16.1.2

What has changed since the start of editing films?

The history of film has had many changes up until today, which inevitably means that editing styles have changed. Film first started out in the 1800's with no editing at all. This meant that the film would be about what people were interested in. There couldn’t be any drama, as editing had not yet been invented. This meant there were no scenes or story lines. Just the same shot for the whole film.

When editing was invented, all film was on a line of tape; this meant that you would have to cut the film by hand. To fit the different scenes together. This meant precision craftwork was needed. A change since the start of editing was that the first editors were not highly regarded, they were just workers. Whereas nowadays editors are seen as the key feature of film. The editors and directors are the ones who make the film so good and realistic.

There are so many different areas of editing that have changed since the early 1900’s. For example, the methods of editing film have changed dramatically.

The technology of editing has now allowed to film on tape but now on memory cards. Instead of having to cut out the different clips of film by hand. All the film can be uploaded to a computer. The whole editing process is now done over the computer. Which also allows you to add special effects, nearly every single film we have today has CGI or special effects. It makes the film to the audience far more dramatic and the special effects nowadays are so realistic, you can't tell what is CGI and what's real.

Another part of editing that changed was also the techniques, instead of filming a whole journey to a destination in a story. Editors realised that instead of wasting all that film time. They would just cut straight to the next scene. Which meant that the audience had to get involved and realise that the car has already made its journey. Films today do it all the time, but when it was first invented it was a very odd thing to occur.

Something else that has changed since the start of editing would be that the scene changes were obvious, because on the film, it would flicker every time the film was clipped. Nowadays we have transitions, that don’t even make the audience even realise that it’s a new scene.

Special effect has changed the film industry completely, it’s changed the way we view videos etc. When special effects first started out. It was very obvious that they were special effects. This made films more interesting, but still not so realistic. Now in the present these effects are used to the editor and directors advantage as they manipulate the audience, with the different effects. To set different tones for the film/video. They can create a dramatic scene and horror scenes by just using music. A good example of this would be the soundtrack from Jaws. As soon as the music played, it would get louder. Creating tension in the audience, every time the music would come up, the audience would know that Jaws was about to come into the scene.

The different camera angles also changed the editing world. This was because you could have the same scene in a number of different shots; the editors could then flick from one camera angle to the next. To get an overall view of the scene. Giving it a more realistic feel for the audience. These different camera angles also meant that there could be montages. This was specifically towards action films, for example the editor could create a montage for an explosion. Making the explosion seem much more intense then it really is.

A problem that editors have now is that they have so much film to edit; they have at least 200 hours of film that they need to edit into a 1.5-2 hour film. This can be very stressful as it’s up to the editor to make the decisions about which shots they should have in the film. The director and editor need to have a good relationship and be able to agree on the same things. This is because if the director and editor disagree all the time, it means the film takes a lot longer to make and also means the editor and director are not happy with some parts of the film. Editors and directors can disagree on many different things; sometimes it can be the camera angle, or even endings. The editor may ask the director to go back and film the same scene but into a different shot, that is if they disagree. Some editors choose not to watch the film be made, or even meet the actors because it means they can be more focused on editing the movie.

My conclusion is that changes since the start of editing have been so big that you couldn’t count. So many small tweaks and changes have been made and are still improving. Now today, new editing technology is being made, pushing the boundaries of special effects and editing. Maybe in 50 years or so, people will look back and say how unrealistic the special effects and editing was of the technology now. Editing will never ever stop improving and will always keep changing, their will be better programmes for editing etc. These programmes have given everyone in the world a chance to edit for themselves, e.g. Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro allows anyone to edit at a professional standard. Causing a lot of competition out there for other editors. Editing will always change and will definitely been improved in the future. The step up from when editing was first invented and to where we are now is huge. It has showed us how fast improving the editing world is becoming.

Jack Duckworth