Manipulation of Time

Screen Time
Screen Time isn't real time. Screen time is often referred to as being the period of time played on the screen for example, 17 years of someones life put together and played in the usual time limit of 2 hours. 2 hours would be the screen time. The use of screen time generally keeps the audience attention in the film without using up too much time.

Compressed time
The compression of time shortens the overall length of time that occurs between either scenes or chapters. Compressed time can often be referred to as Hollywood montage or time lapse. Here is an example of a time lapse film. Similar to screen time, it allows the film-makers to reduce the amount of material that is not needed to tell the story.

A Long Take
A long take is often a single shot without any cuts or edits which lasts relatively long period of time. An example of this is from 'Children Of Men'. A long take allows the audience to feel as though they are not missing out on action if a cut was used as well as drawing in the audiences attention by showing everything that would have originally been used.

Slow Motion
Slow motion is the action that takes place at a slower rate then at which it was recorded. A famous example of this includes The Matrix 'Bullet Time'. The use of slow motion adds drama and suspense to the film which draws in the audiences attention in quicker.

All examples taken from www.youtube.com

Editing Types

• Cut

A cut is a simple edit where you can jump from one shot to another easily and the shots are usually related in some way. The use of the cut shortens the length of the film. Cuts can be used to keep up pace, tension and most commonly reactions, for example the reaction shots of a pair of characters arguing.

• Fade

A fade delays the emotional tension between the audience and the character/film. It is often used for a scene to end and the transition for another scene to begin. Usually, fades are used when a characters dies or slips into a coma etc. These are most commonly shown by; a fade to black signifies the end of a scene where as a fade to white signifies either the character passing or slipping into a coma (the use of ''finding the light'').

• Dissolve

The use of dissolve generally slows down the pace of the film as well as typically signifying that nothing dramatic will be happening during the scene. The dissolve is usually establishing shots and tells the audience to relax as the story plays out.

• Wipe

The wipe is used to changed shot to shot and they are usually showing the audience ''meanwhile'' and most commonly contains the use of time to explain something as well as keeping the story going. The most famous example that included the wipe would be Star Wars however wipes are more commonly used on television programmes.

Editing Styles & Conventions

The definition of montage.

Montage is directly translated from the French as ''putting together''

(Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montage)

Currently there are 2 main types of montage being used within the film industry. These are Soviet and Hollywood.

Typically, the Soviet montage during the 1920's allowed pictures that didn't directly relate to one another to be placed together to create a third meaning within the original pictures when they were being observed alone.

A Hollywood montage usually shows time from the beginning to the end of the particular sequence. This can be seen in a recent children's film called ''UP''. One of the main characters' life is used in a montage to let the audience feel that they know about the main character, who is an elderly man throughout the film. The montage allows the film to start whilst pinpointing the most important point of the elderly man's life.

Continuity editing ensures that there are particular objects or actions that continue through an edit. The use of continuity editing allows the audience to get more involved in the film as the edits become less and less visible. For example, if a main character had a green apple in his left hand, continuity would make sure that it stayed in his left hand and didn't change colour or have any bites out of it.

The History Of Editing

Early film editors and makers simply filmed what they thought was interesting as well as aumusing them and they would hold a shot until they got bored or until the film ran out.

Until 1903, according to Auguste Lumiere, cinema was thought to have been 'an invention without a future'. However, when Edwin Porter directed The Life of an American Fireman (1903), Auguste Lumiere's pessimistic opinions were proved wrong. The importance of The Life of an American Fireman was the fact that Edwin had discovered how to create an emotional impact on the audience. Edwin Porter had done this by intercutting two images that didnt go together. However by cutting the two together it created a story.

A Moviola pictured left, was the original machine used to cut film in editing. It was often discribed as a 'sewing machine on legs'. It was not uncommon for editors to sort through approx. 200 hours of footage for a 2 hour film which included 24 frames per second.

In Russia, Lenin was part of the movement in film which was to perfect the medium to spark the nation to join the revolution as well as having a way of talking to the illiterate.

The use of sound was introduced during the 1930's but the approach during the 1940's/1950's was particularly interesting due to the mass introduction and industrialization of editing meaning that more and more stories could be created through just pictures.