1981, at the age of 17, Louis developed the 'Dry Plate' process, which then became known as the 'Etiquette Bleue' process. These new plates improved the plates preceding it, created by Dr. Richard L. Maddox ten years before. The new plates eliminated the process of having the plates being stored in a darkroom before and after they were exposed; making the photographic dry plates gelatinous did this. A factory was soon built to manufacture the plates.
By 1984, the Lumières were producing roughly 15,000,000 plates a year. Now a successful businessman, Antoine was invited to a demonstration of Edison's Peephole Kinetoscope in Paris. Antoine returned and gave Louis a piece of Kinetoscope film. His father was given the piece of film by one of Edison's concessionaires who told him what to make because Edison was selling the equipment at a high price.
In the winter of 1894, Auguste began making the first experiments. They aimed to overcome the limitations and problems of the Kinetoscope. The two significant problems with the device, was firstly, the camera was a large bulky piece of machinery that resigned it to the studio. The second problem was that the Kinetoscope only allowed one person to view the footage at a time.
By early 1895 the brothers had invented their own device combining the camera with the projector and printer. This was called the cinématographe. The cinématographe was smaller and lighter than Edison’s Kinetograph and it was also hand cranked. The Lumières filmed at a speed of 16fps (frames per second), which was considerably slower than Edison’s, which filmed at a speed of 48fps. However, the slower speed meant that less film was used and the clatter and grinding that had been associated with Eidsons camera was reduced. The first footage to be recorded was on March 19th 1895 and it was that of a group of workers leaving the Lumiere factory. This would later become known as ‘La Sortie de l’Usine Lumiere á Lyon’ which translates to ‘The exit from the Lumiere Factory in Lyon’. The footage was 46 seconds long and became known as the first motion picture to ever be made.
On December 28th 1895 at the Salon Indien du Grand Café, the first public screening of the films were shown. The presentation featured ten short films including their first ever recording. The brothers went on tour with the cinématographe in 1986 and visited Bombay, London, New York, Montreal and Buenos Aries. The tour and short films had an immediate effect and in early 1896; the first cinemas began to open, showing the brothers short films, in London, Brussels, Belgium and New York.
Another pioneer in the film industry was Iwan Serrurier. He was responsible for the creation of the Moviola device, which became essential to the editing process. Originally, the device was invented to be a home video projector. But due to the $600 cost, which was high in 1920, not many were sold. It wasn’t until an editor at ‘Douglas Fairbanks Studios’ suggested he sell his device to film editors. It was in 1924 that Moviola became a device for film editing and the first device was sold to Douglas Fairbank himself.
Warner Brothers and Universal were just a few of the studios to use the Moviola and the high demand for editing devices that were portable during World War 2, expanded the market for the device. The Moviola, despite the various inventions of modern technology, is still used today. Editor Michael Kahn used the device to edit the 2005 Steven Spielberg movie ‘Munich’, winning him the Academy Award for Best Editing.
In 1899, Edwin Stanton Porter became the first filmmaker to experiment with editing, when he was hired by Edison and made the head of his New York Studio. Edwin experiment with editing footage before making ‘Life of an American Fireman’ in 1903. The film was revolutionary in terms of it having a plot, action and featured flowing narrative over 7 scenes rendered in 9 shots. This was the first time that audiences had seen a motion picture that cut between scenes and had a structured plot. Porter further amazed audiences with his 1903 film ‘The Great Train Robbery’. The film featured the first use of visual effects that included, double exposures, split screen and miniatures, making it a milestone in filmmaking.
What is Editing?
Film Editing is a post-production process that involves cutting together scenes, shots and footage together to make sequences that will become the final film. Before computers were used to digitally edit film footage, films were originally cut together by physically cutting the film using a splicer and then threading the film on a machine called a Moviola. The Moviola device is a tool that allowed the editor to view each individual shot, making the cuts more precise. The problem with the original method of editing was that the original footage was destructive which would be destroyed during the editing process. Computers and digital software has allowed for footage to be cut and edited without destroying the original film allowing the editor to experiment with scenes and shots.
