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.
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.
