TASK 1
Media studies,
The history of film began in the late 1880’s with the invention of the first movie camera
The Lumière Brothers (Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas) were the earliest film makers in history.
The silent era: Initially there were technical difficulties with synchronizing images with sound. Edison wanted to originally create a sound film system.
The Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, France, in 1862 and 1864, and moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), ran a photographic firm and both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images.
It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera, most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The cinématographe itself was patented on 13 February 1895 and the first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on March 19, 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.
The Lumieres held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895. Their first public screening of films which admission was charged, was held on December 28 1895, at Salon Indien Du Grande Cafe in Paris. This history-making presentation featured ten short films, including their first film Sortie des usines Lumiere A Lyon (workers leaving the Lumiere Factory). Each film is 17 meters long and when hand cranked through a projecter, runs approximately 50 seconds. It was believed that their first film was actually recorded that same year (1895) with Leon Bouly´s cinematograph device, which was patented the previous year. The cinematographe – A three in one device that could record, develop and project motion pictures was further developed b the Lumiere brothers.
The public debut came at the Grande Café a few months later and consisted of the following ten short films
The Lumières went on tour with the cinématographe in 1896, visiting Bombay, London, Montreal, New York and Buenos Aires.
The impact the first few films had on people were immense as people had never seen them before.
Georges Melies
George Melies was a French illusionist and filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narratives in the early days of cinema. Georges Melies made over 512 films in his time some very famous films including “A trip to the moon” and “Gullivers travels”.
A TRIP TO THE MOON
“A Trip to the Moon (in French: Voyage dans la Lune), released in the UK initially as Trip to the Moon, is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, it follows
a group of astronomers who travel to the moon in a cannon-propelled spaceship they explore the moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return in a splashdown to Earth with a captive Selenite in tow.
The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company. Its total length is about 260 meters (roughly 845 feet) of film, which, at Méliès's preferred projection speed of 12 to 14 frames per second, is about 17 minutes. An internationally popular success at the time of its release, it is the best-known of the hundreds of films made by Méliès, and the moment in which the spaceship lands in the Moon's eye remains one of the most iconic images in the history of cinema. It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice, ranking at #84, and in 2002 it became the first work designated as a UNESCO World Heritage film.”
What is film editing?
“Editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. The term “film editing” is derived from the original process of working with film but is now more commonly used with digital technology.
The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished moving picture.
Film editing is described as an skill or art and, the only art that is exclusive to cinema, separating filmmaking from any other art forms that came before it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms like poetry or novel writing.”
Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film. With the addition of digital editing, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just that—picture.
“Sound, music, and (more recently) visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the assistant editors or even the editor to cut in music, mock up visual effects, and add sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements by the sound, music, and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture.
Film editing is an skill that can be used in diverse ways. It can create sensually provocative montages; become a laboratory for experimental cinema; bring out the emotional truth in an actor's performance; create a point of view on otherwise obtuse events; guide the telling and pace of a story; create an illusion of danger where there is none; give emphasis to things that would not have otherwise been noted; and even create a vital subconscious emotional connection to the viewer, among many other possibilities.”
EARLY EXPERIMENTS
Early films by Edison (whose company invented a motion camera and projector) and others were short films that were one long, static, locked-down shot. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse an audience, so the first films simply showed activity such as traffic moving on a city street. There was no story and no editing. Each film carried on as long as there was film in the camera.
The Great Train Robbery has scenes shot in it on sets of a telegraph station, a railroad car interior, and a dance hall, with some outdoor scenes at a railroad water tower, on the actual train itself, at a point along the track, and in the woods. But when the robbers leave the inside of the telegraph station and appear at the water tower, the audience believes they went straight from one to the other. Or that when they climb on the train in one shot and enter the baggage car in the next, the audience really believes they are on the same train.
THE HISTORY OF FILM EDITING
“Before the widespread use of non-linear editing systems editing of all films was done with a positive copy of the film negative called the workprint by actually cutting and pasting together pieces of film, using a splicer and threading the film through on a machine such as the Moviola, or “flatbed” machines such as the steenbeck or a K-E-M.
