In my last post I wrote,

It wasn’t until the 1900s that editing started.  Did you know that one of the very first reasons for editing is that studios wanted films to be longer.  They wanted multiple film reels compiled into one continuous movie.  After that revelation they started putting images together to try and tell a story.

So, the first reason for editing was longer films.  The next idea was lets put these images together and tell a story.  You’re a storyteller.  It doesn’t matter if you are editing a news package, a documentary, a film or an online feature using stills, It’s all storytelling.

Putting the images together to try and tell a story is editing.  It’s the beginning of editing, it’s also the middle and the end of editing.  Every edit should be made for the story.  Before sequencing, action/reaction, movement, eye trace, continuity, is the story.

We learned about telling stories with pictures when we first started reading.  I have my kids read to me every night.  My sons were taught when they don’t know a word to look around at the pictures for clues.

As editors and storytellers we need to help the audience with clues.  We need to give them picture clues.  When the wild things “made him (max) king of all wild things,” Maurice Sendak shows a picture of this happening.

As editors we need to look back at the beginnings of film.  They started putting the images together to tell a story.  As storytellers we can take a cue from when we first started to learn about stories.  We read them and looked at the pictures.  The pictures helped the stories make sense.  Take this basic idea and apply it to editing.

The following story I edited a few years ago about a snowstorm here in Denver.

Please watch More Than Just An Inconvience on my Youtube site.

The entire story my goal (and usually my goal with every story) is to find pictures to help tell the story.

The very first line of track from the reporter is

This was the end of the line.

And my image is

The next three shots I’m just trying to match the pictures and the words.

Instead of an interstate highway

I-70

Was a dead end road.

After the reporter track is a soundbite

I’ve been doing this for 30 years, you get…you know this stuff happens driving a truck. And it’s going to happen sooner of later and more than once.

I cover the second half of his soundbite with a truck with snow on it.

The shot supports the story and helps tell the story.

The next piece of track is

But twice in a week

And I show this

Multiple trucks in the shot.  The closest I can get to some kind of symbolism of twice.  I still think this shot advances the story.

The story continues

Truckers pass the time

with bottomless cups of coffee,

and John Wayne

on the TV.

I’m making every effort I can to show what the reporter is talking about.  Using pictures to help tell the story.  Please continue watching

More Than Just An Inconvience

Putting images together to try and tell a story.  The same thing they started doing over 100 years ago.

Why is video editing?  Yes, I know that’s not proper English.  I often here the question, “What is video editing?”  If you are reading this post then you’re probably aware of what video editing is.  But do you know why we edit?

One of the first films ever created is Round Hay Garden Scene (1888).

Watch it here Round Hay Garden Scene

Some may argue that Horse in Motion (1878) was the first film.  That film was accomplished using multiple cameras.  These were still photographs assembled into a motion picture.  They used 24 cameras to capture this.  I never took a film class.  But the fact that standard film shoot 24 frames per second and the first film used 24 camera doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

Actual motion picture cameras weren’t developed until the 1880s.  That’s when camera started capturing all the single images on one reel.  As this time there was no editing (how sad).  Each film ran as long as there was film to roll.

Filmmakers often would shoot and just stop the crank of the camera when they felt they completed capturing that scene.  Then they would reset for the next shot and start cranking again when the next scene was ready.  You could say this was the beginning of editing.  It was editing in the camera so there still was no manipulation of the reel.  So, technically not yet.

It wasn’t until the 1900s that editing started.  Did you know that the one of the very first reasons for editing is that studios they wanted films to be longer.  They wanted multiple film reels compiled into one continuous movie.  After that revelation they started putting images together to try and tell a story.

One of the very first films to employ many techniques that I teach today is The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Watch this movie The Great Train Robbery and realize

1. There is action/movement in every scene
2. They maintain screen direction (except for one edit)
3. There is sequencing
4. Each edit advances the story
5. There is an effort made to pacing/rhythm

Yes this is film.  But it’s the base for editing moving pictures together.  It doesn’t matter if you are broadcasting, web-casting, pod-casting, or some other casting yet to be invented.  The simple rules for telling a story with knowledge of editing apply.  Editing hasn’t changed much in over 100 years.