Task Five – Understanding Montage Theory

Task Five – Understanding Montage Theory

French cinema 

Montage is the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated shots or scenes which, when combined achieved meaning and make perfect sense to the audience. Montage is cutting between shots, they may include use if close-up's, relatively frequent cuts, dissolves, fades and jump cuts. This editing is always done to suggest particular meaning. There are three main types of montage that use these techniques in different and creative ways which are French montage, Hollywood montage and soviet montage. 

Example of French montage is the film Masculin feminin. In this film we see how French montage is very continuous. There are no jump cuts, point of view filming, fades or dissolves used or any type of camera technique. It is filmed there and  then and has minimal editing techniques in it. The two screen shots from the movie we can see that the two characters in the bathroom having a conversation, when talking the camera is fixed on their faces and only shows one character at a time. The camera is fixed onto the characters face and does not move or suddenly jump for effect, it remains focused on the subject for long periods of time before it jumps to the next subject.













Example of Hollywood montage is Citizen Cane which is full of editing techniques. Hollywood montage uses editing techniques such as fades, jump cuts, dissolves and wipes to move on narrative and time. As Hollywood montage is much faster paced the editing techniques contribute to saving time and telling a story that is still effective. The two screenshots  show the fade which is the transition into the next shot. Another example in the movie Citizen Kane is when the husband and wife are having breakfast at the breakfast table, their is a fade/montage of passing time. This is to show the two characters relationships untold overtime from a very interactive couple to a couple that cannot stand each other as time goes by. This is a faster way for the audience to understand whats going on in the play as they see the changes overtime.

Example of soviet montage is Battleship Potempkin. In the Odessa steps scene. This movie uses juxtaposing shots that all have relevance to each other. In this film a woman gets shot by the soldiers in the all the mayhem of people running down these flights of steps she falls to the floor bearing in mind she has her baby behind her. This makes the audience wonder what will happen next and leaves them feeling tense. We also then see an example of juxtaposition as the baby is about to fall the film cuts to another scene leaving the audience feeling tense. 

Task Four: From Analogue to Digital Editing

Task Four: From Analogue to Digital Editing

Analogue editing

Before digital editing was introduced people would have had to edit film the analogue way that is physical editing. Analogue editing is where the film is cut using a splicer, which you would then have to place the pieces of film together physically in the sequence you would want and glue them together. Splicing is used in Analogue editing it allows the editor to cut the film and line the film and place in order and cut the film where they want. After splicing the film would then be glued together.

Video editing 
Before digital technologies became available magnetic tapes were used to store information- these are known as video tapes. Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging video shots to create a new work. Moreover video editing is the process of editing segments of motion video production footage, special effects and sound recordings in the post production footage, special effects and sound recordings in the post production process.

Linear editing 
Linear video editing is a process of selection, arranging and modifying images and sound in a pre-determined, ordered sequence- from start to finish. Linear editing is mostly used when working with videotape. Unlike film, video tape cannot be physically cut into pieces to be spliced together to create a new order. Instead, the editor must desired video clip onto a master tape.

How digital editing works(Final cut/Avid/Premier Pro)

Digital editing 
Digital editing is a form of electronic media where data gets stored in digital which is different from analogue form. Digital editing is the use of computers and manipulate digital data. Moreover there is different editing programs such as Adobe Premier, Final Cut pro and Avid.



Non linear editing 
In digital video editing, non linear editing is a method that allows you to access any frame in a digital video clip regardless of sequence in the clip. The freedom to access any frame, and use a cut-and-paste method, similar to the ease of cutting and pasting text in a word processor, and allows you to easily include fades, transitions, and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear  editing.

Pros and cons of analogue and digital editing 
The advantages of analogue editing is that once something is recorded the audio is the stored and archived. Moreover it is a warm and natural sound where everything thats recorded can be recognised very well and it is clear. Moreover if people want it to be private it is very difficult for record company executives to mess with. However the disadvantages of analogue editing is that cheaper recorders suffer from distortion and tape noises, always it is very hard to synchronise the tape.          
Moreover editing of the audio can sometimes be very difficult to be done or sometimes impossible.