During the Post-Production process, there are stages editing goes through. The first stage is the Editors Cut. This cut is the first cut produced and the first overall look of the film before it reaches picture lock. The director and editor meet and either view or discuss ‘Dailies’ (Dailies is the raw footage shot that day). This meeting will give the person editing an overall and idea of what the directors envisions about the sequence or scene. This cut of the film maybe longer, shorter or contains scenes that won’t appear in the final motion picture. Editing can last several months to a year, depending on what type of film it is. The 2011 film ‘Red State’ was presented at the cast wrap party because director and Editor Kevin Smith cut it together on the same day of shooting, whereas ‘Apocalypse Now’ took two years to edit because of numerous delays in post-production.
From here, the film is sent to the MPAA or the BBFC, for rating approval. Either will view the film and decide whether the contents shown in the film is suitable for the films desired ratings. If the film contains scenes that were inappropriate for the age rating requested, then it will be sent back for editing of that footage. Hitchcock had a famous argument, as the MPAA wanted Hitchcock to cut out a scene of the main character flushing a toilet in ‘Psycho’. He had to explain how it was important to the story before it was finally allowed to be shown. It was controversial because it was the first time a flushing toilet had been shown on screen. Once the MPAA or BBFC has approved the film, it is then released.
There are many types of editing and they have evolved over the decades. The early motion pictures were simply ‘one shots’. The camera would remain in a single location and would capture activity going on in front of it. For example, in the Lumière Brothers first feature, the camera remains still and the 46 seconds of footage shows the workers leaving the factory.
Another form of editing is the in-camera cut. This type of edit requires extensive planning and a strict shooting order because the single take is the final take. Therefore, when the film is developed, the edit is already complete because this type of cut occurs in the film itself. Early examples of this editing process are Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’. The 100-minute film was filmed in roughly 10-minute segments and each time a cut was needed, the camera was obstructed or the camera focused on a particular object to hide the cut, giving the illusion the movie occurs in real time. Recently, the Spanish horror film ‘La Casa Muda’ and its remake ‘Silent House’ use this style of editing to give the illusion of real time but the same editing technique was used as in ‘Rope’.
Since the start of film making, technology has developed and advanced greatly. In 1900, when the amount filmmakers grew significantly, the demand for higher quality film stock also grew. It was because of Eastman’s and Luminere’s cameras that 35mm film became to most common and popularly used film stock in the industry. From 1889, film stocks were nitrate based. The problem faced with nitrate based film was that it was incredibly flammable and in 1927 at a cinema in Montreal, the projection booth overheated and caught fire, resulting in the death of 77 children; it was not until 1952 when Kodak created the acetate film base known as safe film that nitrate stopped being used. Acetate film is safer than nitrate as it is not flammable. The problem with acetate film however, was that it melted instead of caught fire. Under the extensive heat, the chemicals used to coat the films base would release acetic acid that smelt like vinegar. The most recent film base to be used is polyester. It was originally used in specialized photography but then in the 90’s it became popular in filmmaking. The polyester film is preferred because of its stability and strength. The strength of the polyester however is sometimes seen as a negative because it is resistant to breaking it was more likely to break the filming equipment if jamming occurred. Also, this type of film does not deteriorate over time.
After shooting on film but before using digital technology to make motion pictures, ‘Video’ was used for a short time. The video format was first developed for the CRT (cathode ray tube) television system. The first live images captured from TV cameras were in 1951. The recorder converted the electrical impulses and then saved them on magnetic videotape. Since the invention of DVD and Blu Ray in 1997 and 2006 respectively, videotape and video recording equipment sales fell which led to the production of VHS tapes to stop being stocked in shops, so that DVD’s and Blu Rays could be focused on.
The industry began moving from shooting on film to shooting digitally. Nearly all-mainstream movies are shot entirely on digital or at least a large portion is shot on digital. It was in the 80’s when Sony began the concept of electronic cinematography but it was met with little success. However, in 1998 ‘The Last Broadcast’ was released which is largely considered to be the first digital film. Then George Lucas blended both film and digital with ‘Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace’. The footage blended well and Lucas announced he would shoot the sequels entirely on digital.
