2. What is Editing?
Editing are changes to a film during or after the filming of it. Editing
happens once a film has been created and is an important part of the film
industry. All films need to be edited to piece it all together otherwise it will
not look very much like a film at all.
3. Early Editing
The following names are people who were editors in film history:
The Lumiere Brothers
Edwin S. Porter
D.W. Griffiths
The following slides will give info about their careers.
4. The Lumiere Brothers
Auguste Marie Nicolas Lumiere (1862-1954) & Louis Jean Lumiere (1864-1948) were two of the earliest
filmmakers in history and were born in Beasancon, France. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumiere ran a
photographic firm and both brothers were involved in the business.
5. Edwin S. Porter
Edwin S. Porter (1870-1941) was an early film pioneer and was most famous as a director. Over 250 films were
created by Porter such as Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). Porter
was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania.
6. D.W. Griffith
D.W. Griffith (1875-1948) was a film director and was mostly remembered for directing the 1915 film The
Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolrence (1916). Griffith was born in Crestwood, Kentucky
and his father served as a colonel in the American Civil War. Griffith was the very first to use the cross
cutting technique which is to show action being filmed at the same time but in two different locations.
7. Development of continuity editing
This type of editing was developed by early American editors, one of them
being D.W. Griffith.
Continuity editing is the main style of film and video editing in the post-
production of filmmaking, narrative films and television programmes. The
purpose of this is to ‘smooth over’ the gaps of the process and to make sure
the different shots make sense and are in the correct order.
8. Montage Editing
Montage editing is a film technique which consists of short shots being
edited in the correct order
Soviet Montage Theory – This is an approach to understanding the creation
of cinema that always relies on editing. Sergei Eisenstein had said that
montage is “the nerve of cinema” and “to determine the nature of
montage is to solve the specific problem of cinema”.
Kuleshov Experiment
Sergei Eisenstein edited the film “The Battleship Potemkin” in 1925.
9. Classic Hollywood Montage Editing
Arthur Knight, a film historic and critic connected the development of the
Hollywood Montage to aspects of Eisenstein’s editing. The word “montage” is
still in use today in the created ‘montage sequences’ which were used in
Hollywood films to highlight ‘exposures’ such as the damage of a city or a
celebrity rising to fame.
10. Development of Alternative Editing
Methods
The French New Wave filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and François
Truffant and American counterparts, Andy Warhol and John Cassavetes
pushed the limits of editing techniques during the late 1950’s and
throughout the 1960’s. The French New Wave films and the non-narrative
films of the 1960’s used an easy going editing style and did not ‘obey’ to
the traditional editing style of Hollywood films.
11. Development of Sound Editing
“Dream Street” by D.W Griffith was shown in New York with the only
sounds being a singing sequence and crowd noises. This silent movie
was made in 1921.
The first film with sound editing included in it was “The Jazz Singer” in
1927.
12. Film Editing Technology
Non linear editing systems. (E.g. A moviola)
Flatbeds
Modern Editing
Digital Editing
A moviola
Flatbed scanner