Today most films are digitally edited (on systems such as final cut pro or Avid) and bypass the positive film workprint altogether. In the past, the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do much experimenting as he or she wished, without ruining the original. When the films workprint had been cut to a satisfactory state, it was then used to make an edit decision list (EDL). The negative cutter referred to this list whilst processing the negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which were then contact printed to produce the final print or the answer print. Today companies have the option of not using negative cutting altogether. With the use of digital intermediate ("DI"), the physical negative does not necessarily need to be physically cut and hot spliced together; instead the negative is optically scanned into computer(s) and a cut list is conformed by a DI editor.”
CONTINUITY
Continuity means when a series of shots should be physically continuous, meaning as if the camera simply changed angles in the course of a single shot, for example in one shot a cigarette is half way down, in the next shot the cigarette should still be in the same place as before. A good example of a continuous shot would be a live sporting event such as football. The live operators are cutting from one live feed to another, the physical activity of the shots match very closely.
Post-production
Post-production is the part after the raw film is made, it is where the editors come in to fine tune the film and add special effects and other things to the film footage to make it special.
There are different parts involved in Post-Production such as the Editors cut and Directors cut.
Editors Cut
There are several editing stages and the editor’s cut is first. An editors cut(sometimes referred to as the “assembly cut” or the “rough cut”)is normally the first pass of what the film will be when it reaches picture lock. The film editor starts while principal photography starts. Likely, before cutting, the editor will have seen and/or discussed the raw footage shot each day.
The editing process can go on for a long period of time sometimes making the film be released years after it has been made.
Directors cut
When filming is finished, the director can then turn his full attention to working with the editor to continue the improvement of the cut of the film. This is the time that is put aside where the film editors first cut is changed to fit the director’s vision. While working together on what is referred to as the "director's cut", the director and the editor go over the entire movie with a fine-tooth comb; scenes and shots are re-ordered, removed, shortened and otherwise tweaked. A lot of the time it is discovered that there are plot holes, missing shots or even missing parts which might require that new scenes be filmed. Because of this time working closely and together – a period that is normally far longer, and far more closely involved, than the entire production and filming – most directors and editors form a unique artistic bond.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dmytryk, Edward (1984). On Film Editing: An Introduction to the Art of Film Construction. Focal Press, Boston.
Eisenstein, Sergei (2010). Towards a Theory of Montage. Tauris, London. ISBN 978-1-84885-356-0
Knight, Arthur (1957). The Liveliest Art. Mentor Books. New American Library.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing
The history of film began in the late 1880’s with the invention of the first movie camera
The Lumière Brothers (Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas) were the earliest film makers in history.
The silent era: Initially there were technical difficulties with synchronizing images with sound. Edison wanted to originally create a sound film system.
The Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, France, in 1862 and 1864, and moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), ran a photographic firm and both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images.
It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera, most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The cinématographe itself was patented on 13 February 1895 and the first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on March 19, 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.
The Lumieres held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895. Their first public screening of films which admission was charged, was held on December 28 1895, at Salon Indien Du Grande Cafe in Paris. This history-making presentation featured ten short films, including their first film Sortie des usines Lumiere A Lyon (workers leaving the Lumiere Factory). Each film is 17 meters long and when hand cranked through a projecter, runs approximately 50 seconds. It was believed that their first film was actually recorded that same year (1895) with Leon Bouly´s cinematograph device, which was patented the previous year. The cinematographe – A three in one device that could record, develop and project motion pictures was further developed b the Lumiere brothers.
The public debut came at the Grande Café a few months later and consisted of the following ten short films
The Lumières went on tour with the cinématographe in 1896, visiting Bombay, London, Montreal, New York and Buenos Aires.
The impact the first few films had on people were immense as people had never seen them before.
Georges Melies
George Melies was a French illusionist and filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narratives in the early days of cinema. Georges Melies made over 512 films in his time some very famous films including “A trip to the moon” and “Gullivers travels”.
A TRIP TO THE MOON
“A Trip to the Moon (in French: Voyage dans la Lune), released in the UK initially as Trip to the Moon, is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, it follows
a group of astronomers who travel to the moon in a cannon-propelled spaceship they explore the moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return in a splashdown to Earth with a captive Selenite in tow.
The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company. Its total length is about 260 meters (roughly 845 feet) of film, which, at Méliès's preferred projection speed of 12 to 14 frames per second, is about 17 minutes. An internationally popular success at the time of its release, it is the best-known of the hundreds of films made by Méliès, and the moment in which the spaceship lands in the Moon's eye remains one of the most iconic images in the history of cinema. It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice, ranking at #84, and in 2002 it became the first work designated as a UNESCO World Heritage film.”