Digital technology also helped advance the way in which worlds were created within the film. Two notable films took advantage of digital technology to help create backgrounds and sets entirely out of computer generated imagery (CGI). ‘Sky captain and the World of Tomorrow’ was the earliest film to have the actors be the only physical element within the film. Sets, locations and many props were created using CGI; this helped the film be shot only in 29 days instead of roughly a year (for this film specifically). ‘Sin City’ was another famous movie for doing this. ‘Sin City’ used the CGI to translate the visual style of Frank Millers comic series to the screen. Filming everything against green screen also allowed for more elaborate travelling shots to be done (most notable is at the start after Marley Shelton has been killed and the camera zooms out and spirals into the air, revealing the city rooftops creating the ‘Sin City’ title).
Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quinton Tarantino are famously known for criticising digital film, through nostalgia but also technical issues. Tarantino famously said that he might retire because he wouldn’t be able to have his 35mm films projected in cinemas. The issues digital film faces are technical glitches, electrical noise, possibility of a ‘Blow-out’ (losing detail in bright parts of the film image) and the possibility of the footage being lost or damaged when transferring it onto a hard drive or computer. But digital footage can be transferred onto film, as it is safer to store on film and archived. The film can then be recovered in the future, provided that the original negative isn’t damaged.
More recently, the industry has embraced 3D technology. Since James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ commercialised the 3D technology and demonstrated what the technology could do if used in a way of telling the story and not as a gimmick or marketing ploy. Many films since then shot their films in 3D, ‘Resident Evil 4’, ‘Final Destination 5’ and ‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’ are examples of films that have used 3D in their films but also how they have helped bring an element of originality to the series. However, many films convert their films to 3D in post-production in order to capitalise on the technology and earn more money because of the increased ticket price. Films like ‘The Avengers’, ‘Prometheus’ and ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ were converted to 3D (the latter eventually being scrapped and released normally). The conversion to 3D has been criticised by critics and moviegoers as it doesn’t add anything to the film and that the film would have benefited more from shooting it in 3D and not converting it.
Technology will continue to advance and change the filmmaking industry for centuries, creating ideas, worlds and narratives that were previously not though off of thought to be unfilm able because the technology was not advance enough at the time.
TASK 3, CONTINUITY
Continuity is a consistency of people, plot and places seen by the audience over a period of time. Continuity editing is used to show a smooth series of events and sequences that creates a logical timeline for the audience. In film making continuity is sometimes difficult to keep because of the non-linear shooting schedule; scenes being shot and completed sometimes months apart in some cases. A script supervisor is always on set and it is their job to keep continuity consistent throughout the movie. The supervisor will keep a catalogue of images, documents and compile further notes and details from their memory, which may have been overlooked, to keep continuity.
This is Ana Maria Quintana. She is a script supervisor who has supervised over 50 motion pictures, famously working with Steven Spielberg. This is her working with director Cameron Crowe on the film ‘We Bought a Zoo’
When editing a movie, there are two aspects to continuity: Temporal and Spatial. Temporal continuity concerns time. For example, in a scene in which two characters are talking and one is having a drink. Continuity editing would have to ensure that the drink does not erratically jump between full, half full and empty between shots. Sometimes this occurs when shots are filmed out of sequence or if the character drinks some in one scene but it is refilled to the incorrect level between takes. An example of this is in ‘Black Swan’ when Nina and Le Roy address and audience. Nina holds a glass of champagne which changes volume between shots.
Spatial continuity on the other hand concerns space. An example of this would be the 180-Degree rule. The rule keeps the camera from crossing an invisible line between two subjects or talking characters. The footage should then show the characters in their respective places and not in each other’s places (this would happen if the subject was standing on the right but filmed on the other side of the line, making him appear on the left in the other subjects place).
Spatial continuity on the other hand concerns space. An example of this would be the 180-Degree rule. The rule keeps the camera from crossing an invisible line between two subjects or talking characters. The footage should then show the characters in their respective places and not in each other’s places (this would happen if the subject was standing on the right but filmed on the other side of the line, making him appear on the left in the other subjects place).
Stanley Kubrick has broken this rule, most notably in ‘The Shinning’ where he films a conversation in two master shots from both sides of the characters, creating a 180 degree flip across the line.
