The earliest well known editors to be recognised for their outstanding work were such people as, D.W Griffith and Sergei Eisenstein. Both of these editors were the very well known men for their talented skills as editors and for both creating outstanding pieces of work, due to their editing of footage they had collated and put together to create films which flowed smoothly and and used such fine cuts of films which they placed together to make it almost invisible to the naked eye so that it looked like nothing had changed in the next scene. This was a huge hit globally and revolutionised the way that editing is now done and seen, all the way up to the present day.
Sergei Eisenstein
Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. He and his contemporary, Lev Kuleshov, two of the earliest film theorists, argued that montage was the essence of the cinema. His articles and books particularly Film Form and The Film Sense explain the significance of montage in detail.Sergei Eisenstein's writings and films he had created still to this very day continue to influence and have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers to this very present day. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through images. Eisenstein felt the shots could be used together to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film.
He developed what he called "methods of montage":
- Metric
- Rhythmic
- Tonal
- Overtona
- Intellectual
 |
| With Japanese kabuki actor Sadanji Ichikawa II, Moscow, 1928 |
 |
| Sergei Eisenstein |
One of Sergei Eisenstein's most celebrated films he did was the famous film called "Battleship Potemkin". The reason for his success was due to his most well known "Odessa Steps sequence", this sequence has been described as one of the most influential in the history of cinema, because it introduced concepts of film editing and montage into the cinema industry . In this scene, the soldiers march down a seemingly extremely large flight of steps in rhythm with the ambient music in the background whilst shooting at the oncoming people at the bottom of the stair flight . The most well known scene however is the scene of a mother pushing a pram with baby laid inside, as she falls to the ground dying and the carriage rolls down the steps amidst the fleeing crowd, here Sergei Eisenstein used various camera shots and angles which enabled him to show the pram with the young baby inside scuttling down the odessa steps. This scene has been perhaps the best example of Sergei Eisenstein's theory of montage and using various shots within editing to create mixed emotions and also grab the audiences attention.
D.W Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark "D. W." Griffith was an American film director, mostly remembered as the director of the famously well known film The Birth of a Nation. It was recognized for its editing and camera techniques such as the panoramic long shot which can be identified when watching the film. The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its immense popularity set the stage for the dominance of the feature-length film in the United States. Griffith began making short films in 1908, and released his first feature, Judith of Bethulia, in 1913. |
| Judith of Bethulia |
Several of Griffith's later films, including Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1921) were also successful. By the time of his final feature, The Struggle (1931), he had made roughly 500 films. For his pioneering techniques and early understanding of cinema, Griffith is considered among the most important figures in the history of the medium.
 |
| D.W Griffith |
 |
| Griffith on set filming "Way down east" |
No comments:
Post a Comment