Video editing script

Narrator:
Video editing is what arguably has the most impact on a
film or production as a whole. But what does an editor
do? A common miss conception is that they just cut
footage up and stick the wanted shots together and then
they’re done. However this is wrong as their job is a lot
more. For example, some scenes are completely different
when edited to when they were shot, to that they point
they are so contrasted it looks like it’s not the same
shot. An example of this is in horrors, where sound
editing and video editing play a key role in jumps cares,
as without suspenseful music and zooming into a specific
frame where the jump scare will have the most impact.
For an editor there are many goals, most importantly,
removing the unwanted footage, clips that were either not
intended to be recorded or needed to be reshot, all need
to be removed so you are left with the highest quality
clips to make the best possible production. When films
get a physical release there is also a select few deleted
scenes, these were scenes that were filmed but not used,
as decided by the post production team, this could be for
a number of reasons, such as the scene distributing the
flow of the film, or just does not benefit the story or
production at all.
Editing was very basic in the early times of short films,
also known as cutting and sticking, as this is what it
effectively was. It all started in 1887, when American
inventor Thomas Edison patented one of the first motion
picture cameras, called the kinetograph, the camera
captured around 30 images/second on a perforated
celluloid film using stop-and-go movement. The short
films created could be viewed only by one person at a
time via a peephole viewing cabinet called the
Kinetoscope. With this device the editing was done with
the camera so the cameraman would usually do both. In
1903 Edwin S Porter created and edited a 10 minute short
filmed called the Great Train Robbery (1903) . This was a
huge stride in editing development, it was the first film
to use modern film editing techniques, with some that we
still see today, most of these techniques had never been
seen before at the time, like parallel editing where
events in two different locations simultaneously come
together to form a conclusion, the short had a total of
14 scenes and was 10 minutes in length, and it was edited
using a splicing machine.
Parallel editing is a technique that can turn a boring
linear sequence into one that’s tenser to watch as two or
more sequences come together to reach a conclusion, my
favourite use of this technique was in 1983’s Star wars:
Return of the Jedi, where the crosscutting lasted from
the last third of the film all the way to near the end,
it kept watching the film interesting because the
audience knew all of the events will impact each other to
reach a conclusion of the trilogy. If this act of the
film didn’t use the parallel editing effect, the
sequences would have been boring until the final duel of
the film, and if they played all the clips for the duel
in a linear sequence it would have felt uninspiring to
watch, but as they broke it up between the other two
events the audience are left wanting to see the duel
more, even if they have to watch the other two events
that led up to it.
After the great train robbery, the next development in
editing was the Soviet montage theory. Director Lev
Kulshov first started the montage theory because he
thought one frame may not be enough to convey an idea or
an emotion, and if there was more frames the films would
look better and be able to hold people’s attention for
longer. The audience are able to view two separate images
and then subconsciously give them a collective context of
what is actually happening in the shot rather than
directly spoon feeding every piece of information to
them, therefore making the films less boring.
Hitchcock's definition of montage was “the assembly of
pieces of film which moved in rapid suggestion before the
eye creates an idea." A perfect example of this in the
bathroom scene in psycho when the girl gets stabbed but
you don't actually see it on screen, you see the
before and after to the point it is clear what is
happening, and as violence wasn't used in cinema in those
times, people were not used to it and some would complain
they saw a stabbing, even when they didn't. This is
because their brain automatically tells them what events
took place, and it was such a shock to them as it is
likely they had never seen anything like it in cinema.
Modern montages are commonly used to show a
transition/transformation from point a to point b in a
matter of a few seconds but in reality something like
getting fit enough for boxing (rocky/creed) or travelling
through various terrains, which would take a long time
and likely not be entertaining to watch. The montage
shows the transition normally less than a minute but the
audience will understand what is going on as the change
would likely be significant, and this is like events of
extreme weight loss of travelling far. Directors now know
that the audiences don't need to be spoon fed all the
information as this will obviously make the production
boring to watch with a slow flow. The purpose of the
modern 'training montages' are to quickly see a character
become stronger, practising to gain a new skill, etc.
