For my third media element I tried to make a replica/sculpture of a old film cutter using a couple of simple materials. I chose to do the cutter because I thought it was the simplest to make and gets my statement across quickly even though it didn’t turn out as nice as I imagined. I used a black cardboard box, some black styrofoam, red and orange playdough, scissors, paper,a black marker and a pc graphics card pin cover to make it. I started by folding the black cardboard into the shape of the film cutter that I wanted, next I started cutting out the shapes I had to put on the box, next I used playdough and the graphics card pin cover to replicate the button and the handle.
Editing is what makes the difference between a film and a shot, it is one of if not the most important aspect of film and videomaking, but we didn’t always have the efficient editing software and hardware that are available to us today. Back in the old days, editing required editors to manually cut and piece together rolls of film with tape and glue in order to create the common camera cuts and transitions we see on every edited piece of media today. They did these with film cutters of varying sizes ranging from big and bulky to compact versions like the one I tried to replicate in my sculpture. Looking back at what editors had to do it really was bold of them for doing what they did as any person of this generation would most likely never have to go through the hardships of piecing a whole film together with a razor and tape.
We have come a long way in terms of high end state of the art editing software now and are far beyond the time of manually piecing together films, with practically overflowing options and tools to better improve the quality of film. We are provided with a whole range of options to tweak our videos or film , allowing us to create essentially any effect needed, from flames, to muzzle flares, to explosions and even superpowers. But with access to such a large range of toolsets, it may be confusing to figure out exactly which is needed for what purpose, thankfully that’s what the internet is for. With so much information on guides, techniques and settings for the various editing programs, anyone is able to simply look up a quick step by step guide on google or YouTube to create the effect they wanted. Ironically there are options for recreating the “old film effect” using programs like adobe premiere and iMovie as well.
Bibliography
- Hollyn, Norman. Film Editing Room Handbook : How To Tame The Chaos Of The Editing Room. 1st ed. 2010. Print. [ONLINE] Available at : http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1433956
- Cellania, Miss et al. “Old-Fashioned Analog Film Editing”. Neatorama. N.p., 2017. [ONLINE] Available at : http://www.neatorama.com/2013/01/02/Old-fashioned-Analog-Film-Editing/
- “Old Film Effect Tutorial: How To Create The Old Film Look For Video”. Tubular Insights. N.p., 2017. [ONLINE] Available at : http://tubularinsights.com/old-film-effect-look/