I was involved in a short 5 minute film produced by our team, and edited by me and co-students Tom Anderson and Ben Hale >>>
Me and Tom spent several hours discussing ideas and then proceeded to incorporate them into the final edit. We also used stock footage we had sourced and uncredited free music and sound FX which we included in the short in post-production.
In order to produce this short we used Final Cut Pro, drag and dropped the raw files into Final Cut Pro. Once the files were transferred and copied we reviewed the clips and then marked in and out points in chronological order, as we did edit in camera. This was a long process as we had to switch from one camera to another, we often had to re-arrange the clips, to make the film's narrative flow more naturally. After our timeline of footage was placed and complete, we began splicing in short slugs and stock footage for the 'drug scene'. After we had achieved this we added music beds and sound effects that we believed complimented the film's mis-en-scene. We then added credits and applied video filters to various scenes we believed needed distorting.
Me and Tom especially found it exciting editing both the sound and footage in the 'chase scene' and the 'final scene'. It was most definitely a team effort, Ben also helped edit the introduction and also created graphics for the short.
In this post I will explain the three principles of editingand how technology has helped editing to evolve in motion picture. The three principles of editing are as follows:
The Development of Editing
The Purpose of Editing
The Conventions and Techniques of Editing
The Development of Editing (A brief history)
'Galloping Horse' an animated gif of Murbridges' photographic study 'Sallie Gardner at a Gallop'
Perhaps the most innovative pioneer of motion picture was English born photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Originally a merchant he moved back to San Francisco in 1867 as a professional photographer. As a photographer Muybridge took on various notable assignments, even being commissioned by the United States Government to take photographs in newly-aquired American state Alaska, this included photographs of Alaska's landscape and their inhabitants Tlingit Native Americans and Russians. On returning to San Francisco Muybridge recorded the construction of the San Francisco Mint from 1870-1872 he illustrated this using the powerful method of Time-Lapse photography.
In 1872 Muybridge was approached by a former governor of California, Leland Stanford a businessmen, proprietor and race-horse owner. Muybridge was commissioned by Stanford to undertake extensive scientific studies into the motion of race-horses at his Palo Alto Stock Farm. Stanford wanted to determine whether horses had all four feet off the floor at the same time, which was in question at that time. Muybridge planned to take a series of photos on the 15th of June 1878 at Stanford's Palo Alto Stock Farm. He did this by placing numerous large glass-plate cameras alligned along the edge of the track; the shutter of each camera was triggered by a thread as the horse passed in later work Muybridge used a clockwork device to trigger the shoot. The path was lined with cloth sheets to reflect as much light as possible. After successfully shooting and developing the photographs he copied the images in the form of silhouettes onto a disc to be viewed in a machine he had invented, which he called a zoopraxiscope. The zoopraxiscope has since been regarded as an early movie projector. This was an intermediate stage toward motion pictures and cinematography, a very important step for the development of editing. Muybridge extensively studied the motion of animals and humans for years to come, he found that playing back a sequence of images at a frame rate of 24 frames per second the brain is instantly tricked to believing the image is moving, this is otherwise known as the persistence of vision.
In the late 1800's renound American invention Thomas Edison paved the way for motion picture with the kinetoscope. On February 25th 1898 in Orange, Jersey, Thomas Edison and William Dickson, Edison's official company photographer attended a lecture from Eadward Muybridge it is speculated Muybridge included a demonstration of his own invention the zoopraxiscope during this lecture. Two days later Muybridge and Edison met in Edison's laboratory, Muybridge proposed that they fuse both the zoopraxiscope and the Edison phonograph, this would allow sound and images to play simultaneously, however no such collaboration took place. It was at this point that Dickson assigned Dickson, who he regarded his most talented of employees to start work on the kinetoscope. Some modern scholars have come to determine that Dickson performed the majority of the experimentation with only some assistance from Edison, even though later the invention was credited solely to Edison himself. By 1891 Dickson and his chief assistants had successfully devised a functional strip-based film viewing system. This was documented in one of the world's first ever films entitled 'Dickson Greeting' which featured Dickson himself, it lasts for a duration of 3 seconds and shows Dickson reaching out his arms and exchanging his hat from one hand to another.
