Early Filming and The Development of Editing

The First Sign of Moving Image

 

The first sign of moving image was created by Ting Huan,180 AD. It was a lantern version of the Zoetrope. He named it chao hua chich kuan (the pipe which makes fantasies appear. The lantern had transparent paper, also known as mica paper, which hung from the top. When the latern was spun at the right speed, the pictures painted on the panels would appear to move.

The Zoetrope was later modernised version by William George Horner however had named  the device “daedalum” even though it was popularly referred to as ”the wheel of the devil” perhaps because of the fact it created the illusion of movement.

When the device was patented during the 1860’s, by William F. Lincolin, who had renamed the device Zoetrope, meaning “wheel of life”.

I suppose there are no signs of real editing in these devices, however, the development of film did begin here and without film there would be no reason to edit.

The Lumiѐre Brothers

The Lumiere Brothers were the first to introduce cinematography in 1895. The films that they were making were short documentaries of little things from day to day life. When they had created their short films, they used the same shot and no edits. Their films were just at the same shot and angle throughout. One of their pieces is called ‘Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon’ (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory). The Lumière Brothers had come to an conclusion that cinéma wasn’t going to last because they could only film one shot documentaries which limits them from making a narrative.
 

GeorgeMéliès

Méliès accidentally created the edit when his camera jammed when he was in the process of filming street traffic in Paris. Something in his camera had jammed, the traffic carried on moving, and once he had fixed the camera, it began filming onto where the traffic had moved on to. He was astonished when he played it back and saw one part of the traffic being replaced by another. This technique is called stop trick. The process involves something being filmed, the camera being stopped and the object leaving the shot so that when the camera is then turned on it creates the illusion that the object had disappeared.

The length of film was always very short and the only way to elongate it would be to put parts of film together. This solves the Lumiere Brothers problem mentioned previously.George Méliès discovered by sticking two different pieces of film together he could change scenes. By editing shots together, Méliès also realised he could form a narrative. In 1914, he directed Trip to the Moon. In this story, the edit points are between the scenes in order to link them together.

Edwin Porter

Edwin Porter created a film called the Life of an American Fireman in 1903. The film shows a fireman rescuing a woman from her burning house from the outside, then replays the same thing but with a view from inside the house. Porter then realised there was no point seeing the woman being rescued twice, so he decided to put the cut in before the fireman had rescued her and changed the shot into the bedroom scene. This meant that we saw the fireman climb up the ladder to get inside, but when he was inside, the audience had the view from inside the room. This was the first time continuous action was represented by using two shots. This film had created the first use of continuity editing.

Since Porter, continuity editing has dominated the film and TV industry and is constantly used. Continuity editing is used in most film and is meant to make the cut invisible.

D.W. Griffith

Following on from Porter, D.W. Griffith developed continuity into a higher level in film. His first film, Birth of a Nation was created in 1915. In this film, he developed more story telling techniques. These include:

• The 180° rule-This orientates the audience so they know what they are looking at.

•Close ups-this allowed the audience to see peoples facial expressions. This also enabled the audience to understand the characters feelings in their given situation

•Flashback- Were already in books, he just figured out how to represent it. Flashbacks are when a cut is used and the next shot represents something from a long time ago, is sown in an old time edit or is perhaps someone remebering the saem sityuation happening in the same place.