[1] http://www.theuncool.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/amqcc2.jpg
[2] http://cherrycadaver.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/300px-180_degree_rule-svg.png
[3] http://ellabrookeshire.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/6/7/13674870/4055227_orig.png
[1] http://www.theuncool.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/amqcc2.jpg
[2] http://cherrycadaver.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/300px-180_degree_rule-svg.png
[3] http://ellabrookeshire.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/6/7/13674870/4055227_orig.png
TASK 4, MONTAGE
A montage is ‘the technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole’[1]. The montage has been used in many mediums, such as photography, music and film. The movie poster for ‘The Truman Show’ is an example of a photomontage.
In filmmaking a montage is a contrast to continuity editing. A montage consists of a series of scenes cut together to make a disjointed sequence, showing events usually happening at the same time across a different time or place. An example of this is in ‘Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith’ where Palpatine has initiated Order 66. Then there follows a sequence in which the audience is show a vast number of familiar Jedi’s being murdered on different planets. This is an example of events being condensed down into a short sequence.
However, there is another approach to montage called the Soviet Montage. A Soviet Montage is concerned with showing a symbolic meaning to what is being shown, rather than showing a passage through time like a normal montage. Russian film director Sergei Eisenstien was the theorist whose theory about a montage being a series of shots being on top of each other, rather than next to one and other like a normal montage.
His 1925 silent movie ‘Battleship Potemkin’ featured the ground breaking and influential scene entitled ‘The Odessa Steps’. The scene is cited as the original montage sequence as it showed soldiers arriving on the steps, a mother a child running then the child being shot, a group of people hiding behind a structure and many people running and dying as the soldier’s massacre them. The scene showed the onslaught from different perspectives consisting almost of short stories of people caught up in the shootings. Only through montage could he have shown the different characters at the same time as the overall massacre was achieved because continuity editing would have meant the scene being considerably longer and making little sense as the scenes would start and finish at random points throughout the entire scene. This is an example of soviet montage as the shots shown all happen at the same time rather than at different times and places that are condensed into one scene.
Montages have also been adopted in television. In television, montages are used in most, if not all series. The opening credits of almost all show are examples of montages. For example, the ‘Dexter’ opening credit sequence is a montage. The minute long sequence ties together a number of shots from Dexter’s morning routine.
[1] http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/montage
[2] http://wtanaka.com/system/files/truman_show_ver1.jpg
[3] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oxec0k32N-w/TsMxh949m8I/AAAAAAAAAgE/0zGq8G180qw/s1600/order+66.png
[4] https://biogrph.wordpress.com/article/sergei-eisenstein-1x4qvbqoz9orn-184/
[5] http://cdn4.artofthetitle.com/assets/resized/sm/upload/hd/vg/uz/du/dexter_contact-0-1080-0-0.jpg?k=ce2d6767a8
[1] http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/montage
[2] http://wtanaka.com/system/files/truman_show_ver1.jpg
[3] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oxec0k32N-w/TsMxh949m8I/AAAAAAAAAgE/0zGq8G180qw/s1600/order+66.png
[4] https://biogrph.wordpress.com/article/sergei-eisenstein-1x4qvbqoz9orn-184/
[5] http://cdn4.artofthetitle.com/assets/resized/sm/upload/hd/vg/uz/du/dexter_contact-0-1080-0-0.jpg?k=ce2d6767a8
TASK 6. THE INVENTION OF SOUND/TALKIES IN FILM
Sound in Cinema
In 1927, the film ‘The Jazz Singer’ revolutionised the film industry and established Hollywood as a powerful film industry across the world. The Jazz Singer was the first feature length film which featured synchronised voices. The film used a device called the ‘Vitaphone’ which was the only device that was commercially successful. Sound was not recorded on the print directly but on phonograph records which would then be played on a turntable which was physically attached to the projector.
However, sound on film was discussed many years before The Jazz Singer was released. Thomas Edison and Eadweard Muybridge met in 1888 and discussed the idea of combining sound with film by using Muybridge’s zoopraxiscope with Edison’s sound recording technology. However the two never managed to reach an agreement; several years later Edison and Dickenson released the Kinetophone, a combination of Kinetoscope and Phonograph.
