Thomas Edison is the guy behind the light bulb basically but he is also credited as the creator of film as he developed the first motion picture camera/kinetascope, in 1888 these where installed in penny arcades around the same time and fully exhibited in 1891 Thomas Edison also developed the first commercially successful film using his lab staff in particular his co-worker William Kennedy Laurie, between 1888 and 1893 he invented his own machine and stated that he wanted to do for the eye what his phonograph did for ear he then went on to place the sound technology into the visual realm his first idea was a glass cylinder holding a tiny sequences of spinning images without Thomas Edison brilliant mind we would never have what is modern cinema and some the brilliant editing it brings.
in 1895 the Lumière brothers filmed an arrival of a train which was displayed in kinetascopes around the country which was as the title dictates was just a train pulling into a station. All of there movies where in camera edits it is basically stop start what you record is what you get. and that is how films where made then shortly after the invention of the dry plate one of Edison friends invited one of the brothers to a showing of Edison kinetascope in France and later gave him a piece of one of them and he quickly returned to his brother and said they have to make it as they are selling it for crazy prices and that they could do it cheaper. they're entire aim was to target the problems and the limitations as they saw them with Edison peep hole kinetascope the first of these was that the machine its self was really bulky and one of there key aims was to decrease the size with keeping all quality's it originally possessed the second was the nature of it and that being only one person could view it at a time. by 1895 they had came out with there own version of Edison machine it was lighter less bulky the only downside would be that it only ran at about 16 frames compared to Edison much faster 48 but this also meant that less film was used and the cranky clattering noises that came with Edison were reduced.
1903 George melies shot and filmed a trip to the moon which is often cited as the first short film ever and was shown at circuses and was a bunch of people just building a rocket and being shot to the moon, it had many revolutionary features such as the first dissolve the first painted sets the first sights of animation cuts and with different shots. the film itself was so before its time it didn't even have a credited cast as opening and closing credits were a later invention very famous film-makers have credited melies as there inspiration to peruse film with Edwin porter saying that it was a trip to the moon that gave him hope that a picture telling a story could drive the masses back to theatre and D. W. grithiffs said that he owes melies everything the film itself was also placed at entry number 1 on the list of 1001 movies you must see before you die.
1903 Edwin porter shot something called the great train robbery which again was a big step forward in the medium of editing it had the first sight of separative shots added together and long takes where it inst edited at all its editing is now known as continuity editing it also included dissolves and cress cutting.
1915 D.W Griffith created the birth of a nation made during ww1 it set rules for narrative film making its also noted for inspiring many genres such as westerns and gangster movies it is also viewed as the first ever feature film both these editors were bost inspired by george melies a trip to the moon.
1932 showed the first sights of a good quality silent movie it had real circus freaks as actors to create a sense of realism it was still in the early stages of cinema during the golden age of movies being released around the same time as classics such as the cabinet of Dr caligari although freaks being released a good decade later than cabinet movies had never really been story boarded before this was one of the first to introduce it as a way of pre production it had one the first narrative it also actually filmed on location so no sets.
1925: Sergei Eisenstein otherwise sited as the father of g directed a very famous film named battleship Potemkin which holds one of the most famous montages in film history named the Odessa staircase scene in which it pictures a load of people being slaughtered while running down a stair case but most famous for showing the baby rolling scene where a mother is shot and knocks the pram down the stairs this is sited as one of the best montages ever.
Here is a still image from the Odessa Steps sequence which shows a child in a pram rolling down the steps. This is juxtaposed with images such as a woman screaming in close up and people being killed. The placing of the series of images together builds a narrative.
Eisenstein introduced the principle of montage editing, placing images next to each other to build meaning, which has become the essence of film editing. In a sense we do not need dialogue or a voice-over as the best films will show us not tell us the story.
Eisenstein montage has had a big influence on modern day cinema as many directors take it under there wing during the filming processes one of the most famous directors in who do this in a lot of his movies is Edgar Wright creator of the cornetto trilogy(Shaun of the dead, hot fuzz and the worlds end) and Scott pilgrim vs the world.
we also had an attempt at making our own montages to demonstrate our knowledge about montage editing.
Walter merch one of the most famous editors alive today he won his first oscar for the brilliant apocalypse now the opening scene in particular is very well edited with the sound the meaning behind it like in the helicopter flying over it sounds like a helicopter blades but ends up being in the hotel room having a flash back to Vietnam it then starts fading between his hotel and the jungle being blown up until ultimately it shows his hotel room this was such good editing at the time as post production was not really heard of Walter merch optimizes diagetic sound in the opening to this film to new levels seen at the time this is seen with the helicopter blade posing as the ceiling fan and his vision of the napalm strike on the jungle is a great use of diagetic space and time as it shows martin sheen in deep thought about what had happened this also helps as very shortly after it gives the audience a reason for the hotel room scene in which he punches the mirror and freaks out it also helps set a character as it shows him troubled it also shows a bottle of whiskey showing he also likes to drink a lot again helping set a character for the audience and in the end apocalypse now remains as an edited masterpiece also getting Walter merch his first Oscar.
we also had a go at making our own dream sequences with editing similar to that of apocalypse now to get sense the main character is either asleep deep in thought or deep in regret this helps show out understanding as it shows a character deep in his study's and then falling asleep then showing him dreaming being late for the exam he is currently studying for it shows the editing him going back from dream to wake.
MTV editing this is editing style for teenagers of today this is the kind of editing in which it is flashy snappy and eye catchy the kind of editing in which if you weren't looking at it but it was on in the background you would have your attention dragged to it this as most Pope attention span is around about 5 minuets this kind of editing made famous in the 21st century it involves a lot of close ups normally on the main antagonist/protagonist its got tracking shots and shaky cam all of these can be seen in a very good clip from the movie city of god.
this is one of the best MTV editing style clips although it doesn't really give a good hook or a story like seen in inception or blue velvet, although it doesn't give a good hook like in these but in this clip it is still entertaining as it is eye catchy and still makes you want to watch on as the main thought i get when watching it is why would someone put the effort into to make it flashy and all eye catching and intense if there was no story behind it so you keep watching in turn it works it gets people to watch the rest of the movie in this clip the key features are seen as there is tracking shot of an escaping chicken done in shaky cam there is a close up of the psycho leader of the a favela gang and theirs flashes front he young boys camera although multiple flashes are seen. this is a key point in the editing timeline as this marks the point where editing has really revolutionized as it can all be done in the computer and no longer having to cut up film and all the work can be done in post production although to much post production work can often make the film look cheesy and completely miss the point you are aiming for as the editor/director.
