Task One - Editing In Early Cinema

Over the first 50 years of film the concept of editing has become much more advanced. From the very earliest films to today's latest films. The very first edits were things such as filming moving people and splicing parts of a film and sticking them together. Since then the art of editing has advanced and we now have easier ways of doing it.

One of the very first film makers was Thomas Edison, who also invented the light bulb. Edison was the inventor of the Kinetographic Camera and the 35mm film strip. He was a very important figure as his creation of the Kinetoscope became the industry standard. This meant that other film makers could use his invention to create their own films. Eventually, Edison made the projector, which then meant that the films he created could be shown to the wider audience and be enjoyed by everyone.

Thomas Edison

The Lumiere Brothers also played a big part in the development of editing. They worked closely with Thomas Edison and were the first people to create films of different lengths and create a moving image of real life people. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse the audience as they had never seen anything like that before. The films they created were among the first films to show activity. One of their first films was called 'Sortie d'usine' (1895) which showed a group of people leaving a factory.

The Lumiere Brothers

Initially there was no story or real editing in many early films, however G.A Smith was the first real film maker that enabled editing of movies. His film 'A Kiss in the Tunnel' (1899) marked the beginning of narrative editing story line. G.A Smith stated that "some extra spice was called for" and then created the 'Phantom Ride' genre as a way of creating a twist to his movies. The 'Phantom Ride' consisted of putting a camera on the front of a train and recording its path. In 'A Kiss in the Tunnel' G.A Smith took advantage of the brief period of darkness as the train went in the tunnel and edited the film to change from the front of the train to one of the inside carriages. This was the point when editing first started to advance.

 G.A Smith

Although G.A Smith introduced the first real example of editing, George Melies was also quite an important figure in the editing of early cinema. George Melies was a magician and had seen the films that The Lumiere Brothers had created and saw that there was a possibility of introducing magic into a film so that it became novelty more than just motion. Whilst filming his ideas he discovered the art of Stop Motion purely by accident, he was filming a scene when his camera broke down for a brief second. Before he had discovered this, it had never occurred to him to move the camera to incorporate different shots into his films. Using this knowledge he created the film 'The Vanishing Lady' (1896). Even though he discovered the art of Stop Motion and was the first person to apply magic to his films, eventually the commercial growth of the industry forced him out in 1913 and this resulted in him dying in poverty. You can see elements of his life depicted in the film Hugo. 

George Melies

Edwin S Porter also played an important part in the editing of early cinema. Before joining the film laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison in the 1890s, Edwin worked as an electrician. Edwin and Edison worked together to make longer, more interesting films. Their first film was 'The Life of an American Fireman' (1903), which was the breakthrough film for Edwin S Porter. 'The Life of an American Fireman' was one of the first films that had a plot, action and even a close up, by creating this film he discovered the important aspects of motion picture language and the creation of contextual relationships by splicing. One of his most famous films was 'The Great Train Robbery' (1903) which lasted a length of 10 minutes, making it the longest movie of his time.

Edwin S Porter

Charles Pathé introduced the first example of parallel editing in his film 'The Horse that Bolted' (1907). He made a film that cut between two different story lines so that the audience could see what the man was doing as well as the horse. The use of this parallel editing allows the audience to know that there are two different things happening at the same time as we see the man on the horse at the beginning and then we see him leave the horse outside. The shot then changes from the man to the horse outside, allowing us to see both shots alternatively. This was the first time the audience had seen a film like this and it proved to be successful. 

Charles Pathé

Finally, D.W Griffith was the last important figure in the editing of early cinema before films were created as the ones we know today. D.W Griffith was an early supporter of the power of editing and made use of cross-cutting to show parallel locations. He was one of the first early directors to use editing techniques in feature length films, which were generally movies that lasted longer than 90 minutes. He created the movie 'The Birth of a Nation' (1915) which lasted around 3 hours, making it one of the longest and most controversial films of early cinema and to this day it is still controversial.

D.W Griffith