- Starting from way back in February 1895 when the Lumière brothers who were Augustine and Louis who were sons to a famous French man called Antoine. The brothers invented their own version of the kientoscope which the called the cinematographer which will go on to be the first camera to be ever created. The biggest or big aim of this was to combine video recording alongside projection all at the same time. Their device did this and could hold up to 16 frames of filming per second their by making their devices a lot slower and easier to use than the Kientoscope. They decided to test their invention out and went out to record their first film on March 28 1895 called ''la sortie des usines lumière'' which was premièred later that year. This video was a long take or a long shot been taken from one angle or set. The main purpose of the video was to actually engage viewers because this was actually the first time people will see something like this and to them it will seem much more magical than it does to us viewers in the present day. Also in their video they decided to add a sweet sound track in the video which is a non-diagetic sound because only the viewers can hear this sound and its main purpose was to engage and capture the attention of the viewers. At this point in time there was no single sign of editing in their videos as it has just been a long take of people constantly walking out of a factory.
The Lumière brothers went on later to produce a lot of different films and the purposes still stayed the same as they were just engaging the viewers and there was no form of storytelling. below are some of their films and their links:
Le Jardinier (l'Arroseur Arrosé): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlHBfnKnREo
Le Débarquement du Congrès de Photographie à Lyon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmZzbbhZ1v0
La Voltige: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0ubuBlzp0
La Pêche aux poissons rouges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYR0Gf8JfI8
Les Forgerons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0voUlJJU1n4
Repas de bébé: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqy-EU2D8M0
Le Saut à la couverture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai7eLvk1T-Q
La Places des Cordeliers à Lyon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbVxHZqumc8
La Mer (Baignade en mer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAP2_Wq7CZk
- In the same year the Lumière brothers created the cinematographer a stage magical and engineer called George Mlies who was present at the first première of the brothers work in their basement offered them a price for their new invention but they refused. He went back home and invented his own camera and started filming. In 1896 he was filming a bus coming out of a tunnel when his camera jammed he eventually fixed it and continued filming when he watched the clip again he noticed that the bus scene cuts directly to the scene of a horse coming out of the tunnel, George Mlies had discovered jump cuts which are still been used up to this very present age in the making and editing of different films. George Melies used these jump cuts in his magical shows to show disappearance and he also went further to discovering different effects such as; fade in and outs. overlapping dissolves, stop motion photography. He came up with the idea of setting the camera up in different locations and different time to give you full control. On September 1st 1901 he realised a film called a trip to the moon, this film was shot with the purpose of actually telling a story and the first development of drama. At this point we could see developments in the multiple point of view as George Melies has set up his camera twice to get shots from two different point of view and also we start seeing the development and the first sign of a director or film maker actually trying to tell a story their by giving his film a purpose of actually keeping the viewers engaged and developing drama. He also made his films to have a theatre look in other to create a vertical reality.
His other films were:
The Voyage of the Bourrichon Family (Short)
1912Cinderella or The Glass Slipper (Short)
1910Apparitions fantômatiques (Short)
1910Curing Obesity in 5 Minutes (Short)
1910Galatée (Short)
1910L'homme aux mille inventions (Short)
1910Le conte du vieux talute (Short)
1910Les sept barres d'or (Short)
1910Le vitrail diabolique (Short)
1910Si j'étais le roi (Short)
1910The Doctor's Secret (Short)
- Many film makers began to rise after Melies and an important one amongst them was Edwin Porter, he was the creator of different narratives. he would normally take stock footage that actually has meaning or story and turn them into a linear narrative piece of video. He also came up with the idea of following the action whereby he shoots the action from the inside and goes out side to shot the same action to get a different view and a different shot and he was also the first to start the use of split screen to show actions happening in two different locations at the exact same time but he still used long shots very long shots and hasn't yet discovered the other types of shots yet. Edwin Porter in his films we can see the development of following the action where he tries to get the action as it happens, he gets multiple point of view that's getting shots from different angles also he manipulates time and space he makes the viewers think that two events are happening at the exact same time by just using a split screen and his films were really still based on analogue as its still in black and white format, the really main purpose of his videos were actually for storytelling he made sure he engaged the viewer and also gradually developed drama as time went on. A very famous piece of work of his was the life of an american fireman and the great train robbery.
He added a very smooth touch to his films which was leaving the endings either closed or open, here editing plays a very big role because these are different shots which have been edited or aligned to form a story and also added other transitions which were discovered by Melies.
