Task One – Editing in Early Cinema

Task One – Editing in Early Cinema

Film making hasn't always been as advanced as it is nowadays, it has progressed over the last 200 or so years. These early movies started off being very short, no longer than 15 seconds long, were not narrated, and cameras could not shoot in colour. There are many different early filmmakers who contributed towards the advancement in editing.

Thomas Edison

 The first of many people who contributed to early filmmaking is Thomas Edison, he ran a film laboratory in which he invented kinescope and the kinetographic camera was invented. Also within this laboratory Edison developed the 35mm film strip, this strip is now the industry standard and is widely used, therefore without Thomas Edison's discovery, we would not be where we are today. However, you could only view the image originally through the tiny screen that only one person could see at a time. Edison, who realised this, developed the projector so the film can be screened to many people at once. 
    

The Lumiere Brothers

Edison then worked with 'The Lumiere Brothers' , together they produced short films which were static and was just a locked down shot. This may not sound interesting compared with what is produced nowadays, but motion was all that was needed to amuse the audience. The films created at this time were simple shots showing activity such as moving traffic, or people leaving a factory.  Can be seen in the film Sortie d'usine?



   Another step in editing was made by G.A Smith, initially films had no story and were not edited at all, the films just ran as long as there was film in cinema. However, G.A Smith changed this with creating 'The Miller and The Sweep' one of the first examples of a film with a story. In this movie you see two people in front of a mill fighting with flour bags and then a group of other characters chasing them away, this was a short plot, but to audiences it was a good story. 
    

 

The next person who made a break through in film editing was George Melies, a magician, who had seen work done by the Lumiere brothers which influenced him to the idea he could involved his magic with basic camera tricks. He then bought a camera, wrote scripts and directed his own movies.

Although basic and novelty in recent times, his film from 1896, 'The Vanishing Lady' was a first basic knowledge of camera editing and effects. He started by putting a cloth over a women, stopped the camera, took the woman out of shot, and carried on filming as if the camera never stopped. Although this never got any further George Melies was a major contribution to editing in early cinema.

Edwin Porter was another cause of advance in early editing , he was an electrician who worked for Thomas Edison for a while in the film lab in the late 1890's, working together in order to create longer films. An example of a filme they worked on was 'A life of an American Fireman', 1903, this was more advanced as it was one of the first to contain suspense, and action going on throughout, also you see in this one of the first ever close up shots for that time. 

Edwin Porter was also one of the first to discover the importance of the motion picture, presented by the 'Great Train Robbery' also in 1903, this film showed the colouring in of some slides the add colour into the film, all of these discoveries were major breakthroughs at the time as it was one of the first use of splicing to create a full story with different scenes. These eventually led to films having narrative and better shots. 

Charles Pathe, made the 'horse that bolted'. This was a first idea of parrallell editing, causing tension in the audience.  This makes the audience understand that two things are happening at the same time. 

D.W.Griffith was the final person in which caused advance in editing in the early 20th century. He was a US film director, and was also the first person that introduced cross cutting into his films. This could be seen in his film ''Birth of a Nation'', 1915. Griffiths work seen as one of the greatest breakthroughs in early film editing and he influenced many early film makers understanding editing