AS1: Task 5: Understanding Montage Theory

The term montage has slightly different meanings depending on one of the three following contexts: French Film, Hollywood Cinema, & Early Soviet filmmaking. The general purpose is to compress many weeks, or months of footage into a few minutes.

French Cinema
In French film practice, the term "montage" simply has its literal French meaning of "assembly". Therefore, the use of montage in French filmography simply identifies the process of editing, meaning that montage is used to describe the editor of a film.

Soviet Cinema
In early Soviet filmmaking during the 1920's, the directors created and used montages to reveal a deeper, more obscured meaning, for example, in the 1925 film Strike (Stachka) by Sergei Eisenstein, there is a scene that shows waves of Russian workers running away from, and being shot down by Russian guards, it would then cut to a video of a cow being slaughtered in an abattoir, it would continue to occasionally switch between the two. The purpose of the film was for Eisenstein to display the poor treatment that the workers were facing at that time, he compared the slaughter of the workers to the slaughter of cattle, which can also be used to show the workers being treated as cattle, in an attempt to show the poor conditions and terrible treatment that they are subjected to.

In the 1910's & 1920's, a Russian filmmaker named Lev Kuleshov conducted an experiment in which he created a montage containing 6 images, 3 of these images were of the actor Ivan Mosjoukine, in each shot, he had the same facial expression, in between these shots, Kuleshov edited in 3 other images, a bowl of soup, a coffin containing a young girl, and an attractive woman posing on a divan. The experiment seems to show his facial expression to change after each image is showed, despite the fact that Ivan has the exact same expression on his face each time, he appears to show hunger after the picture of the soup, he appears to show sadness after the picture of the young girl in the coffin, and he appears to show lust after the picture of the attractive woman on the divan. Kuleshov used the experiment to indicate the effectiveness of film editing.  

Hollywood Cinema
In Hollywood cinema, a montage would be used to condense a long narrative into short compact sequences. A good example of a montage in Hollywood cinema would be in the Rocky films, where there is always a montage depicting Sylvester Stallone as Rocky training for a fight, the intention being to show Rocky getting better and better over time, and is shown in short snippets. It originally depicts Rocky not being at his physical peak, but gradually getting better throughout the montage, this is better than showing his entire change in physical prowess, as the audience may lose interest.

AS1: Task 4: From Analogue to Digital

Analogue Editing
In the early days of film, when editing was introduced, it was known as analogue editing, this involved the cutting together or "splicing" of celluloid film, they are spliced together to form a reel of film, it is edited together using a special type of glue, or tape, this often would take a long time to do. The reel of film is played at a constant rate of 24 frames per second through a projector, which displays the film.

Moviola

In 1924, Iwan Serrurier invented a device known as the Moviola, which is a device that can be used to view by a film editor to view a piece of film as he/she was editing it, it allowed editors to study individual shots in their cutting rooms, to determine more precisely where the best cut point might be. Unfortunately, being put through the moviola could cause the film to become scratched, torn, or unglued, so the editors had to be selective with their editing.

Linear & non-linear editing

Linear editing is where the film has to be edited in order, meaning that the film is edited from beginning to end, piece by piece, this is the way that all film was edited for a long time, until an advancement in technology allowed for films to be edited in any order. 

Video editing

Before digital technological advancements, information could be stored on magnetic tapes, they were known as VHS tapes, and could be played using a VCR. These tapes either had to be hand-rewound, or could be rewound using the VCR itself, these were much more convenient as not only did they take up much less space than a film reel, but it also meant that films could be viewed from the comfort of one's own home.

AS:1 Task 3: Developing Editing Techniques

In Camera Editing
Definition: In-Camera Editing is a technique used by the earliest film directors, it involves recording what you see with the camera, up until a certain point, at which point you then stop the camera, adjust the set, and then continue to record, it was accidentally discovered by George Melies when he was shooting a film, and his camera momentarily stopped, he then used this newly discovered technique to record his short film The Vanishing Lady (1899), which released only a year after the first film was ever made.

Pros: it doesn't take any time to edit the film afterwards as it has already been edited, it could have been done by anybody, it can be done easily and quickly.

Cons: the shot could be ruined if somebody moves when they're not supposed to, the director could stop the filming at the wrong time, the camera could be moved whilst the set is being adjusted.

People moved on from in-camera editing when editing techniques improved, allowing for people to splice their footage together using glue, this allowed the directors to be able to carry on with their filming, even if they'd made a mistake, as now they could just cut it out.

