Final essay

In this essay I will talk about the evolution of film editing from the days of D.W Griffith and Edwin porter. I will also talk about directors such as John G.Avildsen (director of karate kid) 1984 version and Harald Zwart (director of karate kid 2010. I will also talk about films such as karate kid and King Kong, I will compare the old King Kong movie which was edited manually and the latest spider movie which was edited on computer. In this essay I want to show how the same movie with the same scenes that are just edited differently and effect it has on the audience. My first movie I want to look at is The Karate Kid (1984) edited by Daniel LaRusso version and The Karate Kid (2012) edited by Joel Negron version to see how editing has evolved from over the years from editors editing manually and now on computers and show difference in manual editing and computer editing. 

The two clips from the film I looked at was the last fight scene, in the 1984 of karate kid version edited by John G. Avildsen who also directed the it show. Daniel LaRusso (the protagonist) get beat down by Johnny it the final of the tournament after that the editor uses non digenetic sound to build suspense, after that you see a cutaway showing the crowd reaction to the fight then a close up on Mr Miyagi then a medium shot on Daniel LaRusso to show him standing to show he hasn’t lost and but the audience out of suspense and due to the theme of the movie it teachers never give up, after it chows many different cutaways on Mr megayi and then you get a wide shot of the protagonist (Daniel LaRusso) and the antagonist (Johnny Lawrence)  .  

In my opinion the editor John G. Avildsen knew the feeling he wanted the audience to feel at that moment and due to John G. Avildsen being the director he knew when he wanted the sound to start, I think that John G. Avildsen knew with a close up and non diegetic sound it would make the audience think is Daniel LaRusso really hurt can he carry on fighting? Is the movie over already? He made the audience ask themselves so many questions and feel so many different emotions of just one edit.  

 But in the 2010 version of karate kid edited by Joel Negron it has a completely different feeling due to the different edits and cuts. In the same scene it shows Drew the protagonist of the film reviving a 360 kick in the air, but due to the development in technology and the edits are now on computer the editor was able to slow the clip down and have an wide shot. Slowing the clip down makes has an massive affect on the audience due to it shows an bigger impact on the protagonist leg, than you get an medium close up on Master Li that an cutaway back to the protagonist with an close up on his face. From my point of view Joel Negron was trying to show the impact of the hit on the protagonist and the emotion on his face after feeling the hit. 

In the second film I looked at was King Kong. While watching the old and new I got an understanding of the evolution the movie has gone form watching the cuts done manually in the 1933 with barley any edits for example in the scene. I was amazed seeing the difference of the same scene in 2005, the scene I am talking about is the ionic Empire State Building climbing of King Kong. In the 1933 the camera was focused on with one single medium shot than a straight cut away to King Kong than the camera was focused on King Kong for ten seconds with an a medium close up than another cutaway to the planes trying to take down King Kong. In 2005 it looks like complete different movie due to the most the scenes are just pictures but people where over the moon at that time too see some moving clips on an big screen.

     

Edwin porter was the first guy to practise continuity editing in the early in the early 1900s.  There was a major problem in the film industry filmmakers couldn’t establish sequence from one shot to the next. The great train Robbery (1903) was the first film to have narrative and to achieve continuity this was an massive for the film industry due to the in camera edit of cross-cutting. Due to the lack of technology in the 1900s parallel editing was used to show to or more scenes for example Edwin porter was able to cut a whole day into 11 mins. This was ground breaking in the history of editing due everyone was pleased with the basics and nobody really thought film industry had a future but Edwin porter realised that having cut always could change a movie.

The purpose of editing has changed throughout the years in the early 1900s editors use to take 200 hours or more of raw footage and manually edit that to two hours of film to show the audience, Now in the twenty thirst centaury editing is way more than just editing now editors try and tell and story with clips and sound effects for example in my prime example karate kid John G. Avildsen  the editor and the director used cutaways to engage the viewer and create a drama the clip I am talking about is the final fight in the tournament when you see a medium shot on Daniel LaRusso on the floor to give an illusion that the fight is over but then you hear non diegetic sound to give suspense  to the drama that the editor is try to create. In my opinion seeing how editors have now evolved and gotten a bigger role in the film that given them a chance to create a dram or story it shows how much editing has developed over the years, I think a big step in giving editors a bigger role is when editing turn to computers that gave editors an easier life and chance to do more than just edit a movie.