Task Three – From Analogue to Digital Editing

Task Three – From Analogue to Digital Editing

Analogue editing is the cutting together pieces of celluiod film. Traditionally films were made up of images on acetate negatives.  They were edited by being 'spliced' together, to form reels of video.  This was then to be fed through a projector at a constant speed of 24 frames a second which makes the image appear to be moving. This process is described as analogue. There are both pro's and con's of analogue editing, one pro of analogue editing is that the editing is less complex and simple, although being physical work it would not take much time to do this. Another pro of analogue is that you do not need to learn a widespan of different programs in order to complete your editing process, is is a physical action that you can master. However there are con's to analogue editing, this is that you can only create very simple film through this method, this means you cannot push boundaries in films and cannot make films anywhere near the quality they are these days. Another con of analogue editing  is it could be very time comsuming having the find the part that you want to cut, reararange and edit the footage.

Splicing is when the film editor of analogue editing, cut one bit of the film and then physically sticks it to the another. This is a simple form of editing, part of analogue editing. It will then make the film create either the next image, or a cut to a new scene. Doing this many times over, will create a full analogue film, with edits. However in 1924 a moviola was created, this was a machine that could splice films instead of having to physically splie the footage by hand, this invention meant editors could save time and make longer films.Before the use of non-linear editing systems was simply done with the positive copy of the film negative, by physically cutting and pasting pieces of them together by using a splicer and then threading the film onto a machine with a viewer such as the Moviola.
Linear editing is  the arranging film clips in the films correct order. This order will have been predetermined in the pre-planning and production stage of the film. It will not be rearranged and will be edited in the order it has been filmed in.

Digital editing is the post production of a film after it has been filmed to edit it together, with the use of a computer or electronic device to do so. The film pieces are stored in digital form rather than in analogue form. Overall digital editing can be described as the use of computers and technology to manipulate digital data. In digital cinema, they use bits and bytes, which are strings of 1s and 0s, to transmit,  record and reply images rather than using chemicals on the film.

There are pros and cons of digital editing, one of the advantages is that you can make much longer and complex films, this is because when using things like final cut, there are advanced tools to add easily an editing techniques, this also increases the speed.  However disadvantages of digital editing is the idea of using programmes such as Avid and Final Cut, before you can start using them you need to have learnt how to use the software, so training may be necessary. Another disadvantage (con) is that everything is costly to buy as not only the expense of the software, you need to account for a computer to run it on, and any other equipment such as portable hard drives and headphones.

Non linear editing is using digital clips which will allow you to alter the frames and changing them to wherever they will be in the sequence. This ability allows you to cut and move frames and clips around freely. As well as this you can include other features such as transitions and filters in between and over your clips, to adjust the feel. However this cannot be achieved through linear editing.