- D.W. Griffiths who is best know as the father of continuity has always had a passion for film making but he didn't start off as a movie producer rather he started as an actor under Edwin Porter. But he later went on to direct birth of a nation which was a great hit. After that he sat down and worked out and found out new concepts for continuity such as a 180 degree rule and the allingment of shots in other tell story through the process of trial and error he also invented the different type of shots and effects and editing techniques for continuity after doing all this he then went further to create and produce the lonely villa in which he created and invented tension by increasing the pace and tempo of cuts up to its climax.
He also invented cross-cutting which is simultaneously show two different events happening at the same exact time to either create suspense or tension. This time we have seen development in the in- camera edit as well as following the action, manipulating time and space, the films are still analogue as its still in black and white and the purpose of the techniques created and used were to create story that is story telling, defiantly engaging the viewers as well as developing drama as continuity's main point is to entertain viewers, there are also a combination of shots into sequences as well to tell story and also creates pace to create tension.
- Eisenstein and Kuleshov were the masters of montage and the opposer of continuity without even knowing, Montage was made to made the viewers think about what they are watch there by adding hidden meaning left for the viewers to interpret themselves. Montage had so many visible editing which meant the viewers could notice the change in shots. It was developed in the USSR for the purpose of propaganda and politics to try and bring the country together as they had just come out of a civil war. Kuleshov went on to create a technique which was called the Kuleshov technique where by a shot is placed after another shot with no relationship what so ever making the viewers actually work out what's going on.
There are five types of Montage which are as follows:
Tonal
Over Tonal
Intellectual montage
Rhythmic Montage
Metric
Tonal and Over tonal Montage: This is a contrast within the shots such as lighting to show the current conduction of a particular character.
Intellectual Montage: this is the concerning ideas for ideological concepts which makes the viewer think and attract meaning to different scenes.
Rhythmic Montage: this is when the scene cuts according to a particular beat or tempo .
Metric Montage: this is the use of long shots while the scene cuts to the action or the action cuts to a particular beat.
- Continuity vs Montage: Continuity was invented by D.W Griffts through trial and error, this is the use of series of shots to tell a story so its more entertaining. Continuity also absorbed montage as later on it uses montage to show the passage through time or to add an artistic touch to their works, continuity only took the editing styles but left the politics part of montage .It was developed by an American and therefore belongs to America. While Montage on the other hand is a series of shots that is been used to tell a story but it makes the viewers think which means that the directors deliberately make their editing seamless so the viewers actually notice the editing or put two shots of different contrast to tell a story. The 5 types of Montage are: Metric Montage: This was cutting to the beat of the music been played. Rhythmic: Cutting according to a particular rhythm. Over Tonal: using large sequence of shots to state the theme. Tonal:Using contrast to comparison to the style or type of shots. Intellectual montage: using ideological concepts in other to make the view think. Montage been the complete opposite of continuity creates discontinuity to actually let the viewers know that something is defiantly not right.
- Hitctcock gained reputation as the master of suspense which meant that he was very creative and good at creating suspense. He mixed montage alot with continuity he tells a story that's meant to entertain the viewers and also make them think at certain point for example in Psycho he uses rhythmic and intellectual montage when the woman is getting killed intellectual in the sense that the action performed by the killer can be seen as rape and at the end of the killing we can see that he used a transition called cross fade in where by the sink hole cross fades with the victims eyes showing or telling us that the victims life is been washed away. The main purpose of Hitcocks video was to really engage viewers or else he wont really want them to think about what they have just seen and it also uses a combination of shots in a sequences and also follows the action in detail.
- Goddard and the start of the new French wave: The French where the original owners of cinema until the Us and the USSR became more dominant and this was around the 1960 where everyone wanted change and so did the media industry and so did the French so they stood to literally oppose continuity and break all its rule, them make film for an artistic purpose and the man who led this new reign was Goddard. He directed and produced breathless which during editing purposely used jump cuts and broke the 180 degree rule which actually make the viewers think as they are seeing something different, Goddard is one of the leaders of the French new wave. He realised his first film in 1955 then went on to release Breathless which he was widely recognised for in 1960, breathless carried a lot of different things and techniques he had added something special to his film which was his artistic style which was literally set to oppose continuity as it broke almost all the rules of continuity if not all. He was the inventor of trailers.
- Kubrick saw what the French were doing and he liked it so he decide that he was going to make films to add his own artistic touches to it so he merged continuity montage and the French new style of editing we can see this in his movie space Odyssey: 2001 where he used jump cuts to show the passage of time.