What is film editing?
“Editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. The term “film editing” is derived from the original process of working with film but is now more commonly used with digital technology.
The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished moving picture.
Film editing is described as an skill or art and, the only art that is exclusive to cinema, separating filmmaking from any other art forms that came before it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms like poetry or novel writing.”
Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film. With the addition of digital editing, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just that—picture.
“Sound, music, and (more recently) visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the assistant editors or even the editor to cut in music, mock up visual effects, and add sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements by the sound, music, and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture.
Film editing is an skill that can be used in diverse ways. It can create sensually provocative montages; become a laboratory for experimental cinema; bring out the emotional truth in an actor's performance; create a point of view on otherwise obtuse events; guide the telling and pace of a story; create an illusion of danger where there is none; give emphasis to things that would not have otherwise been noted; and even create a vital subconscious emotional connection to the viewer, among many other possibilities.”
EARLY EXPERIMENTS
Early films by Edison (whose company invented a motion camera and projector) and others were short films that were one long, static, locked-down shot. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse an audience, so the first films simply showed activity such as traffic moving on a city street. There was no story and no editing. Each film carried on as long as there was film in the camera.
The Great Train Robbery has scenes shot in it on sets of a telegraph station, a railroad car interior, and a dance hall, with some outdoor scenes at a railroad water tower, on the actual train itself, at a point along the track, and in the woods. But when the robbers leave the inside of the telegraph station and appear at the water tower, the audience believes they went straight from one to the other. Or that when they climb on the train in one shot and enter the baggage car in the next, the audience really believes they are on the same train.
THE HISTORY OF FILM EDITING
“Before the widespread use of non-linear editing systems editing of all films was done with a positive copy of the film negative called the workprint by actually cutting and pasting together pieces of film, using a splicer and threading the film through on a machine such as the Moviola, or “flatbed” machines such as the steenbeck or a K-E-M.
Today most films are digitally edited (on systems such as final cut pro or Avid) and bypass the positive film workprint altogether. In the past, the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do much experimenting as he or she wished, without ruining the original. When the films workprint had been cut to a satisfactory state, it was then used to make an edit decision list (EDL). The negative cutter referred to this list whilst processing the negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which were then contact printed to produce the final print or the answer print. Today companies have the option of not using negative cutting altogether. With the use of digital intermediate ("DI"), the physical negative does not necessarily need to be physically cut and hot spliced together; instead the negative is optically scanned into computer(s) and a cut list is conformed by a DI editor.”
CONTINUITY
Continuity means when a series of shots should be physically continuous, meaning as if the camera simply changed angles in the course of a single shot, for example in one shot a cigarette is half way down, in the next shot the cigarette should still be in the same place as before. A good example of a continuous shot would be a live sporting event such as football. The live operators are cutting from one live feed to another, the physical activity of the shots match very closely.
Post-production
Post-production is the part after the raw film is made, it is where the editors come in to fine tune the film and add special effects and other things to the film footage to make it special.
There are different parts involved in Post-Production such as the Editors cut and Directors cut.
Editors Cut
There are several editing stages and the editor’s cut is first. An editors cut(sometimes referred to as the “assembly cut” or the “rough cut”)is normally the first pass of what the film will be when it reaches picture lock. The film editor starts while principal photography starts. Likely, before cutting, the editor will have seen and/or discussed the raw footage shot each day.
The editing process can go on for a long period of time sometimes making the film be released years after it has been made.
Directors cut
When filming is finished, the director can then turn his full attention to working with the editor to continue the improvement of the cut of the film. This is the time that is put aside where the film editors first cut is changed to fit the director’s vision. While working together on what is referred to as the "director's cut", the director and the editor go over the entire movie with a fine-tooth comb; scenes and shots are re-ordered, removed, shortened and otherwise tweaked. A lot of the time it is discovered that there are plot holes, missing shots or even missing parts which might require that new scenes be filmed. Because of this time working closely and together – a period that is normally far longer, and far more closely involved, than the entire production and filming – most directors and editors form a unique artistic bond.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dmytryk, Edward (1984). On Film Editing: An Introduction to the Art of Film Construction. Focal Press, Boston.
Eisenstein, Sergei (2010). Towards a Theory of Montage. Tauris, London. ISBN 978-1-84885-356-0
Knight, Arthur (1957). The Liveliest Art. Mentor Books. New American Library.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing