Section 3 - Video Guide Conclusion

Video Guide Conclusion



Explain how early cinema editing developed and influenced the modern so that continuity becoming the dominant principle of editing.
Early cinema influenced the modern period of editing to develop Continuity and Montage. however, continuity stands out more because it is a mainstream technique whereas montage is an alternative technique. In the early years of cinema, films were made for a political reason, where as in this day and age, continuity absorbed the technique of montage for the purpose of entertainment. Continuity is mainly focused on drama, and has invisible and seamless editing, which combines shots into a sequence.


Continuity techniques such as invisible cuts, motivated cuts, cross cutting, 180 degree rule, cut away, point of view shot and shot reverse shot are still used in films today.m This clip shows that continuity editing is still being used in the present period. invisible editing has been used in this clip as it follows the action and keeps viewers engaged.





Discontinuity techniques were first used in the early period by pioneers such as The Lumiere Brothers, Porter, Melies and Griffith. However, Melies broke continuity when filming, he devised some complex special effects, where transitions were used. In 1986, when filming a shot of a bus, jump cuts were used to show disappearing and re-appearing objects. He was the first person to invent transitions because due to him never moving the camera while filming, the camera glitched to create the jump cut. Everything was controllable as sets were used, and the fact that he also used stories. The reason for jump cuts are to create meaning for characters and objects. Melies and the Lumiere Brothers are both contemporary as they have the same principals cinema have today.
Porter also broke continuity when filming. He spliced stock footage, staged scenes, used narrative, and broke continuity. By achieving this, he used temporal overlaps which occurs when cutting out the shot before the scene reaches its logical end.



Contemporary editing uses alternative techniques for many purposes. Christopher Nolan breaks continuity by using discontinuous editing, which is a fundamental element of telling a story, He used non-linear narrative through discontinuous editing and uses these editing to display what is happening from the perspective of the character. Editing helps create a stylised hyper-realistic world for the story. In the film, The Prestige, Nolan presents audiences with challenging and intelligent narratives. Scenes are often interrupted by the unconventional editing style of cutaways. Cross cutting is also used in several scenes of parallel action to build to a climax. The purpose of this is to suggest an interpretation of two actions which are rhythm and length of time.




Quentin Tarantino also breaks continuity while using style and also breaking the 180 degree rule. In Kill Bill, he uses pace and rhythm and combines shots into a sequence, which is used for stylistic purposes - style and entertainment. It is portrayed that Kill Bill is fantasised as it breaks the illusion of realism because it lets us know that it is staged. (when the man jumps on the sword). It punctuates the edit.