Unit 16: The development and purpose of editing techniques

Time Line

1903 Silent Film

             The Great Train Robbery 

The editing process during the 1903's was very simple and basic, to edit film editors would simply get the film and look at in the light to see the pictures and cut the film where they thought it was necessary then get another part of the film and scollop tape the film together where the cuts are. At this time they were only just beginning to discover film making and editing and the set up of a set was like theatres they would have a wide shot of the characters acting out their scenes. They wouldn't have close ups of their expressions, it would all be taken from a distance and the sound was silent. Film makers in this time discovered that editing shots into a sequence not only contributed to the audience's sense of tale, but also enabled them to tell more complex stories as a result.

1920s - Silent Film


                                    Metropolis - Dance Scene

The editing cut with all the eyes together was considered a breakthrough in special effects technique. The editing techniques in the 1920's allowed audiences to understand time and space. Film makers released that you could get up close and personal with actors and could see more detailed reactions/emotions from the actor which would make the audience relate to the characters more. It was a time where film makers wanted the audience to get lost in films and not realise that they were sat in a cinema watching a film, a little escape from reality. So the editing shots had to be more interesting, by using cross cutting which means cutting when two things are happening in at the same time, the Metropolis dance scene is a good example of this for example when the woman is dancing it cuts to the eyes and the man in bed. 

In the 1920's the 180 degree was invented to make the audiences understand time and space, film makers wanted to the audience to become more engaged in films.

1940s - Hollywood Studio System

It's A Wonder Life

During this period between 1940's the Hollywood Studio's began to create narratives and conventions and also the editing was a lot better than pervious films. One of the most famous films in the 1940's was It's A Wonderful Life, which involves sound and music it's a narrative is developed around human connections/feelings and helps the audience relate to the film. The audience is able to escape into the film whilst visiting the cinema at this time. 

1960s - American New Wave

                                        Psycho

During this time the sound and music was a huge part of creating a film and the camera shots used could tell a whole different story for example in the 1960's film 'Psycho' there are camera shots of a shadow in the window to make the audience believe that it was Norman's mother, but at the end we find out that his mother is dead. Film makers we're able to create more suspenseful films with their choice of editing. For example unconventional editing is used, which isn't what an audience would expect but film makers learned that it works well. 

1980s - High Concept cinema

During the 80's they're we're a lot of films created that we're based around American teen culture such as Ferris Bullers Day Off and Sixteen Candles. Unconventional narratives were used to create the illusion to everyone have pride for america films such as Top Gun which make American's look like heroes. The editing techniques during this time was to create a fast pace and keep the film quick and rolling. These films we're so popular at the time because America was in a political mess and was in a war and needed to look like the heroes to many around the world, these films helped brain wash people into thinking that America is the true hero. This is called the American new wave and the editing techniques that were invented were jump cuts, this means when a cut is placed to confused the audience and it is also used to show a passing of time. 

1990s - Digitial editing software introduced

During the 90's film making became inexpensive and anyone could make a film if they had the right equipment, so a lot of independent films were made due to the cheap prices of film making. The techniques in this example of The Matrix is a lot of jump cuts so the scene follows through. An example of an independent film in the 90's is Clerks made my Kevin Smith, which was inspired because he worked at a grocery store and felt like it was the best job he ever had because he got to work with his best friend, to make this film he had to use credit cards for the budget and he used his work place to film his feature length film. The editing techniques in this are your standard and the colour adds character to this film making it a cult classic among fans. 

00s - Today

Today in the 00's the techniques are used to depending on the genre and the audience. For example they'll use generic conventions to find out who their film will aim towards, CGI is used a lot these days throughout mainstream and independent cinema. CGI these days is used a lot throughout mainstream and independent cinema and it's impacted films quite a lot, in my personal opinion it has ruined the charm of some films for example it's quite a quick and easy way to create special effects and doesn't have as much thought or effort gone in as the olden days. Although it has been a massive break through for films and has abled artists to develop their ideas more wider on screen and let their imagination run free. It's a good and bad thing in my opinion and the editing enables films today to be very fast cut and includes jump cuts, cutting on action etc. 

Jump cut- Cut that skips time.

A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time. It keeps the film flowing for example if a camera is following someone through a door they'll be a jump cut to the person walking into the room on the other side of the door, so it's continuos movement and helps the audience follow the character's story. 

Cutting on action- Hiding cuts on action. (0.21 seconds!)

J and L cuts- Where the audio and visual don't cut at the same time.

