Edwin S Porter- He started in 1896 in motion picture. Between 1903-1905 he demonstrated most techniques that were to be common in with most editors. In the continuity editing edwin S Porter created the dissolves between shots instead of normal cut shot. He was very interested with having images move across the screen in one motion and not having cutting and switching to different clips suddenly. One of Edwin’s work is ‘Life of an American Fireman’. As you can see with this clip that there are dissolves with no or very little cuts. Every clip flows very well together with no sudden cuts. This is one big clips that flows very well together. He was the first person to tell a story through editing and not the narrative.
D.w Griffith- Parallel editing. Parallel editing is different footage is place side by side to make the illusion as that they are both been played at the same time in different worlds. This could be two separate narratives playing at the same time. They could come together but normally they stay separate. This could create tension for the audience in horror films. D.W Griffith practically invented this editing technique. In this early work he worked with montage editing He builds these techniques up as he goes alone with his films. He uses Parallel editing to show the contrast between social class between rich and poor, and he also uses it to tell a story to get the audience engaged.
Einsenstein’s montage theory- He believed that a montage could create more impact to the audience then just one picture. So a bunch of footage placed together and cutting from one to the other can create more meaning to an audience.A good example of Eisentsins work is from the film Battleship Potemkin, when the crowd is running down the stairs. ‘Eisenstein to manipulate the audience’s perception of time by stretching out the crowd’s flight down the steps for seven minutes, several times longer than it would take in real time’ Quote from montage-1.html
Before editing began filmmakers was afraid of splicing together different clips from different positions would confuse the audience, flashbacks were already in books and scene changes were in theater’s but they were very basic editing. But then they discovered that splicing the clips together created to the audience understanding and more complex sense to the film.
Cuts were made through the camera in the early days and not the computer. When they had to crank to film with every-time they stopped, a new cut was formed. So the editing was done through the camera. With D.W. Griffith he did not invent the editing techniques he just made them significant to filmmakers to use. So then he influenced editors worldwide. In the 1920’s in schools they played some of Griffith’s work to the students so they could apply his technique’s to their work. And then here comes Sergei Einsenstein who advanced classic editing into something more complex and called it montage.
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