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Definition:-
The craft of film editing is joining of two pieces of film together
to yield a meaning that is not apparent from one or the other
shot.
Editing is directing a film for the second time.
All editing is invisible. - Ralph Rosenblum
Editing is the foundation of film art. - V. I. Pudovkin
Editing is selection; ordering and determining the duration of
shots to achieve desired impact.

History of Editing:-
1896-1912: Cinema evolved from a side show gimmick into a full
fledged economic art.
1912-1927: Silent Period
1928-1932: World Cinema was in a state of transition from
economical and technological stage.
1932-1946: Hollywood domination
1947-1959: Began confronting the challenge of Television
1945-1960: Neo-realism (Italy)
Cesare Zavattini, Roberto Rossellini,
Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti
1960-1980: New Wave (France)
Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut,
Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jacques
Rivette and Alain Resnais
1980- Technological Advancement

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Lumiere Brothers (1895)
Recorded an event until stock ran out which could capture the
element of movement (around 50-ft length)

Workers Leaving The Factory (42 secs)
Baby At Breakfast Table (34 secs)
Demolition Of A Wall (48 secs)
Watering The Gardener (39 secs)
Arrival Of Congress (39 secs)
Arrival Of A Train (45 secs)
Card Party (47 secs)
Boat Leaving Harbour (45 secs)

Georges Melies
The Vanishing Lady (1896)
The Famous Magic Box (1898)
Cinderella (1899)
01. Cinderella in her kitchen
02. The Fairy, Mice and Lackeys
03. The transformation of the Rat ; .......
And !!.
20. The Triumph Of Cinderella

A Trip To The Moon (1902)

Melies tried to tell a story of several episodes
The continuity of Cinderella established a connection between
separate shots.

Edwin S. Porter
The Life Of An American Fireman (1902)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
* The action is carried over from shot to shot and an
illusion of continuous development is created.
* Only significant part of the story is selected and
joined to form an acceptable, logically developing
continuity.

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D.W. Griffith
The Birth Of A Nation (1914)
Intolerance (1916)

* Dramatic Emphasis and SUSPENSE
* The Director could CHOOSE what details to show
* A continuous take is cut into two pieces by putting an INSERT for
purely dramatic reasons
* Use of EXTREME LONG SHOT and CLOSE UP
* Use of FLASHBACK
* Effective use of PARALLEL EDITING

RUSSIA
Lev Kuleshov:-
! In 1917 Moscow Film School was established.
! Kuleshov did lot of experimentations.
! Shot juxtaposition can give a different meaning.

V.I. Pudovkin:-
Constructive Editing:- Relational Editing or linkage & Heightened Realism
1926: MOTHER (plastic synthesis through editing)

The son receives a note: next day he is to be set free (Expression of joy)
! Nervous play of his hands
! Big CU of lower half of his face (smile)
! Shot of a brook
! Rapid flow of spring play of sunlight broken on the water
! Birds splashing in the village pond
! A laughing child

Sergei Eisenstein:- Eisenstein has quite different views from
Pudovkin on editing. He believed that editing was CONFLICT that a
concept arises from the COLLISION of two given factors. This could
be conflict of graphic directions, conflict of scales, of volumes, of
masses and so on. He stated the principle of Intellectual Editing
(Montage) most succinctly by comparing it with the workings of
hieroglyphs.

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1925- Sergei Eisenstein films Battleship Potemkin, a fictional
recounting of an abortive uprising again the Czar that combines
documentary elements with experimental editing and narrative
techniques.

Theory of Montage:-
It is the conclusions and abstractions, which can be drawn from
actual events, which are of first interest.
a) Metric Montage
b) Rhythmic Montage
c) Tonal Montage
d) Overtonal Montage
e) Intellectual Montage

Dziga Vertov:-

1928- Dziga Vertov films The Man With The Movie
Camera (Cheloveks kinoapparatom). The film uses
experimental editing techniques and cinematic
innovations to portray a typical day in Moscow from
dawn to dusk. Vertovs stated aim is to capture "life
caught unawares." Rather than simply recording
reality, however, Vertov attempts to transform and
enlighten it through the power of the camera's
"kino-glaz" (cinema eye).

Germany:-
1935- German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl is commissioned by
Adolph Hitler to film the annual Nazi Party rally of 1934. The
resulting film, Triumph of the Will, is a landmark both in
documentary technique and in the use of film as an
astonishingly powerful propaganda medium.

Italy:- Neo-realism

France:- New Wave

Hollywood Cinema