Montage- Passage of time, narrative development.

Matched cut- 2 similar shots cut together.

Cross cutting- Cut between 2 things happening at the same time.

Unit 8 Assignment 2 part 2

Why are these certain things that young people shouldn't watch? 

Their brains haven't developed enough maturity to understand the concept/content and storyline of the films which are rated 18 or 15. 

Ethics is usually something you learn from your parents its what you believe is right and wrong for example believing that murder is wrong although you may think a rapist should be murdered which is entering a sliding scale between what is wrong and what is right. Ethic views also come from your own personal experiences, culture and education and also the media. 

What programmes teach us good behaviour? Balamory teaches children good behaviour because they go to school and learn life lessons from their teachers and visitors who come to the nursery. Also Teletubbies teaches children to clean up after themselves and be nice to each other and share and play nicely. Another is Scrubs because at the end of each episode we see JD has learnt a new lesson each day, how to care for people, how to be a better doctor etc. 

What programmes teach us bad behaviour? Geordie Shore and 16 and Pregnant for teens, Super nanny for children because they wind their parents up and influence naughty behaviour, my super sweet 16, ex on the beach, teen mom, two and a half men, breaking bad, house of cards, storage hunters, skins, misfits.  

TV and Film's are made for entertainment purposes and people who watched certain programmes choose to watch these based on their views of what's right and what's wrong and their ethic views. I think that young children should stick to watching programmes that teach them how to be good and well behaved children such as the Teletubbies like they all share with each other and clean up after themselves and play nicely and other children's rated programmes generally teach children to be kind and helps them mature into nice caring children. There are child block settings on TV's and that can prevent kids and minors from watching shows that are bad for them. Thus I conclude that the bad influence on TV has been lessened by the technology that we have today and can be good for children for teaching and learning new things like counting, nursery rhymes and friendly characters. I think it depends on the parents if their children are watching films or TV shows that are too old and are a bad influence on them, it's up to the parents to choose what their kids watch. Although I don't think that all TV shows should be good ethical in the sense that teens and adults have matured and can understand humour, violence etc. in a way that it wouldn't affect them personally unless they had something personally wrong with them, it's something to laugh at or something to scare you they have gripping storylines and entertain us as adults watching the same content as young children wouldn't keep them interested. But I do think it depends on how weak minded the person is if it affects them largely because I do agree that Geordie Shore and Skins etc would effect some teenagers to party and take drugs and be very publicly drunk because it's what they have to look up if they choose to do that. It depends on if they watch it for a laugh or are watching it because they want that lifestyle, I think it really just depends on the person and their personal lives and events that have happened in their life to create their own ethical views. 

Overall I do think TV and Films effect peoples behaviour and influences them, the media has a huge impact on children, youth and adults. The ethics of films and TV can change a teens perception of love for example if their watching romantic films they may have a higher exception of love. Violent and action films pay a role in teens personality it could make them more aggressive. If you see a character doing something on the screen you may think thats the right thing to do although it might not be. 

In Big Brother Jade and Shilpa have an argument and Jade is very aggressive and bullying the other woman, it makes you think that Jade is very immature and has always been a bully or been bullied I think that she was jealous of Shilpa the way she called her a 'princess'. Channel 4 showed this because its entertainment purposes, arguing is what the viewers of big brother want to see and channel 4 know this. My view on the clip is that Jade was out of line for taking it that far and has a lot of problems she needs to address without taking it out on silly things like food in the house, the problem was obviously something else or she was jealous so she took it too far and it's strange to see adults acting so childish.  

Unit 8 Assignment 2

Trade unions:

If you want to work in the media and film industry a trade union that you can join is the DGGB - Directors guide great Britain, it's a professional organization which represents directors across all media and it was founded in 1983 by a group of leading British directors who were dissatisfied by poor representation by technical trade unions. Another is 
the BECTU which is the the UK's media and entertainment union. It covers broadcasting film, independent production. theatre and the arts, leisure and digital media. The union represents staff, contract and freelance workers who are based primarily in the UK.

It's important to join a trade union if you want to work in the media because you will be able to communicate and share your opinions in the workplace which is important if you want to get your ideas and voice heard. Also if you work at a non-unionised workplace you'll earn 10 per cent less than you would if you joined a trade union. The main reasons you should join is that you'll have an independent voice to communicate and negotiate with your employer/employee. Law/right advice, support and representation.  And health and safety, to make sure health and safety rules are followed and advice on these. They offer so much support for working people and provide advice and help.