Three large issues followed putting sound into film, synchronisation, amplification and recording clarity. Synchronisation is defined as ‘to operate in unison’ [1] and in filmmaking it means to align the recorded sound with the movement on screen. It was found that aligning the sound with the film was difficult because the sound and pictures were recorded on separate devices and played back on separate devices; meaning that keeping both devices in sync was difficult. Amplifying the recorded sound was another problem. Until the invention of electrical amplification decades later, sound could not reach and fill large spaces.
And finally, the quality of the sound recorded was low and unless the actors were standing in front of the recording device directly, better quality sound was limited. These problems meant that film and sound separated for a time before synchronisation had been perfected and re-worked. Another issue that the new ‘Talkies’ proposed was that silent film stars could not find work because they could not remember lines or their voices did not translate to the screen well enough. This issue was the premise for the musical ‘Singin in the Rain’.
By the late 20’s, with the advancement of technology, two contrasting approaches to sound synchronisation came about. The first was sound on film. In 1919 inventor Lee De Forest, created the first optical sound on film technology (optical sound meaning that recorded sounds is stored on the transparent film). The second was sound on disc. Sound on disc technology meant that sound was recorded onto phonograph discs which would be placed on a turntable that was connected with a mechanical interlock to a film projector. Due to the complex mechanics and devices required to play sound on disc, sound on film was preferred and widely used amongst other reasons. Among them reason were that; no interlock device was 100% reliable, meaning that the disk could fall out of sync if not properly monitored. The phonograph discs added expense and a complication to the distribution of film.
When The Jazz Singer became a box office smash and the profits proving that sound technology was worth investing in, film studios around the world took note and began developing and importing the technology and using it in their filmmaking.
Introducing sound and speaking into films was just the beginning for the sound industry. Sound effects could then be added and used and voice actors could be re-dubbed if necessary. A process in postproduction that was advanced by sound was that of dubbing. This process involved re-recording or adding in sounds that may have become disjointed or unclear in the recording process. The process can include ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) that involves the actor re-recording a segment of audio for it to then be re-synchronised later. ‘Singin in the Rain’ used the dubbing process to dub the sound of Debbie Reynolds tap dancing during the ‘Good Morning’ dance sequence. Gene Kelley danced the scene again and the sound was recorded and then was synchronised with the movement of Debbie Reynolds dancing.
[1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Film+synchronization
In 1927, the film ‘The Jazz Singer’ revolutionised the film industry and established Hollywood as a powerful film industry across the world. The Jazz Singer was the first feature length film which featured synchronised voices. The film used a device called the ‘Vitaphone’ which was the only device that was commercially successful. Sound was not recorded on the print directly but on phonograph records which would then be played on a turntable which was physically attached to the projector.
However, sound on film was discussed many years before The Jazz Singer was released. Thomas Edison and Eadweard Muybridge met in 1888 and discussed the idea of combining sound with film by using Muybridge’s zoopraxiscope with Edison’s sound recording technology. However the two never managed to reach an agreement; several years later Edison and Dickenson released the Kinetophone, a combination of Kinetoscope and Phonograph.
Three large issues followed putting sound into film, synchronisation, amplification and recording clarity. Synchronisation is defined as ‘to operate in unison’ [1] and in filmmaking it means to align the recorded sound with the movement on screen. It was found that aligning the sound with the film was difficult because the sound and pictures were recorded on separate devices and played back on separate devices; meaning that keeping both devices in sync was difficult. Amplifying the recorded sound was another problem. Until the invention of electrical amplification decades later, sound could not reach and fill large spaces.
And finally, the quality of the sound recorded was low and unless the actors were standing in front of the recording device directly, better quality sound was limited. These problems meant that film and sound separated for a time before synchronisation had been perfected and re-worked. Another issue that the new ‘Talkies’ proposed was that silent film stars could not find work because they could not remember lines or their voices did not translate to the screen well enough. This issue was the premise for the musical ‘Singin in the Rain’.
