Development

Development of the principles of editing

In early film there was almost no editing in the films, it would be filmed in sequence in one take. The camera would always being static and it made the movies slow paced and boring for somebody who would view films today, but because of this new technology the audience was surprised to see moving images and they didn't know how to react. an example of this is Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumiere Brother, 1895) where there was rumors about people ducking in their seat when the train was coming at the screen. But even though the audience was so shocked by the films they would still be classed as a passive audience because of these things. But now editing is one of the most important parts of a films making process with it being able to control the narrative by fitting the clips together in a certain way the ability to speed and slow things down and being able to add sound to make love scenes more romantic of action scenes faster. Editing has become something that is expected in movies and it gives each film the pace it should be set. Early films have started setting rules that are still being used today for example continuity editing, but French new wave cinema broke this rule. They were tired of seeing all the same thing on every film and started to make films where the editing of the narrative would be disjointed, Jean-Luc Goddard used disjointed editing in his film. In early films for example ‘The great train robbery” (1903) has two lines of Narrative happening at the same time, this was something ambitious for a film at the time because everything needed to be filmed in one take and the editing is only cut being made to join scenes together, this was the first film to use 'crosscutting',  this shows the origin of continuity editing and it is still used today in modern films. The scene that I have chosen to analyse is from The Matrix Reloaded(2003); the scene is the Chateau fight scene. I have chosen to do this scene because there is use of CGI, the diegesis has being change, and allot of camera angles and shot types have being used. The Matrix movie trilogy is famous for its use of bullet time in the first movie but it is used in all 3 movies as some point because how successful it was when the audience saw it the first time.

Bullet time is the term used for a visual effect that shows an extreme transformation of time and can show things that would of being impossible to film, it is a mixture of CGI and motion capture. Bullet time was trademarked by Warner Brothers and used in The Matrix. Bullet time has being used even before the video camera was invented. Eadweard Muybridge created something similar to bullet time when he placed a row of cameras on a racetrack to take pictures of a galloping horse; this was only used to settle a debate about a four-legged animal would leave all 4 legs off the ground when galloping. Muybridge placed the pictures on a glass disc and spun it in front of a light source, this was called the ‘Zoopraxiscope”. The way modern films are doing bullet time now are using cameras similar to Eadweard Muybridge and then adding CGI after to show bullets or other things that would be too fast for anyone too see, more modern films are using bullet time an its becoming something more common that is been used in action films. John Woo is famous for using bullet time in his films and it has also been used in A Better Tomorrow, Hard boiled and in games such as Max Payne.

The action is being followed by the camera panning and tracking Neo as he is fighting off the other men. When Neo is talking to Chateau the 180o rule is being used so that you don’t get confused about the positions they are stood in scene. Once they start to shoot at Neo the camera angle changes from his POV to an over shoulder shot to the other men’s POV’s as they shoot him two point of views are being used because the two characters are the main people in the scene and it would confuse the audience if every person in the room had a separate point of view. CGI is used at he beginning when the two men go all grey and start to slowly drop into the floor, Also CGI has being used with the bullets stopping in front of Neo’s face then falling to the floor, you can see that Neo is relaxed and not worried about him getting shot at because the close up shows his facial expression. The camera is changing shots then moving around the centre of action to give the audience are more in depth look into the fight, but Neo is the main point of focus and he is centred in the screen most of the time. Even though the fight scene is fast paced the camera angle keeps changing to make it more confusing so that the fight looks allot more intense and faster. The camera focuses on some blood on the floor and this gives the audience some information as to what chateau is talking bout when he says, “look he is just a man”. Later into the fight a long shot is used when Neo jumps back wards and is chased by the other men, this long shot is being used because it gives the audience a larger view of all the things happening in the scene at once. It is also put into slow motion because there are impossible things happening like people running on walls and jumping huge heights. The slow motion gives the audience more time to analyze the scene and see these impossible things happen. A cut away is used at the end after all the fighting is finished and when Neo opens the door and there are just mountains and its calm outside. Action films do this to take the audience on a kind of roller coaster by taking them between slow scenes then into fast scenes, this calms the audience down after the long fast paces fight scene. When the story is developing and progressing forward in a chronologic order it makes it easier for the editing to shows key point to the audience.

The diegesis is changes when the fight starts and music comes on. The music is fast paced because it fits with the fast pace of the action.  When Neo is spinning the knives round in his hands there is a sound effect that has being added over the top, this makes it look more entertaining because if it was just silent like it would be in reality it wouldn’t have the same effect on the audience. Slow motion is used when Neo and the other men jump off a balcony on to the floor. The transitions are just straight cut when the camera angle changes because the scene and music is so fast paced that there is no time for effects on the angles and with the straight cut to next shot it is also faster and suits the scene. The genre of the film is action so the editing and the scenes are following the conventions of action by being fast paced and with really short shots before the camera changes (typically 3 seconds). The editing has made the audience more active now, this is a form of spectatorship. After the first Matrix movie and the sound track 'clubbed to death' was used and this fits well with the fast paced fight scenes and the slow motion effect, the second film has stuck to the same style of music this is more of the theme that is happening between the Matrix trilogy as the club style genre of music fits well with the action scenes.
Even though the way films are edited and manipulated with CGI and effects it still follows the rules and ways films have being made in early film making such an continuity editing and crosscutting technique.