To be a freelancer is somebody who does not work for one specific company, they are hired by multiple different companies/employers to do certain and specific jobs. They may not always have constant work coming through, its up to them to find work. The types of contacts which freelancers might have are either purely Freelance or you can have a contract that is fixed term, meaning that the job is temporary and will be for a certain amount of time but even though that's what will happen they'll still be entitled to company benefits such as employee discounts and holiday pays and sick pays and if your purely Freelance you will not get paid for having the night off because your ill, you simply need to turn up or you won't get paid. 

There are different types of film or media contracts for example freelance meaning they work for a company for a specific amount of time but are not entitled to company benefits. Also fixed-term working for a company for a specific amount of time but still are entitled to company benefits. Also permanent-Full time work on a full time basis, this is usually around 40 hours per week. Permanent part time which is a fraction of a full time contract. Shift work and this means you are set to work specific hours of the day, for example 4am-3pm. Office hours and these are usually set hours Monday to Friday, traditionally these hours are 9am-5pm. Salaried this is where you are paid a specific amount of money per year, yet it is broken down and you are paid monthly, for example 20,000 annually or around 1,500 per month. Irregular/anti-social hours pay, this is like overtime, where you are paid above your normal wage for working unsociable hours such as overnight hours. On completion is where you agree with a company what jobs you need to do by a specific date or time and once the job is completed you receive the pay agreed. 


Editorial guideline is a companies values and standards, these apply to all the companies content, no matter what format it is shown in, how it is shown or where it is shown. 

 look at the following link and summarise the guidelines for two or three of the subheadings
http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/

• Accuracy- Note taking: Note taking must be taken accurately and reliably. Records must be kept of all types of note taking whether this was done through electronics or written. Note taking should be kept in an order/way that allows double checking possibly by another member of the company/team. 

• Harm and offence- Language: Strong language can come across in a variety of different ways, it can cause humour and if can also cause offence, causing offence through language depends on the viewers age, gender, faith, nationality, where they live, education, etc. Strong language can also have a different impact depending on how it is delivered in context, how the person says it, etc. Producers should ensure that content is checked over and that they have taken into consideration what impact it will have on their audience. They should also consider the time and channel they choose to show their programme on, as it wouldn't be a good idea to show it on a children or family channel at 4pm as many young viewers could be watching(strong language should not be aired before the watershed time). 

• The law- General- There are cases where providing accurate information for the audiences interest can involve conflict with the law. There are many things that have to be considered if a break of the law arises, a few of these are: How it will effect the viewers, those involved and those concerned. How the company will be effected. How their coverage in different regions and internationally will be effected. 

There are many reasons why it is important for a producer to have to work under guidelines:

• To avoid breaking the law
• To avoid causing offence 
• To avoid showing inappropriate content to a younger audience for example strong language 
• To avoid the company failing
• To avoid the company loosing viewers but also business
• To receive the best outcome for their programme 
• To gain a profit and not a loss due to fines or a possibly sue. 

BBFC
Who are they and what do they do?

BBFC are the British board of film classification. They grade or class films fit for certain audiences this is for viewer protection, for example this prevents an underage person from viewing a film that is a 15 or 18, etc. 

The BBFC is a trusted guide to media content, a self-financing company that are consistent, self-regulatory classification and labelling systems in the UK. 

Their mission is to:

• Protect viewers and reduce risk of harm.
• To enforce power and rules to the public and parents in order for them to make more considerate choices when choosing what to let their children or relatives view.
• Respect adult privacy and freedom.
• Reflect on behaviour and social attitude and respond to it through the use of research. 
• Cost-effective service. 
• Effective service. 

 What can you/can't you show in a PG, 12A and 15?

PG:
CAN- 

• Contain mild bad language such as 'bitch' however this depends on the context it is used in and how it is delivered by the actors. 
• Sex references can be included as long as they are infrequent and undetailed and if a child is not likely to understand the reference then sometimes it is allowed. 
• Violence is allowed as long as it is mild and not graphic, there may be blood however how the injury was inflicted will not be shown in detail. 
• Drug references are allowed as long as they are not focused on or if there is a clear anti-drugs and educational message.

