Understanding the

development and
principles of editing
Shannon Jackson

Development
The word cinema comes from the
Greek that means the act of
movement. The first films were only
very short and were not edited and
there was no dialogue or sound.
Films were only seen by the rich who
could afford to go to the cinema to
watch them.

Lumiere Brothers
The Lumiere brothers made highly
popular films for their time because
the films they made were unusual
and people hadn't seen anything like
that before. What they saw in real
life was presented in their films, for
example their film, leaving the
factory. This film was made in 1895.
Leaving the factory 1985

The Miller and The Sweep (G.A.

Smith 1897)
This film is an early example of modern action
films because it shows a protagonist and an
antagonist, this is like action films now. The
difference with this one is that it is only a few
seconds long whereas films now are at least an
hour long. This film was created to entertain the
audience because its not like Leaving the factory
by the Lumiere brothers because this was not a
real life type of film it was entertainment.

The Miller and The Sweep

Fundamentals
Early films were made in one shot
without being editing because the
film in cameras could only hold so
much footage. There for to make
edited films they only had the option
to cut up shots and put them
together to make an edited film.

Life of an American Fireman

(1903)
This film was directed by Edwin S.
Porter the narrative of this film is that
a fireman rescues a woman and a
child from a burning building, though
this film repeats the same narrative
after it is finished because it wants to
show the film from the firemans
point of view and the womans.

Life of an American Fireman 1903

The Great Train Robbery

1903
This film is about a band of western
outlaws that rob a train and it ends with
them being caught. The film was also
made by Edwin S. Porter and made in the
same year as the Life of an American
Fireman. Though this film uses parallel
editing because it shows many different
cutaways this is clearly shown that The
Great Train Robbery is edited.
The Great Train Robbery

A Trip To The Moon

A Trip To the Moon was directed by
Georges Melies, each scene was filmed
in one shot and edited into a sequence
that links them together.
This film was created in 1902.

A Trip to the moon

Continuity and D. W.
Griffiths
Just like Porter, D.W. Griffiths also edited films by
breaking up the actions in many scenes to a lot of
different shots, this was to bring emotion into cinema. It
showed more narrative the more edited it was because
it drew in the attention of the audience. Griffiths was
famous in his time for using cross cuts to make his films
more professional. This is shown in his film The Girl and
Her Trust, when it cuts back and forth from a pair of
robbers who abducted the heroine and are escaping on
a railroad, to the hero, that attempts to overtake them
by train. This created the suspense that Griffiths was
trying to show, and had a very clear narrative because
of the way he structured it.
The Girl and Her Trust 1912

Soviet Montage
Russian filmmakers , impressed with
Griffiths methods, took it a stage
further by trying to show more of the
character emotions using the editing
of the Kuleshov experiment.

The Kuleshow Experiment

Eisenstein
Eisenstein believed that editing and montaging
was the essence if cinema. His first film was
Stachka (Strike 1925) though his most famous
famous film was Bronenosets Potyomkin
(Battleship Potemkin 1925). Eisenstein created
the editing style called dialectical montage,
this was a style that was abrupt and did not
aim for continuity of Griffiths-style editing
because he wanted edits that clash together.
This editing style was proved to be very
influential is still used in some films today.
Strik
e

Battleship Potem
kin

Editing Styles
The dominant style of editing that was used during the
classical Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1950s was
a different method than the soviet-style and was sometimes
called invisible editing because the editing seems to not be
seen and its continuity still stays.
Hollywood-Style editing carefully adds close ups to the
physical relations of a character, following the 180 degree
rule. Cut points follow the dialogue.
This style of editing assured clarity in the screen world and
the communication of a narrative in a movie. It is
sometimes called point of view editing because it expresses
the characters view. This style of editing became the
standard editing style among many genres, directors and
studios.