He also used Kuleshovs technique when there were conversations between the space crew and hal 900 also during the disablement of Hal where they keep going back the red light or eye which we are made to believe or what we think that is hal.
He also uses a technique called the clockwise orange where the camera switches to what the character is watch and then back to the character to show the emotions of the character, for example during the brainwashing scene.
- Tarantino is a contemporary movie producer who uses montage to add artistic touches to his videos, he uses a lot of close ups to show a characters emotions editing has advanced for switching between two shots to show emotions to now using a sing shot to show emotions there by reducing the amount of shots that will have to be taken or edited he also slows down the tempo of his shots and and the rhythm to show tension and to make the viewers know that the character is tensed or nervous about what's actually going on.
The main purpose he did this was to make the storyline firm by developing the dram and also he uses alot of shots in a sequences and he does creates pace whenever he wants it to go high it does if he wants it to go low it does as well.
- Nolan uses a mixture of both continuity as he decided to keep some of the rules of continuity such as cross cutting but he other cases he has actually broke them there by adding artistic touches to his editing and also at the same time using montage and partly continuity he also uses a lot of non-linear editing which gives him mire reason to break continuity because non-linear either starts form the middle or the end and the viewers at the beginning have no clue of what is actually going on until they start to see flash backs which also breaks continuity to an extent.
Mainstream Techniques:
Rhythmic editing: Shots changes based on the tempo of music been played so therefore the shots changes according to the tempo of the music. This technique is used to pass time. It was invented by esiestein. This technique uses alot of different shots combined together to actually engage the viewers as they are mentally engaged as they use their eyes and hears they do not know that the beat is followed by the editing or the editing is not noticed, it can also be used to create tension or to increase the tempo of a particular scene of video.
Cross- Cutting
Cross cutting also known as parallel editing, is cutting between two different scenes that are happening at the same time.This technique was created and developed by D.W. Griffith. Cross-Cutting was first used in D.W Griffith's film "After many years" in 1908. The clip below shows an example of cross-cutting being used. The clip is from the film Quantum of Solace. In the scene, A man is being interrogated, the camera then cuts to another scene to show that somebody is approaching in a car. The purpose of Cross-Cutting is to show two important/relevant events in the story that are happening at the same time. Using Cross-Cutting makes the story of a film more interesting for audience. It also allows the audience to be introduced to new characters of the story. Cross cutting manipulates time and space as it allows us to see two different events simultaneously happening at the exactly same time. Though these shots were shot at different times, it has been edited to make viewers think they are actually happening at the same time which really helps in story telling as it also engage the viewers and they do not need to use their brains to work out what is going on so its defiantly a mainstream way of editing it aloes uses different combinations of different shots to make the story more interesting
Motivated cut: This is when a shot/ scene cuts to another scene to show an object or character that wast present in the previous frame. Its a mainstream style of editing as it doesn't break continuity, its normally used to create suspense or show conversations between two characters with different significant importance added to them in detail in those shots.The main purpose of the motivated cut is to actually make the viewers know what is going on it engages the viewers and also develops the drama it also uses a variety of different combinations of shot cutting at different pace and also following the action.
180 degree rule: This an imaginary line that goes between two characters which the camera or set of cameras must not cross. Its a mainstream type of editing as it allows and keeps continuity. It uses different combination of shots such as shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shot to show conversation between two characters it also engages the viewer by letting them know who a character is talking to or talking about, the main purpose of the 180 degree rule is to keep one character on a particular and another character on the other side of the screen the rule also follows the action as it
happens. We can seethe rule been used alot in the trailer of man of steel mainly during conversations.
Continuity - A sequence of shots done to entertain the audience, to create a story in a linear sequence. It was invented by D.W Griffiths, through trial as error, as he would try something out and see if it worked. Continuity came from the US, fighting between them and Soviet Russia, who created montage, continuity proved more popular with audiences as it was just done to entertain the audience, unlike montage, which is designed to make the audience think. Continuities main aim is to actually keep viewers engaged and entertained instead of making them actually think like what montage does.
Shot rev shot
Shot Reverse shot is, involves two characters having a conversation. You would have one character looking at the other, then we would have a reverse shot from that characters point of view. This is also known as continuity editing.The purpose of using short reverse shot to see character face whilst talking instead focusing on one character when talking, by this you can see their emotions when talking and makes more interesting. It engages the viewers making them more entertained and telling them what is actually going on.