CAN'T- 

• Contain content which is inappropriate for a child, PG's tend to look into more effective issues such as bullying and racism. 
• Cant contain detailed sexual references.
• Cant contain detailed violence or extremely strong language. 
• Cannot contain drug use or drug references if they do not include an anti-drugs message that could be educational

12A:
CAN-

• Use stronger language depending on how it is delivered.
• Sexual references as long as they do not go past what is suitable for a young viewer. 
• Sexual references if the impact is lessened by an innuendo or humour. 
• Nudity- brief and discreet.
• Violence as long as it is not too graphic or detailed. 
• Weapons as long as they are discreet and not glamorised. 
• Scenes of horror as long as they are not frequent or overly disturbing to young teenagers. 
• Dangerous behaviour such as suicide.
• Drug misuse as long as it is infrequent.

CAN'T-

• Cannot use discriminatory language such as homophobic language unless it is clearly condemned. 
• No emphasis on blood or injury when violence is involved. 
• Weapons such as knives should not be glamorised. 
• Dangerous behaviour must not be present in a way that young viewers may copy. 
• Anti-social behaviour should not be endorsed.
• drug misuse should not be glamorised. 

15
CAN-

• Strong violence will be allowed.
• Can contain frequent strong language.
• Will contain portrayals of sexual activity.
• Strong references to sex.
• Nudity.
• brief scenes of sexual violence of reference to sexual violence. 
• Discrimination- verbal or behaviour.
• Drugs

CAN'T-

• Strong language which is continuous and aggressive.
• Strong detail of sexual activity.
• Strong detail of nudity.
• Violence that dwells on infliction and injury.
• Strong sadistic violence.
• No sustained focus on sexualised threats.
• Drug content must not persuade or promote drug misuse.
• Dangerous substances.
• Dangerous behaviour shouldn't focus on detail or encourage it to be copied.

UNIT 8 PREP WORK

Please collate research on the following areas ready for the first week back after half term

• What is the BBC? - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a public broadcaster in the UK and one of the largest broadcasting organisation in the world. The BBC is funded by the TV licence fee that is paid by UK households and business who have televisions.

• How is it funded? - The BBC is funded by people paying for their TV license, the money brought in from TV licenses are used to pay for its TV, radio and online services, plus other costs. 

• When did it start? - The BBC started in the 1920's the first regular radio broadcasts and the first edition of The Radio Times, and the first ever demonstrations of television. The 1920's saw the end of the amateur radio enthusiasts and the beginning of a professional broadcast organisation. 

• What current changes are they making to their channels or programmes? -

• BBC1 is reducing the minimum hours of arts and music from 45 to 40, achieved through cutting episodes of shows.
• BBC One and Two will "largely be protected from making significant cuts".
• Repeats on BBC One will increase, but remain under 10% of all output (the current rate is 8.4%).
• Expenditure on sports rights will be cut by 15%. This has largely been achieved already by sharing rights to Formula 1 coverage.

• Can you find 2/3 articles on people arguing the pros and cons of the licence fee?

1. http://www.groundreport.tv/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-the-tv-licence-in-britain/

2.  http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/feature/a560323/ds-reader-view-why-the-bbc-should-keep-the-licence-fee.html

3. https://kingb94.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/pros-and-cons-of-the-bbc-licence-fee/

• What are commercial TV channels? - Commercial TV channels are popular channels such as Film 4 or Sky Sports, because these are private companies but are popular commercial channels. 

• How are they funded? - Funded by people who pay for the channels on Sky and subscribe to the channels, they pay a specific amount per week and year so they can watch the programmes and thats how the channels are funded. 

• How do we know if a commercial channel is successful or not? - If you look at the viewing figures of a channel and see how many people tune in to watch each day that will tell you how much of a popular/successful channel it is. 

• What are the highest rated programmes on ITV or channel 5 -  Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Broadchurch are the most watched programmes on ITV. Channel 5's most highest rated programmes are CSI, Big Brother and Home and Away.

• What is a meant by the term 'media conglomerate'? - "A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in a variety of medias such as television, radio, movies, and even the internet." 

• Find some 'media conglomerates'? 
  

• Who are the major film production studios? 
  

• Find two or three films for one of the major studios, how much money did they make from it (box office and DVD)

Paramount Pictures films

Wolf of Wall Street - worldwide the film made $392,000,694

Mean Girls - worldwide the film made $129,042,871

Titanic - $1.84 billion worldwide 

• What is meant by the term 'independent film'? - An independent film is made outside the major film studios, it's produced by a smaller company that isn't apart of the multimedia mass studios. 

• Can you find examples of independent film producers? -  

Kevin Smith "Clerks" was produced on a shoe string budget. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier produced the comedy "Clerks." Smith used his entire savings to produce this movie. This movie ended up becoming a cult classic and shooting Kevin Smith to fame and other projects.

