The History and Developments of Post Production

Early film editors found a way of making the film that the audience was watching, was entertaining and interesting. When they were filming they would hold a shot until the film ran out... or until they got bored.

Up until 1903 August Lumiere thought that cinema was "an invention without a future" but Edwin Porter directed 'The life of an American fireman' with editing, August Lumiere's comments were proved wrong.

The life of an American firemen had discovered a way of creating an emotional impact on the audience. Edwin achieved this by inter cutting two different images that didn't go together, but by doing this he had made a story.

A Moviola was the original machine that was used to cut films in editing, some people said that it looked like a sewing machine on legs. On average editors would sort through 200hrs of footage for a 2 hr film.

The use of sound was introduced in cinema in the 1930's but, only in the 1940s/1950's did sound really take off with the mass industrialisation of film making.

Editing Styles And Conventions

There are three main types of editing, these are broken down into the following;

soviet montage

soviet montage was created in the 1920's soviet montage was created because they but two unrelated images together to create a third image. this is a very obvious form of editing, it is not subtle.

Hollywood montage

a Hollywood montage shows time from the beginning to the end of a particular sequence. this allows all of the information to be shown but it pinpoints the best parts of the film to tell the story.

Continuity editing

Continuity editing is where there is a continuous edit throughout the film, this could be the 180 degrees rule, so that the audience does not get confused. Continuity editing ensures that the editing is smooth and subtle so that there is not obvious editing. A good example of this would be an apple in the left hand, 5 hours later and a different shot the apple would still be in the same had as not to disorientate the audience.

How Editing Manipulates Time

Screen Time
Screen time is not real time, it is compressed down so that, for example 20 years of someones life would only have a sceen time of 2 mins, taking out the most relevant information. By using this effect the audience would not get bored but it would still have all the information they needed for the story.

Compressed Time
Compressed time is where the footage has been sped up to create an effect, it literally means to compress the time in the footage of the film, so that all of the information is there, it has just been sped up. Compressed time is sometimes refered to as hollywood montage, but again there is substantial material not to loose the plot.

A Long Take
A long take is where a single shot or take of the camera lasts for a relativly lengthy period of time, this is a very natural effect and is used very well in 'Children Of Men'. It does not have a very dramatic effect because there is no editing in the clip.

Slow Motion
this is an action motion, which takes place on the camera at a slower ratew then it was recorded. This usually is used to emphasis something e.g violence, in a fight, so that the audience can really see whats going on. it can also be used to amplify a dramatic movement or used in romantic films again to amplify.

Transition types

There are 4 main types of joins when used in editing, these are listed below;

Cut
The cut is where there is no transition for a cut, you just add in the sequence. This is the simplest form of editing so it is quite simply just cutting out the parts that you want from the footage. A cut takes out the best bits. An example of this is shot, reverse shot.

Fade
The fade is usually at the end of one scene and the beginning of another. You would usually use fade to black because it is the ending of a scene, however when you fade to white it is the end of a character e.g death, the reason you use white is the idea that you go towards the light when you die.

Dissolve
A dissolve slows the pace of a film down you would find this predominately in a romantic film where they use a lot of sunsets etc. It gives the audience a sense of there is noting dramatic that is going to happen and it is just a wallpaper, however this idea can be used in a horror film, to make the audience jump, for example you would use the dissolve effect but the use a cut to something scary.

Wipe
Wipes are probably the least popular form of joins because they can look very artificial, however, star wars uses wipes very effectively and so does Kill Bill, the wipe is a very stylised type of join and this is why it is found predominately in comic films. A wipe is used usually to completely change the location of something.