AS1: Task 2: In Camera Editing

In Camera Editing Task
For our most recent project, we did some research into "in-camera editing", which is a form of editing that was accidentally discovered by George Melies in the 1890's, when his camera stopped rolling for a split second, he used this editing in his 1896 film "The Vanishing Lady", in which he held a blanket over a woman, and made her disappear, he then turned her into a skeleton, and then brought her back into the room, using his
revolutionary new form of editing.

For our project, we decided to follow the same basic principal of disappearance, the other members of my group were Jessica, David, and William. We decided that I would have a conversation with William, and he'd say something I didn't like, I'd "zap" Will, and he would disappear, at which point, David would walk past, I'd "zap" him, he too would disappear, and I'd pull them out of the ground.

I think it did go quite well, however I do think that it should've been silent, as you can hear a few commands being said, as well as other occasional background noise, however, overall, I am pleased with how it turned out. I specifically liked the way that everything flowed very well, it was all timed very well, and no scene ran for too long, however, I think it could be improved by muting the footage, as in a few scenes you can hear "stop" being shouted.

Advantages

• Easy to do.
• Can be done at very little expense.

Disadvantages

• The whole video is ruined if one shot is messed up.
• The shot can be messed up easily between pauses.

AS1: Task 1: Editing In Early Cinema

Early stages of editing in cinema
The first ever film was created by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895, and was entitled Sortie d'usine (literally meaning Factory Output). It featured employees leaving the Lumiere Brothers' factory, it featured no editing whatsoever, and that camera stayed in place. It features no storyline at all, and only lasts for about 40 seconds. 

The Lumiere Brothers

The next film we watched was entitled The Vanishing Lady, which was directed by George Melies, and released in 1896, and was the first film to ever use a basic form of editing, known as in-camera editing, where he'd crank the camera, stop at a very specific part, which would expose light to the film, then he'd adjust part of the set and continue recording, it was revolutionary at the time, as he made it seem like he had recorded a lady disappearing on camera, it lasted 1 minute and 11 seconds, the film was a breakthrough at the time, as the first film had only been released a year prior to it.

George Melies

The next film, which was directed G.A. Smith, and was entitled The Miller and The Sweep, which was released to the public in 1898. Unlike Sortie d'usine, The Miller and The Sweep featured somewhat of a storyline. A miller and a sweep are walking towards each other and knock into each other, they have a fight, and the miller gets covered in soot, and the sweep gets covered in flour. It is then followed by a crowd of people chasing them. Much like "Sortie d'usine" it featured no camera movement, was shot in one motion, and featured no editing, and lasted 1 minute.

The next film, which was also directed by G.A. Smith, was entitled The Kiss in the Tunnel, and was released in 1899, this was another breakthrough in the world of editing, as it featured three scenes, instead of one, as had been used in past films, the camera in the first and third scenes was placed on a train, and recorded like that. The first scene shows the train heading into a dark tunnel, this then switches to the second scene which is of a man and a woman sitting in a carriage together, they make the most of the brief darkness of the tunnel, and the man leans forward to kiss the woman, which is followed by the third scene of the train leaving the tunnel. According to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, Smith "felt that some extra spice was called for" and thus, recorded the footage, it lasted 1 minute and 3 seconds, and was the first film to feature editing of film being spliced.

G.A. Smith

The next film we looked at was entitled The Life Of An American Fireman (1903), and was directed by Edwin S. Porter. Porter was thought to be one of the first editors, and was one of the first to use splice editing, to piece together bits of film to show two things happening one after another, but from different angles of the set, this resulted in something new that had not been seen in film before. Audiences got to see shots of the inside of the burning building, before it switched to the outside of the building, where they saw the firefighter that had just saved a woman from the building, something that had obviously not been done before. The film consisted of seven scenes rendered in nine shots. It was shot in late 1902, and released to the public in January 1903. Porter also directed a film entitled The Great Train Robbery (1903), it was a Western style short film with a running time of twelve minutes, it is considered a milestone in film making because of this, it features a very famous scene in which a bandit (portrayed by Justus D. Barne) fires his gun directly at the gun, and therefore, also fires it directly at the audience, this had never been seen before in any films.

Edwin S. Porter

Welcome Post

Hello.

My name is Jordan Clark.

I am currently 16 years of age.

This blog shall be a guide to my progress of Unit 16 Media Studies. 

Things that I enjoy that relate to Media include watching films, the last film I watched was Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens.

I also enjoy watching TV programmes such as The Jeremy Kyle Show and Mock The Week.

I also enjoy music, a few of my favourite musicians are Poison, and The Cure.

I also enjoy playing video games such as Grand Theft Auto, and the Elder Scrolls series.