T:2 Developing Editing Techniques

In-camera editing is one of the simplest and one of the most earliest forms of films editing. It is a filming  technique which only requires the filmmaker to record when he wants the film and pause it when he wants it to stop, that is why this technique is very difficult as you can only do it once and there is no retakes or post editing. The film has to run in order you wish to show it, as you cannot edit it at the end to go in the order you wish to show it. This technique became popular thanks to a magician called George Melies, who made a little film called 'The Vanishing Lady' which in its time was revolutionary. Here is his film:




Below is the short film, me and my group made using In-Camera editing:



In our firsts two scenes, it shows David walking down a set of stairs, we put the camera in the middle of the stairs, aiming up so that David was walking down towards the camera, and once he was out of view we stopped it and put it down the bottom of the stairs so it was a similar view which in my opinion made flow better.

The third scene we decided to place the camera out side of the building, and got him to walk outside the door, so it looks like he walked down the stairs and gone straight outside the door and walk along side the path to make the film look continuous from the last as it he stopped walking it would not flow.

The next scene we brought in another actor to join David, once the scene started we saw Tony come into the shot as he appeared around the corner to greet David, then Tony decides to go with David to where ever he was going. We made a mistake as we was talking in the video and you can hear laughing, and the film was meant to be silent.

In the fifth scene we see them walk in between two buildings... talking, thus giving the illusion they know eachother and generally talk to eachother. In my opinion it was a very good scene as we had the camera low, so as they walked further away the got smaller and smaller, more so than if we had it eye hight. We stopped filming when they got about three quarters of the way down so that when we shot the next scene and they wasnt already turning it gave the illusion that they still had to walk down to the end.

In the sixth scene we see them turn the corner, carring on their conversation, not looking at the camera to give a better illusion that the camera is not actually there. In comparision to the rest it is a fairly short scene.

In the sixth shot we decided to change the camera angle by shoting them through a window, instead of just being directly behind or infront of them. This made it seem as if you was actually watching them walk and we could also do two scenes at once which required less setting up as in stead of filming them coming up to the doors, then through them and then start going up the stairs, we could do it all at once. Also at the end you see two girls walk past which give it more of a real effect as they walked accross a whole school without seeing one person is quiet unusual so that aspect added a sence of realness to the scene.

In the seventh scene it shows them coming up from the staircase they entred at the end of the previous shot, this scene ends with a 'close-up' of David using his card on the machine so that they can get into the study hall.

Finally film ends in them walking through the door and then it ends by the door closing behind them.


The pro's of in-camera editing are that it can be very quick to record, as you do not need all the hastle of editing the clips afterwards as you have done it in-camera. Also it is not as expensive to make as you do not have to pay for the recording equipment and software.

The cons of using in-camera are that if you make a mistake you cannot edit it out, also the are times in your clip when it doesnt 'flow', as if you are running for example in the next clip it is hard to make it look as if he was continuasly running as he would have been standing still until the director told him to run.