Pioneers of Editing

Produce a mini documentary about a pioneer of editing. Your

documentary should contain video and still footage from the internet.

However all verbal and written text should be your own - be careful not

to plagiarize. Use the Voice over recording facility to narrate your mini

doc.

Pioneering Film Makers/ Editors to choose from:

1. Edwin S. Porter

2. D.W Griffiths

3. Sergei Eisenstein

4. Dziga Vertov

5. Lev Kuleshov

6. Alfred Hitchcock

7. Martin Scorsese

8. Quentin Tarantino

9. Jean Luc Goddard

10. Alejandro González Iñárritu

11. Walter Murch

12. Thelma Schoonmaker

Suggested Structure for your Mini Doc

Part 1

Your mini documentary should cover the following points:

• What are they most famous for?

• What was the importance of the technique they developed?

• What key films did they work on and what editing techniques were

used?

• Who else has been influenced/used this technique in their films?

• How have they influenced film making?

Part 2

Analyse a clip from a film they have worked on in terms of editing

techniques, consider the following: narrative, rhythmn,

pacing,juxtaposition, shot variation, manipulation of diegetic time and

space, Storytelling (engaging the viewer, providing and withholding

information, development of drama, relationship to genre, creating pace.

Combination of shots,180 degree rule, continuity, montage, point of

view shot; shot-reverse-shot.

Part 3

Summarize your main points

The editor I have chosen to analyse is Thelma Schoonmaker she is most

famous for the fact she has worked with director Martin Scorsese for over

forty years. She has edited all of Scorsese's films since Raging Bull. She has

received seven Academy Award nominations for best editing, and has won

three times (for Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The Departed). The

importance of the technique she used is that in this quote she says "You

get to contribute so significantly in the editing room because you shape the

movie and the performances," she says. "You help the director bring all the

hard work of those who made the film to fruition. You give their work

rhythm and pace and sometimes adjust the structure to make the film

work ‑ - to make it start to flow up there on the screen. And then it's very

rewarding after a year's work to see people react to what you've done in

the cinema’; in this quote she describes how with editing you shape the

movie and the performances. She also describes how in each of martin

scorsese’s film she uses different music in the editing as for example Hugo

uses music from the 60;s and in shutter island they used more classical

music to go with the film. Also the technique she used was that martin

Scorsese has a idea of the editing and then gives her it .One of the main

films she worked on was shutter island, which was about someone who

was disturbed so she made the editing and cutting uncomfortable so it

would reflect that. She also added that some people think editing should

be invisible but she has always tried to avoid that and that her and martin

work on the editing very close together. Another famous film she worked

on was goodfellas when at the end of the film she had done cross editing to

show the character’s state of mind. She also describes how in goodfellas

she added a lot of speed changes, she was also nominated or an Oscar on

her work on goodfellas. Another one of her famous films is ragging bull

which she describes ‘’ it is like my baby. It was my first major feature film.

It is pure gold - beautifully directed, incredibly well acted, wonderful

sound effects - that being my first break in feature film, making it is like my

first’’. She describes how she and martin scoreses’s films have influenced

the Cohen brothers. She has influenced film making by keeping the shot for

five minutes rather then cutting to the next shot, here she talks about the

speed of editing ‘From MTV on, the speed of editing has increased, and

that is now entering into narrative editing. People are not relying on

good shots to tell the story, and I don't think you can sustain that kind of

cutting for the full length of a film.’ Thelma has influenced film making by

keeping to good shots to tell the story and not increasing her speed of

editing while as a lot of other editors have, as she has not followed what

a lot of editors have done so that has influenced a lot of other people.

Part 2 The film I have analysed that Thelma worked on is the aviator http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj1AGhdJB3A you can see in this clip how they have edited that the plane to be the main thing in the first part of the clip. They also used diegetic time by having the sound of the plane as the only sound in the close up clip of the plane. Another extreme close up is of the base of the plane to show the speed it is travelling. Also using birds eye view when the plane was going in the air. Also the main character is telling the storytelling and the pilot of the film so is engaging the viewer. Also with the use of withholding the majority of him driving the plane you can see the difference in the man’s voice wanting him to leave the plane. Also the shot variation of the first few close ups of the place to the next one which shows him loose control of the plane. Also by when he crashes they just use the sound of that and the impact on the women in her house. The long shot shows how much the plane crash has caused, and the close up of the state of his face and himself after it.