The advantages of digital editing is that you can get a better sound for a cheaper equipment, also you can potentially get a very low disturbance and noises. Another advantage is that there is a variety of recorder options such as tape, optical, hard disk and RAM. The audio in digital editing can easily be integrated into multimedia things such as web sites, DVD,games and videos. The disadvantages of digital editing is that computers can crash and data can become corrupt. Also sound quality can be too clinical/cold 

Task Three Developing Editing Techniques/ Task two in camera editing

Task two in camera editing



Me and my group partners Elwyn and Samreena created a clip of in camera editing, we carried out what was needed. In the clip we did some mistakes i think the mistakes was done because we wasn't clear of what had to be done at some points. There was too many talking and breaks which was not meant to happen we couldn't edit it so these mistakes had to be part of the clip.










Task Three developing Editing techniques/Task two in camera editing



Developments within editing have incredible improved since its creation, they have been designed to add meaning to the invisible art. Editing has been the key success to all films that we watch today, without an editor there is no point making a film. Editing has been around for decades now and has dramatically changed the ways we watch movies and has changed the world of cinema.

Editing began to be introduced in the 1900's the pioneer for this was Edwin. S. Porter a director for Thomas Edison's company. He discovered that the cutting and pasting together of film strips could create film with a story line that would would engage with the audience. There are a couple of aspects to the development of editing.

In Camera editing means creating a film by taking series of carefully constructed shots, in the sequence in which they will appear with no subsequent. As years go on editing continues to develop, an example of this would be in camera editing. In camera is editing without post production editing, it means creating a film by taking a series of carefully constructed shots and putting them together without the extra process take multiple takes and editing the rushes of takes. A lot of practice is needed to be done in order to make sure that everything is done accurately with hardly an retakes. A scene can't be filmed several times from a different angel creating  a bank of shots from which they are able to pick the best shots after. They use to pause the camera when needed and then press play when they wanted to start filming again. Although this process is tine saving it means that they can complete the film ten and there on set, it is difficult to get right and requires a set if very strict rules and a set of very talented cast and crew.

Task one- Editing in early cinema

Editing in early cinema

·                     Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was an american film maker who made multiple films. He used to be an electrician but then he decided to join the film laboratory. Edison is best known for having invented the electrical light bulb, the phonograph, and the first motion picture camera. In addition to his inventions he built his famous laboratory in Menlo Park, which is considered the forerunner of the modern day research facility. Despite Thomas Edison's incredible productivity, some people consider him a controversial figure and accuse him of profiting from the ideas of other inventors. 

·                     Lumiere Bros - Sortie d’usine

The Lumiere brothers August and Louis were two French engineers who invented the cinematographic process and gave the first public film projection in 1895. Thomas Edison worked withe Lumiere brothers and produced short films that were one long, static and locked down shot. the motion in the shot was necessary because it needed to be funny for the audience.   

·                     G.A Smith – The Miller and the Sweep

In the film 'The miller and the sweep' there was no story or editing the film ran as long as there was film in the camera.G.A Smith – The Kiss in the Tunnel. In 1899 G.A Smith made the film ' The Kiss in the Tunnel. This film is being said that it started the beginnings of narrative editing. Smith said that some extra spice was called for in the then popular "phantom ride" genre. Smith took advantage of a brief onset of darkness as they went into a tunnel when a shot was being taken of a couple.  

·                     George Melies - The Vanishing Lady

George Melies was a prolific innovator who used special effects, he also discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896 but he done this by accident. He was also the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography and hand painted colour in his work. He also built a studio and wrote scripts, he also went out to design studios and he was the one who discovered the basic camera trickery. When he made 'The Vanishing lady' he was using in- camera editing and he made it popular and was the first person to use it. He got forced out of business by the commercial industry in 1913 and he died of poverty.  

·                     Edwin S Porter – The Life of an American Fireman

Edwin porter was an electrician at the start of his career before joining the film laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison in the 1890s. Edwin's breakthrough came when he made the film ' Life of an American Fireman' in 1903. it has been said that the film was one of the first among that had a close up of a hand pulling a fire alarm. In 1929 the stock market crash put him out of business, so in the 1930s he worked on home-movie cameras.     Edwin S Porter – The Great Train Robbery is the prime example of a excellent film that resembles the films that are watched today. 

·                     Charles Pathe – The Horse that Bolted

Charles Pathe was a french pioneer motion- picture executive ho controlled a vast network of production and distribution facilities that dominated the world film market during the first years of the 20th century. The Horse that Bolted was example of parallel editing  this film was created in 1907.