History of Editing
History of editing:
In the first years of film, editing wasn’t used as it is today. When film first came about, people mostly used films to make actualities. Actualities mean a short film of an actual event. For instance, a ship pulling into the harbour, or a train passing by. These films didn’t have much of a story.
However, it wasn’t long before films made by the Lumiere Brothers, and the Edison company, contained a plot. (include a little about plot vs story here)
These filmmakers would set up a camera, and literally have a short story take place in front of the lens. They didn’t move the camera at all, or take shots from different angles.
As with most other film techniques, editing has evolved over time as the technology and audience expectations change. The idea of editing has its precursors. Flashbacks had existed in novels; scene changes were already part of live theatre; even late nineteenth-century comic strips had the idea of editing in them.
But the very earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit film shots together because they assumed that splicing together different shots of different things from different positions would simply confuse audiences.
"Primitive" Editing
A shot consists of the celluloid used from the moment a camera begins rolling on a scene to the moment it stops. Sequence: A number of shots edited together and unified, either through the plot, the character(s), the time and/or space, or the theme.
However, filmmakers quickly discovered that editing shots into a sequence not only contributed to the audience's sense of tale, but also enabled them to tell more complex stories as a result. You can see primitive instances of editing in films like Rescued by Rover (1904) and The Great Train Robbery (1903).
Early on the cuts were made in the camera, so that the cameraman would simply stop cranking at the exact end of a shot, and begin cranking again when it was moved somewhere else, or when something else was put in front of it. This
In the first years of film, editing wasn’t used as it is today. When film first came about, people mostly used films to make actualities. Actualities mean a short film of an actual event. For instance, a ship pulling into the harbour, or a train passing by. These films didn’t have much of a story.
However, it wasn’t long before films made by the Lumiere Brothers, and the Edison company, contained a plot. (include a little about plot vs story here)
These filmmakers would set up a camera, and literally have a short story take place in front of the lens. They didn’t move the camera at all, or take shots from different angles.
As with most other film techniques, editing has evolved over time as the technology and audience expectations change. The idea of editing has its precursors. Flashbacks had existed in novels; scene changes were already part of live theatre; even late nineteenth-century comic strips had the idea of editing in them.
But the very earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit film shots together because they assumed that splicing together different shots of different things from different positions would simply confuse audiences.
"Primitive" Editing
A shot consists of the celluloid used from the moment a camera begins rolling on a scene to the moment it stops. Sequence: A number of shots edited together and unified, either through the plot, the character(s), the time and/or space, or the theme.
However, filmmakers quickly discovered that editing shots into a sequence not only contributed to the audience's sense of tale, but also enabled them to tell more complex stories as a result. You can see primitive instances of editing in films like Rescued by Rover (1904) and The Great Train Robbery (1903).
Early on the cuts were made in the camera, so that the cameraman would simply stop cranking at the exact end of a shot, and begin cranking again when it was moved somewhere else, or when something else was put in front of it. This