Editing of the Past

Before editing as we know it was around movies were filmed just like theatre where they just filmed it in one long take while telling an entire story.

Sick Kitten which was released in 1903 is an example of ‘In Camera Editing’ where they would film a scene then they would stop the film, move in closer for a close up or change the angle then continue rolling the film.

George Melies short called The Vanishing Lady was the first film to use the jump cut and he uses it as a special effect to make the female actor in it appear to disappear.

In his film ‘The Impossible Voyage’ he used multiple ways to add special effects and way of cutting between scenes by:

One exposure over another.

Painting as backgrounds.

Pictures/art placed and hanged on strings.

Models used as smaller versions of their larger counterparts.

Stage props.

Edwin S Porter created the film ‘The Great Train Robbery’ which is seen by many as being the first genre film however, it did copy George Melies in a way that he used the jump cut in a similar way and used the use of colouring frames in the same way as George did.

Battleship Potempkin – Odessa Steps Scene: This scene was the main influence into the popularity of the editing technique know as montage. Montage is usually used in YouTube videos these days but is used in films to show the passing of time, however in the Odessa Steps scene Eisenstein used the montage in a completely different way, using it to quickly move from different points in a scene, for example when he uses it to jump back and forth between the soldiers marching down the steps to the mother standing by her pram.