Development of Editing Technology

The Development of Editing Technology

Editing is something first seen in the 1800's where George Melies filmed a bus coming out of a tunnel, when his camera jammed, when the camera was working again the bus had gone and was replaced by a hearse, this was the invention the jump cut. Melies then continued to use this new editing technique in order to create disappearing and reappearing effects on screen in his films. Going into the 1900's film makers discovered that by editing scenes together it not only contributed to the audiences sense of the story, but also allowed film makers to produce much more complexed films, for example 'The Great Train Robbery' in 1903. George Melies included cuts in his film by placing a puff of smoke infant of an actor, he then turned off the camera, and when the camera turned back on the actor had left the stage. By doing this it therefore produced a disappearing effect.

As the 1900's progressed new editing device was introduced, this device was called a Moviola which was the first device for editing motion picture, it was invented by Iwan Serrurier. The device allowed the film editor to view the film whilst they were editing, this was a step forward for editors as it allowed them to study individual shots in the film and therefore helped the editor to determine where the best cut point may be. The editing devices were used throughout the 1900's until the late 1970's when Flat bed editor systems became more common. The flat bed editor system is another machine used to edit motion picture, the machine involves picture and sound rolls loading onto separate motorised 'disks' called plates. The machine was manufactured in Germany, the most popular brand of the editing system was called 'Steenbeck'. The use of flat bed editing lasted up until around the mid 1990's where the systems were replaced by Non-Linear editing systems.

In the mid 1990's the introduction of Non-Linear editing computers became widely available and opened up a whole new world of editing power and flexibility. The introduction of this type of editing created a sort of 'new wave' which some refused to follow. Although Non-linear editing computers did have their problems, the advantages of them were too good to be ignored and by the 21st century forms of 'linear' editing had been abandoned completely as digital editing had became so popular.

Video Essay

For this task I was asked to create a video essay showing and explaining different shot types via my own examples, written explanations and different cinematic examples. The essay includes 9 filmed examples of different shot types along with another 9 cinematic examples.

Throughout the task I ensured that all of my footage was labeled and in order and also in the same folder as my premiere pro session. By doing this it meant that my footage was always linked with the session, meaning that I didn't have to spend valuable editing time re-linking media to the session. I was also able to film each example of each shot accurately without any difficulties and was also able to explain the shot's in detail in a summary after the example was shown. Another thing I believe I did well was finding cinematic footage of each shot to put after my own examples, this created a comparison between my own examples and the cinematic examples which helped to show exactly what the shot was more clearly.

There was weaknesses within my video essay, one of these is that some of my clips involved in the Einstein Montage are not cut as well as they should be. An example of this is when the subject is running around corners, the camera is almost waiting for too long for the subject to run past, if it was cut correctly the part of the clip where the camera is waiting would be cut out and the subject would run past straight away. Another weakness and area I could improve in is that my own examples go straight into the cinematic example without any introduction, to improve this I would include a titled clip saying exactly what the film/TV show the clip had came from along with what shot the clip was showing.

Overall to improve I need to ensure that I cut all of my clips precisely and ensue they look smooth and professional. I also need to include small introductions between my own examples and the cinematic examples to break up the jump between the 2. Finally I need to ensure that some of my cinematic examples are of a a higher quality as the resolution on some is a lot smaller than my own examples.

Focusing

Here is an example of me using the pull focus, it effectively demonstrates what a pull focus technique is. I was able to change the focus from the bottle to the glue stick smoothly in order to create an effective pull focus. However an area of weakness would be that my camera work was a bit shaky as a did not have a tripod to steady the camera. Technical challenges I faced included not being able to do the pull focus at first, this was due to the camera being on the 'Auto Focus' setting. I had to change the camera to manual focus to be able to focus the camera myself. I made this video in order to demonstrate what a 'pull focus' is. I would improve this video by making the video longer than 7 seconds, and also by using a tripod in order to ensure that the footage is not shaky.

ISO

When using the camera set on 3600 ISO it was very difficult for the subject on video to become visible even with the use of LED lights. This could of been due to the lack of lighting in the area in which we shot the video's. If I were to do this task again I would ensure that I filmed in a more well lit area to ensure that by changing the ISO and Aperture it had more of an impact on the overall picture.

When using the camera set on 1600 the issue remained the same but the subject was even less visible on camera, the same amount of LED lighting was used but the image only got darker by reducing the ISO. To improve I would again shoot in an area that has better lighting to help the subject become more visible.

Tutorial Video

For this task I was asked to create a video explaining different camera shots by using my own filmed examples and a range of cinematic examples. The video contains 10 examples of shot types and 10 examples of shot types within cinematic examples alongside brief written summary's explaining exactly what each shot type is and why it is used. This tutorial video was made for an audience of AS media students, and I feel that it effectively demonstrates different shot types and explains them well.