By the late 20’s, with the advancement of technology, two contrasting approaches to sound synchronisation came about. The first was sound on film. In 1919 inventor Lee De Forest, created the first optical sound on film technology (optical sound meaning that recorded sounds is stored on the transparent film). The second was sound on disc. Sound on disc technology meant that sound was recorded onto phonograph discs which would be placed on a turntable that was connected with a mechanical interlock to a film projector. Due to the complex mechanics and devices required to play sound on disc, sound on film was preferred and widely used amongst other reasons. Among them reason were that; no interlock device was 100% reliable, meaning that the disk could fall out of sync if not properly monitored. The phonograph discs added expense and a complication to the distribution of film.
When The Jazz Singer became a box office smash and the profits proving that sound technology was worth investing in, film studios around the world took note and began developing and importing the technology and using it in their filmmaking.
Introducing sound and speaking into films was just the beginning for the sound industry. Sound effects could then be added and used and voice actors could be re-dubbed if necessary. A process in postproduction that was advanced by sound was that of dubbing. This process involved re-recording or adding in sounds that may have become disjointed or unclear in the recording process. The process can include ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) that involves the actor re-recording a segment of audio for it to then be re-synchronised later. ‘Singin in the Rain’ used the dubbing process to dub the sound of Debbie Reynolds tap dancing during the ‘Good Morning’ dance sequence. Gene Kelley danced the scene again and the sound was recorded and then was synchronised with the movement of Debbie Reynolds dancing.
[1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Film+synchronization
This scene features a character recording her singing voice for it to be used to dub another character that cannot sing in the film. This is an example of ADR.
Modern movies use the ADR process, especially in the foreign market. When a foreign film is going to be released in the UK or USA, voice actors can be employed to record the dialogue in English, which is then synchronised with the characters voice movement on screen. Japanese Anime uses this method frequently but mainstream movie have included this, such as: District 13 and The Raid.
Since its discovery and impact on motion pictures, sound is till being developed and improved today. Surround sound is a modern example of how technology is helping enhance sound in cinema. Surround sound involves placing numerous speakers around the audience, which then projects the sound in a 360-degree manor, increasing the volume, depth and base of the sound, enriching the quality and film overall.
Since its discovery and impact on motion pictures, sound is till being developed and improved today. Surround sound is a modern example of how technology is helping enhance sound in cinema. Surround sound involves placing numerous speakers around the audience, which then projects the sound in a 360-degree manor, increasing the volume, depth and base of the sound, enriching the quality and film overall.
TASK 7. HISTORY OF COLOUR IN CINEMA
The History of Colour in Film
Colour in film is an element in filmmaking that current audiences take for granted. But when colour was first being used in film, it revolutionised the industry like the addition of sound did. There is several process of film colouring that advanced and developed over the decades. The earliest form of colour was hand colouring. George Méliès had various sections of his pioneering short ‘A Trip to the Moon’ were hand painted, frame by frame, by women in Montreuil.
Another process of colour in the early 20th century was the stencil colour process. Pathé Frères introduced this type of colouring in 1905. This process, called Pathéchrome, involved sections of the film print being cut out by a pantograph, allowing for 6 colours to be added using dye-soaked rollers made out of velvet. This process was used throughout the 30’s and had 400 women working on the stencil process.
Tinting and toning were two other processes that were popular. Tinting involved the film base or emulsion being dyed which resulted in the film having a monochromatic colour. This means that the film had shades of limited colour or hues. Toning on the other hand replaced silver particles in the film with metallic salts and/or dyes. This would replace the dark shades of the image with colour. These two techniques of colouring were sometimes applied together and were used well into 40’s and the sound era.
Another technique was colour photography proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1850’s. Then, between 1900 and 1935 there were many colour systems made but only a few were successful.
Additive colour was one of the successful systems and more practical because no special colour stocks were required. Mixing light of multiple colours creates additive colour; the primary colours used in the process were red, green and blue and colour filters were used on both the cameras and projectors. The recorded images had limited recording space because cameras could not record more than two strips of film resulting in early films consisting of only two colours, usually red and green or red and blue.
The other successful system was subtractive colouring. The first true system was the Kodachrome system. A colour was crated by dying the silver parts of film, which had been bleached away. The short film, ‘concerning $1000’ used this system. However this approach to colouring as not commercially successful and that led to William van Doren Kelley to invent the Prizma. Beginning as an additive colour system, Kelley reinvented the device as a subtractive system instead. Two films were shot at the same time; one strip being sensitive to red and orange and the other a cyan colour. The film negatives were printed on duplitized film and then emulsion was toned to the complimenting colour (red or blue).
