Tuesday, 28 September 2010

Editing styles and conventions

Montage is used in most films today as a way to package time into a condensed piece of film. There are three meaning of Montage, in French film montage simply means "to edit". In Soviet film making montage is used where shots are used to make a third meaning. This style of montage is used in Oktober by Sergei Eisenstein where he has shots of machines to show that the film is about working people and the people are working like machines. Oktober example.
In the film 2001 Space Odyssey they use montage to show the monkeys evolving. This is the Hollywood meaning of montage, where they package time in a condensed form to show something that is too long to put on film.
Continuity Editing is used so the audience doesn't realise there is editing and so its not obvious. They achieve this by using the 180 rule which is where there is a imaginary line between the two actors and the camera dose not cross this line otherwise it confuses the audience.
In action sequences you use very short clips and fast cuts to keep the action going and the audience ingaged. In action sequences they cut on the action e.g if you do a wide shot of a high five it will not be very dramatic, however if you cut right befor the high five to the other hand it be more dramatic. To keep the continunity in action they have every shot moving in the same direction. 2001 Space Odessey example

The history and development of post production

The Life of an American Fireman was the first edited film, it was directed in 1903 by Edwin Porter who was the first director to inter-cut two shots together. Porter had a shot of a burning building and then a shot of a fireman to show that the fireman was on his way to the burning building. "The life of an American Fireman" example.
D. W Griffis was a pioneering film maker in the 1910s, he directed films such as: The Birth of a nation, Orphans of the storm, Griffis edited his films with Jimmy Edward smith. Griffis analysed editing and realised it was a style and really looked into what different shots to use like close ups he also mastered cross cutting.
Lev Kuleshov edited together a short film with a bowl of soup, a coffin with a crying woman and a child with a toy and between each shot he had a mans face. People thought that his face was changing each time like when he looked at he soup he was hungry, when he looked at the coffin he looked sad and when he looked ta the child he looked happy. When in fact his face did not change it was the same though out. This shows what editing can do to manipulate what the audience sees.
In the 1940/50s the woman did the editing they had no input into the movie, it was a formulaic process like sewing that's why the thought woman would be good at the job.