Byron Kennedy While his name may not immediately scream out, his work remains a classic. This producer solidified his standing in movie history with the production of the “Mad Max” series starring Mel Gibson.  This Australian film was created with a $400,000 budget, yet the effects of this movie still carry on.

• What independent films have won awards?

Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company)

Actor in a Supporting Role
Chritoph Waltz – Django Unchained (The Weinstein Company)

Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran – Anna Karenina (Focus Features)

• What are the new technological developments in the way we watch/make television and film?

"The most recent developments in the way we watch and make tv and film are that we can now stream programmes and films from our laptops/computers and phones, this can we done through sites such as BBC iplayer and 4OD. There are new apps for phones such as Netflix, this is an app but also a website which you  pay monthly with in order to watch films and tv programmes from over the past few months.

Another development in the way we watch TV is that over the past few years 3D viewing and 3D TV's have been introduced to us, first 3D was available in the cinema but has more recently been developed to watch in the comfort of your own home through 3D televisions and channels. 

We can now also record tv which allows us to watch the programmes we want at later times, for example if you are in work and are going to miss a programme you can set your sky box for example to record the programme, so then you can watch it later on when it suits you."

UNIT 21 ASSIGNMENT 1

Future of TV Article 

Audio and Video Signals  

There are different confusing letters and words to describe audio and video signals here is a list of what these things do...

• AES EBU Digital Audio AES/EBU - is a balanced, digital audio transfer standard that uses an XLR connector with a single cable carrying  left-channel and right-channel audio data.

• Composite - Composite Video is a single signal which carries both the chrominance (color) and luminance (brightness) components of a video signal, along with sync information, on a single wire. 

• CVBS -  "Color, Video, Blank & Sync"

• DVI - DVI (Digital Video Interface) is a video interface standard used primarily with flat panel LCD monitors and high-end video graphics cards. 

• DVI-A - DVI-A (Analogue format) is  just the RGBHV signal format using a different connector.

• HDMIT - High Definition Media Interface is a signal format, backwardly compatible with DVI-D and employing the same encoding/decoding scheme. Video is kept in uncompressed digital format and 8-channel audio is offered. Combines a digital audio and a digital video cable into a single connector. The video signals on HDMI are backwardly compatible with DVI-D.

• IEEE1394 - An external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of up to 400Mbps (1394a) and 800Mbps (1394b). It also supports isochronous data - delivering data at a guaranteed rate, making it ideal for devices that need to transfer high levels of data in real-time, such as video devices.

• Y/Pb/Pr - In Y/Pb/Pr Component Video, there is a luminance channel, "Y," which carries the luminance along with the sync pulses, and two colour-difference channels, which carry signals representing Blue minus Luminance (B-Y, or Pb) and Red minus Luminance (R-Y, or Pr). From these signals, the display device separates out the sync information and reconstitutes the red, green and blue components of the picture. Just as s-video requires two signal-carrying wires instead of one, component video requires three  connections color-coded green (Y, or Luminance), blue (Pb) and red (Pr). RGBHV will usually, though not always, be color-coded red, green, blue, yellow (horizontal sync) and white (vertical sync).

Which is better HD or standard definition, prove it with research?

HD is better than standard definition, this is because the visual is less pixilated, meaning the visual is clearer and it also makes smaller details blend into the action. Because HD is clearer it also means that key elements of the action that may be small but important are clearer and stand out more as the details are shown in a much better quality. 

You can see by this picture that the Standard Definition is poorer quality than High Definition.





What was terrestrial TV? Why was it turned off?

Terrestrial TV is a type of television broadcasting using radio signals for transmission and television antennas and tuners for reception. Terrestrial television is the first system of television broadcast and the BBC began broadcasting in 1929, and had a regular schedule of television programmes in 1930. There was virtually no other method of television delivery until the 1950s with the beginnings of cable television. Terrestrial TV became outdated like many other things in life and something better was invented which was cable television.  


What are the different types of digital filming and storage?

Digital memory cards are used to store digital film, memory cards are removable, and quite a few different types are available. DSLRs mainly use Compact Flash, but other formats, such as SD cards, are becoming more popular. Compact cameras use a wider range of cards.

Different types of digital filming and storage are Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD)

Sony Memory Stick (MS), MultiMediaCard (MMC) / SecureMultiMediaCard (SecureMMC).

UNIT 8 ASSIGNMENT 1 JOB ROLES