Development of Editing Research Task

Unit 16 - Development of Editing Research Task 

Manipulation of diegetic time and space

Diegetic time and space in a film is where the editor changes the speed of which the film goes to show the audience a long period of time into a relatively short time. Films use this to skip through hours, days or even months. 

A good example of this would be the new version of ‘the karate kid’ with regards to the time he learns to train, it speeds up to make it last about 15 minutes, when it would have lasted weeks maybe even months. It lets the audience know it’s been a long period of time, it also allows the director and editor to add more footage into the film as it’s shortened down what would have been a long piece of film, showing the weeks of training day by day. To show the progress of his training the clips are edited into a short montage which gives you a quick overall summary making his improvements look more drastic and obvious. 

 Editorial techniques such as ellipsis and expansion of time manipulate the time as it is experienced by the audience. Flash backs, where the characters think back to the past and see images in their head from the past, are used to show the audience the interior images of their mind. At home what they are thinking about on the screen, or they could have flash forwards into the future where the characters are thinking about something that could possibly happen. It can also be used to show the environment or an object changing in a period of time, an example of this can be seen from a scene from the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film in which Harry Potter and Hermione are able to visit the past using a certain object.

Another example of where diegtic time and space has been used was in a film called Citizen Kane. By using diegetic time it shows an audience how a  relationship has deteriorated and turned cold in a smaller time scale ( a few minutes) than it would have actually been (over the years). The manipulation of time goes through their whole relationship shows its strain. Space is being manipulated by the use of camera shots and how it is set up to take them. At the beginning of the clip it starts with a flash back to when he was younger and first in love. It shows a passionate relationship filled with love and happiness, they are sat close to each other and romantic music is being played in the background. The man is bringing her food and there is lots of eye contact between the pair symbolising their love for one another, however a few seconds later the pair are silent, they are sat at opposite ends of the table and the music is depressing showing they are becoming more distant from each other both physically and mentally. The use of diegetic time has shown their relationship in a bombshell of a scene which is in fact only a minute long, but as an audience member you see so much happen in that short time. 

In-camera Editing

In-camera editing is a technique used instead of editing the shots in a film into sequence after shooting, the director or cinematographer instead shoots the sequences in strict order. The resulting "edit" is therefore already complete when the film is developed. The process takes a lot of planning so that the shots are filmed in the precise order they will be presented. as there is no going back and cutting bits out and reordering/ changing things later on. When the very last scene is filmed by the director or cinematographer, the production is completely finished.

A benefit of the technique, largely now irrelevant due to the rise of digital video, is a reduction in the cost of the production. When the cost of film was a significant fraction of the budget, filmmakers used this technique to maximize film usage. Moreover not only does it reduce costs but it gives a linear effect as all the scenes are perfectly in order. 

Due to it's simplicity, in-camera editing is also popular with new students who may lack experience with editing, or who want to skip the editing step. It can also be a very educational process because of time and organisational skills that are required. 

The technique may also be used to limit directing and editing interference in a production (often on the part of producers or financiers) because the film exists only as shot, with no options for editing. Any subsequent editing would require costly re-shoots and pick-ups. 

Another example where this type of filming may be used is at a wedding for example, to again give a more linear effect and show the events of the day in a sequence showing a story of the day effect. 

Finally, if the filmmaker does not have access to film editing equipment (notably, a non-linear editing system), then in-camera editing may be the only available option.

Above is an example clips of one of the first in-camera films that the Lumiere Brothers created; the camera  of in camera editing, this shows that what they have filmed on the camera is the order that it was going to be seen on the film. This is one of the first films that the Lumiere Brothers created; the camera would have just been set to film this video clip but before they filmed it they would have thought about exactly what they wanted to film and they order that they were going to film in.  This video shows how what they have filmed has been repeated over and over again showing that it’s the sequence they filmed in.  

Non- Linear/ Linear Editing

What is linear editing? Linear video editing is a video editing post-production process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a planned, ordered sequence. Whether it was captured by a video camera, tapeless camcorder, or recorded in a TV studio on a video tape recorder (VTR) the content must be accessed sequentially.

What is non-linear editing?In digital video editing, non-linear editing is a method that allows you to access any frame in a digital video clip regardless of sequence in the clip. The freedom to access any frame, and use a cut-and-paste method, similar to the ease of cutting and pasting text in a word processor, and allows you to easily include fades, transitions, and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing.

 Cons of Linear Editing 

• Editing is not very flexible to use. First, it is not possible to insert or delete scenes from the master tape without re-copying all the subsequent scenes. 
• You would not be able to go back to make a change without re-editing everything after the change.You can't easily build a program out of sequence or in separate "chunks" using a linear edit system.  For example, say you'd like to build the middle of a film first, and then add the beginning and the end later. With a linear system, you can create segments on separate tapes and then dub each one onto a master tape at the appropriate time, its very systematical and sequential with he way it is edited.

Pros to Linear Editing

• It's simple and inexpensive. There were very few complications with formats, hardware conflicts, etc.
• Some simple jobs (e.g. appending one video to another) were much quicker and easier with linear editing.
• Interestingly, many professional editors of the time claimed that those who learn linear editing first tend to become better all-round editors.

In the early days of electronic video production, linear (tape-to-tape) editing was the only way to edit video tapes. Until the 1990s, non-linear editing computers became available and opened a whole new world of editing power and flexibility. Non-linear editing was not welcomed by everyone and many editors resisted the new wave. Moreover, early digital video was filled with performance issues and uncertainty. However, the advantages of non-linear video eventually became so overwhelming that they could not be ignored.

In the 21st Century non-linear gained dominance and linear editing was starting to fade out completely.  During this time the description "non-linear" was slowly abandoned as it was no longer necessary—almost all editing was now digital and the "non-linear" aspect was assumed.  However, linear video editing is still being used in newsrooms and some production facilities where newer technologies are not available. Because of the improvement in today's expertise, linear editing is less complex. As compared to non-linear editing, linear editing will enable you to carefully learn the skills of a good videographer.

Pros of Non-Linear Editing

• It enables you to access to any frame, scene, or even groups of scenes at any time. 
• As the original video footage is kept intact when editing, you are able to return to the original take whenever you like.
• Can save multiple cuts.
•  Nonlinear video editing systems offers the flexibility of editing. You can change your mind a hundred times over and changes can also be made a hundred times over without having to start all over again with each change. 
• It'a possible to edit both standard definition and high definition broadcast quality videos very quickly on normal PCs which do not have the power to do the full processing of the huge full quality high resolution data in real-time.
• Can do a variety of effects and transitions easily. 
• Many have capability to covert into other computer formats.

Cons of Non-Linear Editing

• The biggest downside to nonlinear video editing is the cost. While the dedicated hardware and software doesn’t cost much, the computers and hard drives do, from two to five times more!
•  As such, the average price for a basic nonlinear video editing package can come in between $5,000 and $10,000

Bibliography 

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-non-linear-editing-and-linear-editing

http://bbs.smartpixel.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=273

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_video_editing

https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/1214-edit-points-linear-vs-nonlinear-editing

http://www.fastvideoindexer.com/blog/general/what-is-linear-and-non-linear-video-editing-methods/

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/non_linear_editing.html

http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9618679/The-Lumiere-Brothers-celebrating-the-first-light-in-the-motion-picture-industry.html