One of the largest and most adapted motion colour process was that of Technicolour. Technicolour has been celebrated because of its rich and saturated levels of colour. This process was used to produce the first full colour motion picture that was a critical success ‘The Wizard of Oz’; hailed as a Technicolour masterpiece. Technicolour was mainly used to film musicals such as ‘Singin in the Rain’ but also animations like ‘Fantasia’ and ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’. There were two different Technicolour, two-strip and three-strip Technicolour. Two-Strip Technicolour included 3 processes, the first of which used a prism beam splitter that exposed two frames of black and white negative at the same time. One frame was exposed behind a red filter and the second a green filter. However this became problematic, because a special projector was required when showing the film, the projector needed 2 different lenses for each colour to go through and then the images were aligned on screen by a technician. Because of the consistent need of a technician, only several frames from The Gulf Between exist using this process.
The Second process is virtually the same as the first process. The equipment and prism beam splitter were the same between the processes but instead of the two film negatives being aligned on screen during projection, the two different colour strips were printed onto separate negatives. Then, the strips were toned to the opposite colour present on the strip. Red on green and Green on Red. This process was successful but it faced technical problems. The image could not be focused properly at the same time, resulting in a slight blur in the projection. Also, each time the film was shown, the intense light would heat up each frame resulting in the frame to bulge slightly. Despite the frames cooling after, the bulge did not subside completely.
The third and final process for two-strip Technicolour was based on the Dye-Transfer technique. The process was the same as the previous process but instead; the red and green strips were printed onto gelatine prepared strips separately. Then, they were placed under UV lights that harden the gelatine and then the strips were soaked in the complimentary dyes, the gelatine would absorb the dye. Many films made using process 2 and 3 were lost when companies did not reclaim them during clear-outs to make room for new film prints.
Three-strip Technicolour enabled a full range of colours. This new camera shot three strips of film at the same time; a prism block beam splitter divided the passing light into two. One of the beams passed a green filter that blocks out red and blue colours. The second beam shone through a magenta coloured filter which blocks out the green colour. The former beam shone an image onto a panchromatic strip of film. The latter, shone an image onto a bipack strip of film which had two reels of film being run through the camera simultaneously. An emulsion on the film strips stopped blue light from reaching the panchromatic strip and was only recorded on the top strip of film and the bottom strip recorded red. All three films strips created a negative which was then used to print a superimposed dye, consisting of cyan, magenta and yellow, images on a single film strip. This created a full colour image when projected.
Colour became an important element in cinema and with the help of modern technology; colour in film is still being enhanced and experimented with. Using digital technology ‘Sin City’ was shown in black and white, however only certain colours would show up, enhancing the comic book style the film was imitating. Colour in film can be used to represent certain moods or carry a symbolic meaning i.e. The ‘Black Swan’ character Nina Sayers starts out in the film wearing pinks and whites, representing her childish side and as the film progresses and she becomes more unhinged, she wears greys and finally black when she becomes completely insane. These are just two examples of how colour has been improved and used in modern cinema.
Colour in film is an element in filmmaking that current audiences take for granted. But when colour was first being used in film, it revolutionised the industry like the addition of sound did. There is several process of film colouring that advanced and developed over the decades. The earliest form of colour was hand colouring. George Méliès had various sections of his pioneering short ‘A Trip to the Moon’ were hand painted, frame by frame, by women in Montreuil.
Another process of colour in the early 20th century was the stencil colour process. Pathé Frères introduced this type of colouring in 1905. This process, called Pathéchrome, involved sections of the film print being cut out by a pantograph, allowing for 6 colours to be added using dye-soaked rollers made out of velvet. This process was used throughout the 30’s and had 400 women working on the stencil process.
Tinting and toning were two other processes that were popular. Tinting involved the film base or emulsion being dyed which resulted in the film having a monochromatic colour. This means that the film had shades of limited colour or hues. Toning on the other hand replaced silver particles in the film with metallic salts and/or dyes. This would replace the dark shades of the image with colour. These two techniques of colouring were sometimes applied together and were used well into 40’s and the sound era.
