Camera editing is when you are filming your shots without using any postproduction. In order to have good camera editing, you have to plan ahead the shots you are going to shoot. Camera editing was used by the Lumaise brothers in the 1880s. They invented Cinematographe, which was a device that had a camera, printer and projector in one. They used this device for their first film and what it does is shoot and live editing.


Static camera filmmaking is when you shoot the whole scene with an establish shot; leaving the camera stationary in one position. Static camera filmmaking was first used in the 1890s. It was introduced by French director, George Mellies. His film “A Trip to the Moon” had one camera stationed in one position for all the scenes; it had early example of fade in/fade outs, narrative storyline, stop motion, slow-motion, dissolve and double exposure and trick photography which was early special effects.



Like George Melles, other director that pioneer film editing was Edwin v Porter, he made films such as “The Life of an American Fireman” in 1903, which his editing technique was using inter cutting or jump cutting between the scenes of the burning house with the camera set up sitting outside the building to be able to dramatise the scene. That film’s narrative is not linear because of the repeat narrative action and it had first examples of close ups e.g. hand pulling a fire alarm.



Later that year, Porter's film “The Great Train Robbery” was proved to be one of the most influential films because of his editing. It was one of the first films to have a chronological sequence and it had innovative techniques such as an early attempt at the parallel edit, e.g. when the young girl untied the guy and people having a dance at the same time, even though he didn’t intentionally do it. Porter used close-up shots of the bandit shot toward the audience as it was done to make a dramatic effect. He also used camera panning e.g. the scene where the bandits escape with the money.



In the same time period, DW Griffith, unlike Porter, experimented with camera positions and shot sizes like close ups, e.g. his dramatic use of close up of the flower that he used in the birth of the nation, establishing shots, and mid shots. He also experimented with lighting such as low key, backlight etc. He developed Porter‘s camera techniques (e.g. pans, tilts) into parallel editing - cross – cutting, and close ups. He used parallel editing- cross cutting for most of his films such as, “The Girl in her trust” e.g. the two tramps looking through the window of the house cuts inside the house as they are looking; it intercuts between them and the man and the girl in the house.



He used parallel editing to create excitement, suspense and some sort of simultaneous action. As well as being famous for parallel editing etc. he was also known for his continuity editing. He was often called “creator of continuity editing” for his films such as “The Birth of the nation" and "the sunbeam". For an example; between 13:07 and 13:14, there was the continuity edit, when the guy went out of the shot and smiling back to the people and then next cut is of him coming into the shot still smiling at the people.




Over the years (after 1920s), the emergence of television changed the editing developed. Instead of using one camera, film- and TV makers began to use more then one camera. Here is an example of a clip  of "The Queen Messenger" made 1925, it was the first world first televised play.



They used two cameras in this, the first camera was an establishing shot and the second one was a mid shot of the man and the woman sitting on the table. In the 1950's, before the invention of videotapes, live television was filmed in Kinescope (which is when you record a tv program using an video monitor). There were problems with Kinescope such as picture degradation, image control and loss of contrast, and that led to the invention of videotapes. Videotapes in those days were intended as a short term plan, but after years of development videotape became reliable producton tool for video editing.

CGI had a forerunner about 100 years ago in experimental filmmakers (e.g. George Melies), who used trick photography to create special effects. Here's a one of the example of the first special effects.



In this short film, George Melis made the camera stop (using a jump cut or a stop effect), allowing the trick to look realistic. During the 20th century, technology in editing was developing as the industry wanted more things than cutting the film or using stop motion. That was to change in the digitial age, when computers were invented and allowed for the advancement of effects, such as CGI(Computer Generated Imagery), that can do so much in a film.

Here's an example of Indiana Jones and the Raider of the Lost Ark, whuich was one of the last films (before cumputers was involved) to used trick photography



What they done in the scene, is that they used time lapsed of melting wax heads and double exposed the film in order to create an illusion.

In the past 30 years, CGI was developing from stop motion to digitial effects with films such as; Terminator 2 (1991) had the first use of human movements for a computer-generated character and "Jurassic Park" that had the first use of photorealistic characters. Here an example of "Jurassic Park"



3D computer graphics is most recent development in CGI, with films such as "Avatar" that used 3D photorealistic characters in 3D world




3D has changed on how the audience viewed films in cinema with wearing 3d glasses or going to watch it in IMAX Cinama. The reason is that lots of films are releasing in 3D such as Saw, Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3D.