The Evolution of Editing

Documentary filmmaking began around 1895. Lumiere was a french filmmaker at this time and is considered to be the father of documentaries. The type of films that Lumiere produced were actualities where events were filmed exactly as they happened with no editing.

The first story film did not come around until 1903. The entire film used a wide angle long shot which was continuous. There were no close ups so no one person or detail was focused on. The audience had to decide what to look at and who to focus their attention on. The downfall of only having wide angle long shots is that the viewers cannot see the characters' expressions or any details which would help tell the story better.

When editing was finally developed, it was continuity editing. The film was cut and put together so that events occurred in sequential order and made logical sense to the audience. Another editing technique used involved showing the beginning of something in one cut and then showing the end of it in the next cut. Although the audience does not literally see what happened, they can assume what occurred in the middle by the start and the outcome.

Films began to get more complex when filmmakers discovered how to use parallel action. One part of a story would be shown and then the film would cut to something occurring in the other part of the story. The film basically has two or more stories taking place that it flashes between. In the end, they end up coming together for an overall story. Also around this time, a medium close up shot was used. With this shot, the audience gets to see more detail and expression.


Classical cutting is useful because it uses many angles and types of shots so there can be several cuts. This allows for more detail in the story. The juxtaposition of images to create new meaning not found in either shot individually is known as montage editing. This allows the audience to get a message without the filmmaker having to come out and bluntly say what is happening.

Editing is extremely important in documentary filmmaking because it determines how the audience views what is occurring.