Another technique was colour photography proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1850’s. Then, between 1900 and 1935 there were many colour systems made but only a few were successful.
Additive colour was one of the successful systems and more practical because no special colour stocks were required. Mixing light of multiple colours creates additive colour; the primary colours used in the process were red, green and blue and colour filters were used on both the cameras and projectors. The recorded images had limited recording space because cameras could not record more than two strips of film resulting in early films consisting of only two colours, usually red and green or red and blue.
The other successful system was subtractive colouring. The first true system was the Kodachrome system. A colour was crated by dying the silver parts of film, which had been bleached away. The short film, ‘concerning $1000’ used this system. However this approach to colouring as not commercially successful and that led to William van Doren Kelley to invent the Prizma. Beginning as an additive colour system, Kelley reinvented the device as a subtractive system instead. Two films were shot at the same time; one strip being sensitive to red and orange and the other a cyan colour. The film negatives were printed on duplitized film and then emulsion was toned to the complimenting colour (red or blue).
One of the largest and most adapted motion colour process was that of Technicolour. Technicolour has been celebrated because of its rich and saturated levels of colour. This process was used to produce the first full colour motion picture that was a critical success ‘The Wizard of Oz’; hailed as a Technicolour masterpiece. Technicolour was mainly used to film musicals such as ‘Singin in the Rain’ but also animations like ‘Fantasia’ and ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’. There were two different Technicolour, two-strip and three-strip Technicolour. Two-Strip Technicolour included 3 processes, the first of which used a prism beam splitter that exposed two frames of black and white negative at the same time. One frame was exposed behind a red filter and the second a green filter. However this became problematic, because a special projector was required when showing the film, the projector needed 2 different lenses for each colour to go through and then the images were aligned on screen by a technician. Because of the consistent need of a technician, only several frames from The Gulf Between exist using this process.
The Second process is virtually the same as the first process. The equipment and prism beam splitter were the same between the processes but instead of the two film negatives being aligned on screen during projection, the two different colour strips were printed onto separate negatives. Then, the strips were toned to the opposite colour present on the strip. Red on green and Green on Red. This process was successful but it faced technical problems. The image could not be focused properly at the same time, resulting in a slight blur in the projection. Also, each time the film was shown, the intense light would heat up each frame resulting in the frame to bulge slightly. Despite the frames cooling after, the bulge did not subside completely.
The third and final process for two-strip Technicolour was based on the Dye-Transfer technique. The process was the same as the previous process but instead; the red and green strips were printed onto gelatine prepared strips separately. Then, they were placed under UV lights that harden the gelatine and then the strips were soaked in the complimentary dyes, the gelatine would absorb the dye. Many films made using process 2 and 3 were lost when companies did not reclaim them during clear-outs to make room for new film prints.
Three-strip Technicolour enabled a full range of colours. This new camera shot three strips of film at the same time; a prism block beam splitter divided the passing light into two. One of the beams passed a green filter that blocks out red and blue colours. The second beam shone through a magenta coloured filter which blocks out the green colour. The former beam shone an image onto a panchromatic strip of film. The latter, shone an image onto a bipack strip of film which had two reels of film being run through the camera simultaneously. An emulsion on the film strips stopped blue light from reaching the panchromatic strip and was only recorded on the top strip of film and the bottom strip recorded red. All three films strips created a negative which was then used to print a superimposed dye, consisting of cyan, magenta and yellow, images on a single film strip. This created a full colour image when projected.
Colour became an important element in cinema and with the help of modern technology; colour in film is still being enhanced and experimented with. Using digital technology ‘Sin City’ was shown in black and white, however only certain colours would show up, enhancing the comic book style the film was imitating. Colour in film can be used to represent certain moods or carry a symbolic meaning i.e. The ‘Black Swan’ character Nina Sayers starts out in the film wearing pinks and whites, representing her childish side and as the film progresses and she becomes more unhinged, she wears greys and finally black when she becomes completely insane. These are just two examples of how colour has been improved and used in modern cinema.
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