As we can see from 30 seconds in the use of Shot rev shot was used, as the camera is positioned from over the shoulders of each character. It also portrays the relationship between the two characters. Each time a person speaks it automatically cuts to the main objective. Shot rev shot was developed by Dw Griffith.
Point of View shot - This is a technique where it will show the scene from the characters point of view, so you can see the events from their perspective, allowing the audience to feel involved in the film because they can see it as if they are there.
The Point Of View shot is used here, it is done to show the current events taking place from one characters perspective. It is done to see the events from the eyes of the character.
Parallel editing
Parallel editing, also known as cross cutting is a technique used in editing where two or more scenes which often happen but in different locations in the film. Edwin S.Porter used this I his movie 'The Great Train Robbery' . In the early cinema cross cutting was used to show where things occur in different locations. Lets the viewers know what is going on and also it uses alot of combination of shots and it also manipulates time and space as well as storytelling.
Seamless editing
Seamless editing was a technique used in the early cinema by D.W Griffths it is where the cut crosses the line of action it is also known as invisible editing, this uses alot of combination of shots and it also allows the viwer to follow the story and be entertained without noticing the editing and to some extent it manipulates time and space as it makes viewers think that what ever they are actually watching on screen right at that moment is actually real.
Jump cuts were created in 1896 by Melies he was filming a bus coming out of a tunnel and his camera film jammed when it started filming again it filmed a horse cart going by and when he watched the film a jump cut was created making the bus look like it transformed into the horse cart, he used this in is magical shows to show people disappearing. Jump cuts were usually used to create magically effects during the 1800s but now in the present days jump cuts are been used to break continuity and therefore can fall under montage techniques. Jump cuts basically manipulates time and space as it can be used to show the passing of time in just one glance also uses combination of different shots but doesn't actually tell a story. When a jump cut is used most times there are no relationships between the two shots or just little therefore it can be seen as an alternative way of editing as it allows discontinuity and not continuity.
Tonal and Over tonal Montage: This is a contrast within the shots such as lighting to show the current conduction of a particular character.
Intellectual Montage: this is the concerning ideas for ideological concepts which makes the viewer think and attract meaning to different scenes.
Rhythmic Montage: this is when the scene cuts according to a particular beat or tempo .
Metric Montage: this is the use of long shots while the scene cuts to the action or the action cuts to a particular beat.
Development And Purpose Of Early Cinema.
In early cinema all they did was take a long shot of their films and then they align it the way they wont which restricted them alot because they couldn't make their shots shorter then soon enough George Melies discovered the Jump cut which was helpful but just wasn't there yet because jump cuts break the purpose of story telling which D.W Griffiths took care when he invented continuity which literally made everything better and the way continuity is lay out its very flexible and was able to absorb montage and French new wave which is what is presently in use which means artists or producers of this present age still use jump cuts which was developed back in the 1800. The techniques been used in today's contemporary mainstream are still the ones laid down by the father of continuity so nothings really changed everyone has just leant to grab what you need form everyone and make your work better because now in the present age artistic are mixing up m\mainstream techniques with alternative techniques which is the only thing that has actual change for the time of D,W Griffiths till now.
The reason why all these techniques are all used together now because movie producers want to add the artistic touches to their films and also because continuity has absorbed every single type of alternative techniques leaving everyone to accept mainstream which is continuity and actually go with it. And also because everyone is trying to get their names down as inventors and pioneers of editing.
In my opinion montage and discontinuity hasn't in anyway lost its stylistic use because its been used in the most stylistic way than it has every been over the years thanks to the the rise of non linear narrative shows shush as thrillers and horrors.
The main political reason why continuity became more dominant was because continuity absorbed montage before montage could absorb it and also because alot of people would have preferred montage at that particular point in time because you are been entertained and not forced to think for a political or democratic meaning.
The new wave literally set out to take back what was theirs from America to make it for an artistic reason instead on entertainment as they were or are the originally and real owners of film and lost somewhere along the line and are just trying to get pit back.
Continuity or the Hollywood dominance has only absorbed what it wanted from these alternative techniques for example in montage continuity only took the editing the style and left the propaganda and political aspect of it while the French new wave it took what it need and used it to invent other genres and narrative structures.
WT Distinction
ReplyDeleteNow present this as a Video Guide Commentary over the clips to demonstrate your understanding
To secure D
Refer to specific examples how Nolan and Tarantino use these techniques from your worksheet last week