Film and Video Editing Techniques

History and development of editing
The first ever person to capture a moving image was Eadweard Muybridge. Using a collection of 12 cameras set up in a line using trip wires so they would trigger the cameras to take pictures a split second apart, shown below.

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/windows/southeast/eadweard_muybridge.html

At the beginning of cinema, during the 1890s, films were created completely in one shot (in camera). These films were under a minute long and there was no editing or sound (which wasn't introduced until 1927). The first initial filmmakers felt that audiences would be confused by the way things moved to different positions from the cutting together of shots. An example of one of these early one shot films is L'Arrivée d'un train á La Ciotat (also known as The Arrival of a Train) by the Lumiére Brothers. This film was released in France in January of 1896, was 1 minute long, silent and in black and white. The Lumiére Brothers also created the cinematographe, an early film camera and projector which shot films at sixteen frames per second, much better than the previous rate of forty six.

The style of filming is similar to what we would now often see in a home video filmed by ourselves. Due to the newness of cinema, when this film was shown to audiences they were genuinely afraid and many thought the train was really coming towards them. The Lumiere Brothers described their films as 'actualites', containing action continuing from the beginning to end filmed by a static camera.
This novelty soon wore off however, as after more and more of these early one shot short films were created and enjoyed, the audience begun to realise that they were just watching things they could go and see in real life for themselves. By the turn of the century, doubts surrounding the future of cinema began to arise, causing filmmakers to come up with the idea of cutting footage to allow the film to change between shots. Alongside this idea came the discovery that as a result of editing different shots into a sequence, a more complex story could be told.
In early films, these cuts would be made in camera; the cameraman would stop cranking the camera at the precise end of the shot, and start it up again when the camera had been moved to somewhere else or had something else put in front of it. This style of editing allowed the opportunity for simple special effects; Georges Méliés would make a puff of smoke appear in front of the actor, stop the camera, then start the camera up again, in the same position, once the actor was out of sight. When watched in sequence it would look as though the actor had magically disappeared. He also made the 1902 film A Trip to the Moon. The film has a run time of just under 14 minutes and comprises of 30 separate scenes, each consisting of one wide shot and each playing out to its own individual logical conclusion, and all connected by dissolves. The camera remained static and each scene was captured from the same angle; this style of shot is often called a 'proscenium' (which is also the name of the section of the theatre surrounding the stage) as the camera position is where the audience would be if they were watching the stage directly.

A further development in cinematic editing is Edwin Porter's 'discovery' of the shot. As opposed to Melies' A Trip to the Moon which had each scene (note that they are described as scenes, not shots) connected by dissolves, Porter's The Great Train Robbery consisted of shots connected by cuts; he would cut away from each shot straight into another before reaching a logical conclusion. These cuts were created by literally cutting up the reel of film at the point of the desired cut and attaching it to the start of the next shot, and so on and so forth.

The Great Train Robbery (1903) is made up of 14 shots and has a run time of just over 12 minutes. As well as the use of straight cuts, the film also contains other innovations that were state of the art at the time. Back projection is used in the first shot, where a train is seen moving and then coming to a halt outside the window of the room in which the main action is taking place, and is then used again in the third shot where the outside landscape is shown moving past the trains open door. A panning shot and a tilt is used in shot 8 to follow the bandits as they escape the train, a very different technique to the static camera used in previous films. Arguably the most revolutionary shot in the film is shot 14, where the bandits leader is shown in a medium close-up as he fires his gun directly at the camera. Despite being used as a gimmick and not as part of the actual narrative, this was one of cinema's first use of the close up. Many audience members were initially annoyed by shots like the close up, as they felt they deserved to see the full body of the actor rather than just a section as they had paid to see the whole film.
The next notable contributor to the history of film editing was D.W. Griffith. Despite not actually inventing any of the editing techniques he used, he executed them in a manner that made them emotionally and dramatically significant and relevant to the narrative. He wanted the cut to be barely noticeable to the viewer, to try and hold their attention throughout the whole film. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is often considered to be one of the most influential films of all time.

