Film editing silent early years (2)

The early history of film editing

Learning objective The Lumierre Brothers Georges Melies Edwin Porter The Kuleshov Effect Eisenstein and montage D. W. Griffith and the feature length film Nosferatu Harold Lloyd and special effects

The Lumierre BrothersTheir films where single, unedited shots such as ‘Larrive dun train a la

coitat’. The Lumierre Brothers found a subject the wanted to film, set

up their camera and ran the camera until the film stock ran out.

Georges Melies Georges Melies was an illusionist who worked in the theater. He pioneered

double exposure when his camera jammed while filming on the streets of Paris. This evolved into the first dissolve (Cendrillon, 1899).

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The first film editThe process of editing film was

done inside the camera by

stopping the cranking of the

film at the point of edit and

then continuing with the next

scene.

Edwin PorterAmerican filmmaker Edwin Porter was an early pioneer of editing

In order to tell a simple story. In 1903 he Made ‘The Life of an

American Fireman.’

The Kuleshov Effect.Between 1910 and 1920, Russian Filmmaker Lev Kuleshov and V. I. Pudovkin

experimented with editing and emotional response. They filmed an actors

response to different images; a bowl of soup (hunger), a woman (lust) and a

child in a coffin (sadness). Although it

appears that the actors expression does

not change, when juxtaposed with the

three shots it may suggest to the audience

that it does.

Sergie Eisenstein Russian filmmaker Sergie Eisenstein believed film montage could create

ideas that would have a greater impact on an audience. This allowed filmmakers to manipulate real time to a greater degree than just single shots.

Note that Eisenstein is

simply cutting using the naked

eye and a pair of scissors.

D. W. Griffith In 1915, D. W. Griffith made ‘The Birth of a Nation’ which used a

greater variety of camera angles and editing techniques. His films were very popular and he was the first director to produce a feature length film.

In 1922, German filmmaker F. W. Murnau made Nosferatu. It was the first visual representation of the Vampire and one of the first films to use editing film for more complex story telling and using reverse shots.

Harold LloydHarold Lloyd, along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton made silent films

that used special effects with storytelling that helped put Hollywood on the

Map.

His 1923 film ‘Safety First’ Is still iconic cinema.

The editing bench

The Griswold Film SplicerFilm was edited simply

by splicing (cutting) the

film at the exact frame

and taping clips

together. The splicer

allowed cleaner and

more occur.ate cuts

The first MoviolaThe Moviola was invented in 1924

by Iwan Serrurier. The device

allowed film to be viewed while

editing. The Moviola company was

set up in Hollywood and the art of

editing film was revolutionized. The

devise is still used today.