Music Video Editing History

The Lumiere Brothers, are iconic to the development of film editing. The French inventors and pioneer manufactures of photographic equipment who devised and early motion picture camera and projectors called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere’s apparatus consisted of a single camera, their first films were of everyday French life such as a train arriving or a game of cards.

Primitive editing quickly became evident as filmmakers soon discovered that editing shots into a sequence not only contributed to the audience’s sense of tale, but it is more to be able to express a more complex story to the audience.

D.W. Griffith had early involvement with the early years of editing. He was known as the "inventor of Hollywood" This was decided after his movie "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) where he was known to have used advanced camera work which revolutionised America at the time for this. The film costed $110,000 and returned millions but was never fully accounted to.

The reason it was known for it's camera work is that shots such as close ups and fade outs. It contained colour tinting throughout which effected the way the viewer experienced the movie.

Sergei Eisenstein was a pioneer in the theory and practise of montage as he demonstrated through his films Strike (1925).He continued to develop the "methods of montage"

• Metric
• Rhythmic
•  Tonal
•  Overtonal
•  Intellectual

Walter Murch

The rule of six, is that there are six elements to build the story within the edit, which is seen as a list of priorities. The first element of six is, emotion. This is in the sense that when we make a cut the effect on the audience needs to be considered, does the cut create fear? Or happiness? Emotion should be emphasised and not dulled through editing to help the audience escapes into a topia of their own.

The second element being story, the edit needs to ensure and solidify the storyline, simple edits would be the best way to do this, allow the audience to focus on, on screen action and not post production elements.

The third element being rhythm he expresses that “editing must have a beat” “Timing is everything” if the editing is off then this make the whole production will become sloppy and become uninteresting to the audience.

These three are emphasised to be the key elements to editing and a well-produced production.

The fourth element is eye trace this is focusing on where the audience’s eyes are on, meaning what are they focusing on. For example in Apocalypse Now the scene of the ceiling fan rotates into helicopters. The way that is suggested to do this effectively is by splitting the frame into quarters and keeping the action into one quarter.

Five, two dimensional place of screen, the cut needs to follow the 180 degree rule. This is also known as the 180 degree rule. Where the camera and editing needs to stay on one side of the line so that there is no disorientation for the audience which may create confusion.

Six, three dimensional space, similar to the two dimensional place of screen, the editing and camera needs to stick to a line of 180 degrees in order to not confusion the audience, however, some directors and editors go against this rule in order to create the effect of confusion, sometimes this is because the director wants to create the emotion the character is feeling on the audience. It is also done in horror movies to great a sense of disorientation to add to the fear the movie aims to create.

The proportions the he believes should be carried through each rule:

Emotion (51%)

 Story (23%)

            Rhythm (10%)

Eye Trace (7%)

2D Place of Screen (5%)

3D Space (4%)

Video editing techniques that are key when editing any media product are

Continuity editing is a way of cutting a media product in a way to ensure the narrative is continuous and clear. The shots that are involved in doing this are; establishing shot, shot/reverse shot, 180 degree rule, 30 degree rule, crosscutting, match on action,  eyeline match, re-establishing shot.



Parallel editing also known as cross cutting, it is when scenes are edited alternatively, so it makes the audience know the scenes are simultaneously, these are common in party scenes, or in horror movies for example in the iconic.

The Silence of the Lambs, below, it shows what is happening inside the house with the man and the dog and what is going on outside the house with the swat team about to take raid.



Zooms need to be done smoothly. It is considered a hard task to do without editing, however software now allows this to be done with ease, it can be used to create any affect, it makes the audience focus on a particular part of the frame and the camera itself brings that part of the frame to a more predominate place on the scene.



Stabilization refers to how steady the shot is, if the scene has been shot and turns out to be shaky then this can now be changed in editing. This is important because if the shot is shaky then the audience will not be focusing on what is happening in the scene but will be distracted by the shaky shot.

Cut on action, otherwise known as match on action is used for continuity editing. It is when one shot cuts to another shot portraying the same action of that the subjects did in the first shot. It creates a “visual bridge” for the audience and helps draw the audience’s attention away from any issues on screen.

Shot reverse shot is also a part of continuity editing, it is used to convey a conversation or the character’s focus on something. When using this editing technique following the 180 degree rule is key in order to make it work and not confuse the audience.





Montages are effective to show the events across a period of time, montages can be created with still and moving images. There are two examples of montages that are shown below.

This montage uses:      Still images


                                    Sepia Tone


                                    Slow – paced editing


                                    Orchestral music


                                    No dialogue




The second montage is from ‘The Rules of Attraction’ and it uses:


Video footage (Digital)


Fast- Paced Editing ( quick shots, many cuts)


House Music


Narration


These two edits show how a montage can add two different elements to a film.





Jump cuts are fast cuts, it shows the passing of time in a short space of time. It is often used in horror films to create a sense of urgency for the audience, as it is used to reflect the character’s mood as well.


Cutaways are used as an interruption of continuously filmed action and used to show a view of something else, this is then typically followed to a cut back to the original shot, however, this isn’t always the case.


 Intercutting is where the edit cuts back and forward between two or more discrete narratives. This is normally used to link two narratives together as well.





Edwin Porter an American director in the 1880s and 90s. He developed the famous “The Great Train Robbery” a film that was considered to be the most influential of the decade. It benefitted from a strong storyline and well composed camera work accompanied by Porter’s advanced editing skills, using the splicing technique, where the editor would physically cut and join the scenes together in order to create cuts, jump cuts and dissolves. He would also colour some scenes by hand in order to present the audience with coloured scenes to emphasis elements within scenes.

The uses of film varies depending on the person and the audience as a collective. For example in World War Two, people would use film as an escape, the biggest film that was released only six weeks before Pearl Harbour was Dumbo, Disney was used as a powerful weapon in the entertainment industry creating energy, excellent drawings and emotion to allow the audience to forget about the current events. Other films that created the escapism effect on audiences are The Black Swan (1942), Girl Crazy (1943). Romantic escapism is incredible tough to create and develop, however the film ‘I Know Where I’m Going!” created a perfect utopia for audiences filled with surprises which allows the film to create what it was designed to do.


On the other hand film started to become a weapon, by incorporating propaganda throughout films in order to encourage people to be involved in the war. For example the same production company that developed Dumbo created the propaganda film “Education for Death” which was an American propaganda short film against Germany, mainly targeting and involving Nazis. The British also had their involvement in propaganda films for example, “Target for Tonight” and “Kill or Be Killed” which presented the negative idea of Germany.





Another positive aspect of film are their involvement in education.