By alternating shots of different spatial lengths such as wide shots, mid shots and close ups, Griffith encouraged the audience to respond in a certain way. The sequence which shows the assassination of Abraham Lincoln uses parallel editing, or cross cutting. Comprising of 55 shots, some of which are only held for mere seconds, the sequence shows the relationships between Lincoln and his bodyguard, the audience, and the assassin all building up the the final dramatic climax and by keeping the length of the shots short, tension is increased. This cross cutting technique is also used in The Great Train Robbery so isn't revolutionary as such, however in The Great Train Robbery it's used to show only what occurs in 2 different places.
Griffith's influence was at a worldwide scale, The Moscow Film School in the 1920s showed his Intolerance (1916) repeatedly whilst students analysed his techniques to then use for themselves. Though the piecing together of different shots to portray theme and action, also known as a montage, that Griffith was so famous for had been used before by other filmmakers, Griffith gave it its fame which led the Soviets to theorize it's meaning.
Arguably the most notable Soviet director of the time was Sergei Eisenstein. He was heavily influenced by Griffith, and was known as the Father of the Montage. Principally, he saw montage as a useful tool for propaganda film which is what was mainly taught at The Moscow Film School. Eisenstein would juxtapose images with either metaphoric or symbolic importance within the films narrative with the hope of manipulating the audience's thoughts and feelings.

Shown above is a clip of a montage sequence from Sergei Eisenstein's Strike! (1925). In the montage, shots of factory workers alongside their families being mass murdered by police is intercut with shots of an abbatoir in which cattle are being slaughtered, the graphic and shocking images are intended as a metaphor for the horrendous events taking place.
Another Russian filmmaker who used montage in an interesting way at the time was Lev Kuleshov. He was a leader of the Soviet montage theory, and developed his theories before Eisenstein, who was briefly a student of Kuleshov. Kuleshov felt cinema was all about editing, specifically the juxtaposition of each shot corresponding to another. His revolutionary idea, known now as The Kuleshov Effect is an editing exercise in which a shot of an actor is intercut with a meaningful image, such as a casket or a sexual looking lady. The intention of this is to show how editing can change the viewers interpretation of editing.

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/kuleshov-effect.html

Another example of the early use of montages is in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) in which a shot of a crowded group of faceless men coming out of a subway is immediately followed by a shot of sheep being taken to slaughter, in the midst of the herd is a single black ram. This is then followed by a return to the crowd scene, however Charlie is now emerging in the middle of the crowd (the metaphorical black sheep).
Linear video editing is the process of arranging the sound and images in order. No matter how it was filmed (a video camera, a VTR, recorded in a television studio), the content must be arranged sequentially. Up until the 1990s, this was simply referred to as video editing.
About 15-20 years ago Avid Media Composer was used and they cost between 40 and 50 grand. Non-linear editing was then made, it is either a video, audio, or digital audio workstation system that can edit material without destructing the footage.
In very recent years, about 10 years ago, home computers became powerful enough to run editing software, such as Adobe Premiere Pro. At first it was considered a bit of a joke to filmmakers, however when hit film Cold Mountain was made using the program, it became popular.
Telecine is used to make film to a digital format so it can be edited digitally, and until about 2 years ago it was switched back to film to be shown in cinema.

Purposes of editing

• To create pace. 

Films such as action films would use a fast pace. Pace is very relevant in a scene such as a car chase, shots will be cut very quickly and will move to other different shots quickly too. An example of where a slower pace would be used is in a romantic style of film, where less frequent and slower cuts allow the audience to fully understand scenes and characters without getting distracted by constantly changing shots.

• Show relationships between characters

Not always, but often if a man and woman are shown to be talking to each other in a two-shot a level of intimacy can be implied, where as crosscutting can cause the characters to appear further apart emotionally as they are not physically seen as close.

• To give information

Editing can often be used to allow the audience to access information that could be crucial to ensure they understand the rest of the film. For example, a long shot is shown of a woman walking along the street. She could be there for any reason which is unbeknownst to the viewer, however we then cut to a detail shot of a woman holding a pickax behind her back. The audience now thinks the woman may have now committed a gruesome murder.

Conventions of editing

• Parallel editing

This is an effective technique as it shows how two separate things interact or affect one another and you can see this from each point of view. This is often used to create anticipation. A good example is in the film Silence of the Lambs, in a scene where the protagonist is talking to the girl he has trapped, and at the same time police are surrounding the house and an agent is knocking at the door.

• 180 degree rule

This convention must be followed to ensure the viewer doesn't become confused as to where the shot is being filmed and is also not irritated by what they watch. The camera is placed at a point on a 180 degree line and you cannot move anywhere beyond the 180 degrees.

• Cross-cutting

This technique is mostly used to establish action occurring in two different locations at the same time. The camera will cut from one action to another, suggesting simultaneity of the two actions (this is not always the case however). This is useful as parts of the story that could be complicated to be shown in the same shot can be shown clearly, such as a fight or argument.

• Transition

Transitions are the cut effects used to allow a smooth change between scenes and give a professional look. The most popular transitions used are the dissolve, wipe and flip. 

• Cutting to a soundtrack

Cutting to a soundtrack can be used alongside pace to help along the narrative

• Continuity editing

The purpose of this is to almost cover over the inherent discontinuity caused by the editing process, and to help create a logical coherence between all the shots.