There are many examples like in Rocky how he goes from
being unfit and lethargic when exercising to sprinting
fast down a dock, looking a lot fitter.
As you can see here, at the start of the montage rocky is
slow and quickly out of breath, looking stocky too.
However as the montage developed you see him making
progress, like the sweat when he’s using the punching
back, which shows the effort he is putting in to achieve
his goals. By the end of it Rocky is sprinting and
looking in good shape, and there’s even a celebratory
shot of him, as he’s come a long way.
Some of the most famous film editors are those that have
transitioned through the years, from using film to
digital, as they had to learn their trade two different
ways, whereas some of their films, where they would be
from the late 1900’s are still classics today, and some
still hold up pretty well even though they were edited on
film.
Michael Kahn is a prime example of this. He is best known
for his work in Jurassic park (1992) and saving Private
Ryan (1998). He was known as Spielberg favourite editor
because of the amount of trust the two had when making
productions and have worked together for more than 35
years. These films also include all of the Indiana jones
films and most recently the BFG (2016) and West side
story (2021) which is currently in post-production. In a
2011 interview, Kahn spoke about what it was like to be
an editor through the evolving industry and also served
some advice for those currently in the industry or
working to get into it. Some of my favourite quotes from
the interview included "If you never make changes to a
cut you will never get to the best cut." This is a quote
I personally always try to replicate into my own work
because I strongly believe editing take time and needs to
be always looked through and worked on, and as the
editing develops you get closer to a higher standard. By
using innovative editing techniques is what keeps the
industry fresh and audiences keep coming back for more,
even if it’s the exact same crew working on it. Another
quote he said was "We put film together, tell the story,
and give it clarity. That’s what we do. This further
shows that an editor’s job isn’t just cutting and
sticking but shaping the story and how it’s seen by the
audience.
My favourite quote from these is "Don’t edit from
knowledge, edit from feeling" because, again all editing
needs to be in some way unique. Films would be boring and
uninspiring if all editors only use a handful of
techniques rather than be innovative to make the
production more interesting to watch and grab the
audience’s attention. Kahn also believes in walking away
from the edit if you’re worked out as you’ll not do your
best work, rather than if you come back fresh the next
day
Paul Hirsch was credited for editing the first two Star
Wars Films, including A new Hope (1977) and The Empire
Strikes back (1980), he won an OSCAR award in 1977, with
winning 6 other awards including a BAFTA later in his
career
I truly respect the work of Hirsch because he was part of
the reason how Star wars was edited. When on a low
budget, the film was expected to fail in the box office
but it’s now a franchise worth multi-billions. The
editing of the group which helped made star wars a
success were vital to the franchise and where it is
today. This comes from making models of ships and editing
the transition to seeing someone in a cockpit to flying
which was a lot rarer those days, also seeing blaster
bullets and of course lightsabres which are now iconic,
and it was all edited on film too. It was clear how far
they pushed the technology available. Hirsh said in an
interview in 2020 about how he first had to edit using a
splicer, where film would be placed and carefully cut. He
explains how excited he was to edit on a computer for the
first time, which was Mission impossible (1996), he said
he loved editing because of how low the risk was compared
to editing on devices like the spacer he was editing the
picture inside the frame, this allowed him to take risks
and try new techniques in films.
The cloning editing technique is one I feel could be
useful for various productions in the future. After
watching many YouTube tutorials I’ve practised this
technique and found best way to do this effect is record
the multiple versions of the same frame and use the
'mask' technique to overlay each bit of footage. Although
I’ve only done it with two clones, I’ve also looked into
ways I can develop the technique including ways to ‘mass
clone’ which is something I will look into more in the
future. I like the way I’ve done mine as it does look
realistic thanks to the fact I kept the tripod very
steady so the frame doesn’t change.