Essay

The change development and what has stayed the same in editing from past to present day.

In this essay I will be investigating the development and what has stayed the same in editing between 1895 to 2014. I will be investigating the change in editing and how it had developed.

Editing has changed and developed so much since the first time editing was introduced into a movie.  That movie was Life of an American Fireman. What makes a movie is the editing in my opinion.

The Lumieres brothers were pioneers of the first cinema. When their films were first created they had no editing which gave cinema a short lifespan and people saw no future in it. This was until Edwin Porter discovered cutting separate shots together would make a story.  Once this was discovered, a whole knew door opened for cinema resulting in it having a future and surviving.

Life of an American Fireman was when this was first shown to the public but Great Train Robbery in 1903 was when the cut shot style was first properly shown and affected how the audiences felt. It was learnt that cutting and separating shots showing two sides of a story, could make the people watching feel a certain way and have them feel a particular emotion such as sorrow or joy and emphasis with the actors on screen.

Nowadays, editing has been changed and developed to speed, slow down, change where you are and what you see. It can create different moods: scared, amusement, surprised etc. It all varies on how what shots are chosen and the length of it. 

Two films, which differ in so many ways but are also connected, are Life of an American Fireman and The Matrix Reloaded.  A scene in particular from the The Matrix Reloaded movie where editing is clearly seen to be extraordinary in comparison to Life of an American Fireman. This scene consists of a high way chase between the antagonists of the film and cuts are being constantly made showing each antagonist and their fight. This scene shows how editing has really changed and been developed over the last hundred years. However just like in Life of an American Fireman the editing in both films affect our emotions when watching. Two movies, which differ so much, yet share some characteristics.

Editing became a lot easier in the 1990’s as people found a way to edit and still have the same quality and detail just instead of doing it by hand it was done by using a computer. This meant frames could be slowed down and precise cuts would be easier to make. However, Verna Fields was an amazing editor and she didn’t use a computer to edit she did it by hand alongside Steven Spielberg when piecing together and creating the story of Jaws. Jaws didn’t go to plan filming wise according to Spielberg and it meant when editing “2 frames could change the way the audience saw jaws, from looking scary to just looking like a floating white turd.” A famous quote by Carol Littleton “editing is to know when not to cut.”

D W Griffiths was the first great editor. He created things that would revolutionize films. He created melodramas thus emotional engagement with the audience. Orphans in a Storm by D W Griffiths had the first in movie cut where it went from wide shot to a close. It was given the name invisible art as us the audience does not notice them yet they have such a impact on what we are seeing.

Timmy Smiths would work alongside Griffths when editing. Editor and director work closely alongside one another when in the editing stage of the production. Sally Menke who edited Reservoir Dogs and other films by Quentin Tarintino said “ I would see Quentin more than I would see my husband when in the editing stage, this sometimes made tensions high and tempers short as we would be with each other for sometimes up to 8-9 months”.

The Russian Revolution started messing around with editing. A certain type of cutting would have an effect on the same the viewer felt. This meant they would change the way certain people felt about a certain subject. Editing is a way of manipulating the way the audience is feeling.  No matter what is being kind of clips are being edited it takes time and craftsmanship to create something of a high standard. It has been like this since editing first began. 

Digital editing was groundbreaking. George Lucas was a pioneer of digital editing. This then meant movies could be remade to look better and ideas could be remade. Movies like King Kong that came out in the early 1900’s (1933) and Clash Of The Titans (1981) were made and edited using digital editing and looked “out of this world.” 

In conclusion, editing has changed and developed so much since it was first discovered over a hundred years ago from different techniques and types to how we see films altogether. Without Edwin Porter discovering that cutting separate shots together to make a story, we would not have the cinema we have today. In my opinion, if that were the case then cinema would have had no future and would of died.  Still to this day editing is constantly evolving and being made better. I’m sure that it won’t stop and films will be even more unbelievable than they are today.