Throughout this task I feel one of my strengths was ensuring that everything was organised, this included making sure all video footage was shot and ready to include my tutorial straight away. I also made sure everything was labeled and in the correct place. By doing these things and staying organised it I was able to put the tutorial together in a much more stress free way than if I was disorganised.

However the production of this task didn't come without its difficulties, as it was the first time I had ever used the software Premiere Pro. This meant that one of my main weaknesses was my lack of knowledge of how to use premiere pro, by having to learn how to use the many features of Premiere Pro it meant that the creation of my tutorial was a lot slower than what it would of been if I was an experienced user of the software. Another weakness was that there was some difficulty recording the shots, in particular the 'Zolly' which took more than 10 attempts just to get a fairly average version of it. I was able understand Premier Pro however and was able to complete and fully edit the tutorial, so my lack of knowledge of the software will not be an issue for future projects being created on that software.

Overall in order to improve my tutorial I would of used some different equipment in order to capture specific shot's better than I did, for example the use of a track in the tracking shot and the use of a Dolly to capture the 'Zolly' shot rather than using a chair! I would also of used a tripod used for video to help the fluidity of the motion in the Panning shot, as in the shot the motion is slightly wobbly rather than smooth. I would also include cinematic examples of a higher quality, the majority of  examples are of a decent quality but my 'establishing shot' and 'panning shot' cinematic examples are of a lesser quality than the rest of them.

ISO Experiment

ISO 100 - Over the shoulder/ISO 1600 - Pan Shot

As this was the first time I had experimented with the ISO and aperture on a camera it was difficult to know exactly what to do to alter the image when exposed to different lights. However although it was more first time I still feel I was able to shoot 2 rather effective video's which clearly show the experimentation of different ISO on the camera. I feel my strengths whilst recording this was that I ensure that the image recorded stayed in focus throughout the duration of the clip, this is a strength because if the shot was out of focus the video would not show the change in lighting and ISO as well. Another strength I would say was my ability to pick to particular shot types in order to film. 

My overall weakness was monitoring the light exposure of an image, it took me more than 2 attempts of filming to get the lighting and exposure right to make the subject within the video visible. Technical challenges I faced throughout this task were being able to alter settings on the camera itself, this was mainly due to the fact that this was the first time I had been introduced to things like exposure, ISO and Aperture. By continuously altering settings and shooting a few different video's I was eventually able to understand ISO in  an image, this can be seen in my final video's of ISO 100 and ISO 1600. These video's made purely to help my understanding of ISO, and by creating video's at different ISO's I was able to achieve this understanding. Overall to improve my video's I need to improve my knowledge of light exposure so I am able to control lighting more and therefore have a better picture on my video's.

Aperture - Shutter Speed - ISO

Aperture-

An Aperture was created in order to control the amount of light entering a camera, what was created was a hole smaller than the actual diameter of the lens. This helps to control the amount of light entering the camera the same way the iris in your eye controls the amount of light entering it. By controlling the amount of light entering the camera it therefore ensured that photographers were able to reduce the amount of light exposing the image, and therefore get a better picture.

Shutter Speed-

Shutter speed is how fast the camera takes an image, just how the aperture halves or doubles the amount of light entering the camera, the shutter speed has the same halving and doubling effect, depending on the length of the exposure. For example long shutter speed can be used to intentionally blur a moving image for artistic effect.

ISO- The ISO of an image controls how sensitive your image is to light. The ISO was measured in numbers, the lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain of the shots you are taking. Higher ISO are usually used in darker filming to get faster shutter speeds.

Induction Video's

Video

 I placed the camera underneath a trampoline in order to try and capture some unusual footage by positioning the camera looking upwards.








Here I placed the camera underneath a sun bed in order to capture the changing of lighting. It slowly changes from natural lighting, to the bright light of the sun bed itself, before fading out and returning to its natural light.






Here I placed the camera on the floor next to the cats food and captured footage which is eye level with cat itself.

Induction Task

How and why lighting affects camera techniques for moving image?

In the book 'Motion Picture and Video Lighting'  there is a section which talks about the mood and tone of images and moving picture. It mentions that lighting and camera techniques are used for specifics, the example used in the book is that the lighting and camera techniques are used in fashion shows in order to make the model look incredible.

Lighting is also very important in order to add shape depth and dimension to a scene, it is important as to where the lighting is coming from as this helps to build the overall depth of the shot itself. This is shown in the book 'Motion Picture and Video Lighting' it say's "Lighting from the side or back reveals the shape of an object" followed by "This is important for the overall depth of the shot". Lighting is important as it can shape the mood of a scene, for example low key lighting can help to ensure the scene is mysterious or scary e.g. horror films often use low key lighting.

Separation ensure the subject stands out from its background a range of lighting techniques such as "backlight" and making the area behind the subject "significantly darker or brighter than the subject". These are all ways in which lighting has a significant effect on moving image.

Info comes from book 'Motion Picture and Video'