The world premier of Edison's kinetoscope took place at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences the film that was shown was Blacksmith Scene which was directed by Dickson, the film was produced at Edison's newly established studio the Black Maria. The kinetoscope became an instant success, even though on first edition it was expensive to experience for the same price an individual could purchase a ticket for a major vaudeville theater performance. On June 1894 Edison arranged for the filming of a premier boxing match between Michael Leonard and Jack Cushing at the Black Maria. There was in total seven hundred and fifty feet of images which were shot at a frame of 30 frames per second, easily the longest reel of film shot to date. The first two film makers in history were Auguste and Louis Lumiere otherwise known as the Lumiere brothers. Their father owned a photographic firm where the two brothers worked for him, they were also schooled at the largest technical school in Lyon, the La Martiniere. After experimenting with film perforations, they discovered how to merge film and a projector. This device was the cinematographe, its first public premier made history, it was held at Salon Indien du Grand Cafe' in Paris on December 28, 1985, where admissions were charged. All of film's pioneers claim to have discovered film around the same period, this has become an area of debate with most film scholars.
In 1893 Edison and Dickson's next sound-motion picture system the kinetophone was said to have premiered at the Chicago World's fair. It was speculated that the next step for motion picture would be through projection, and this may be where the kinetophone fell short. However on public release Edison was met with a rival invention the flip-book inspired mutoscope, which contained "what the butler saw" films, which were short peep shows, these were cheaper to facilitate and were very popular at the time. In just two years profits to be used on the kinetophone project plummeted more than 95% to the sum of $4,000.
In early 1896 Edison had turned his attention to building projection technology for the purpose of cinema, Edison looked to the phantoscope which was developed by two young American inventors Charles F Jenkins and Thomas Armat. The rights to this system were acquired by Raff and Gammon and the device was renamed the vitoscope, Raff and Gammon were the firm that kinetoscopes were eventually marketed through commercially. Raff and Gammon planned to fabricate that Edison has invented the vitoscope from scratch, as he had become a household name, an already recognized figure in the public domain. However after a year in production Edison abandoned the vitoscope and instead arranged to develop an entirely new viewing system, this was namedthe projectoscope, After years in production Edison and his company introduced the ambitious and very expensive home projecting kinetoscope, the devices format of three parallel columns of sequential frames on one strip of film which was an innovative mechanism at the time. The middle column ran through the machine in the reverse direction from the parallel columns. It was a commercial failure due to its price tag. Four years later, the Edison operation came out with its last substantial new film exhibition technology, a short-lived theatrical system called the super kinetoscope. It was substantial in that the product featured some Edison company's most creative and inspiring work in the motion picture industry dated right from 1897. This system involved the use of kinetoscope-related patents and the Edison company threatened actual lawsuits for the purpose of financially safe guarding and pressuring, blocking and limiting commercial rivals capabilities.
Frames
Frames in film are comprised of image stills which compose a moving picture. The term was derived toward the end of the 20th century when examining long strips of photographic film, the images looked like framed pictures when examined individually.
Frame Rates
The human eye can register 10-12 pictures per second, on viewing they appear as a set of individual images, but anything over the rate of 10-12 frames per second we accept as pictures in motion, and the seal of reality is broken.
Frame rates is the frequency in which frames are played at, in motion picture film, filming and projection formats are set a rate of 24 frames per second, although originally Thomas Edison claimed that film should be shot at a minimum rate of 46 frames per second. By the late 1920's a frame rate of 20-26 frames per second was used exclusively for silent film. In 1926 sound film was introduced, it was discovered that the human ear is much more sensitive to the sudden change in sound than that on the screen. So the average film rate was altered again, and from 1927 to 1929 the rate of 24 frames per second became the standard for 35mm sound film.
In TV and digital cinema there are three main frame rates used today: 24 frames per second, 25 frames per second and 30 frames per second (used in American cinematography/motion picture).
Thomas Edison and his Cartel
the infamous sixteen patents of the MPPC, photographed in 1908
The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) previously known as the Edison Manufacturing Company was formed by a group of nine of cinema's most powerful men, the key factor was the proposition to work together instead of existing as rivals. The MPPC consisted 16 major film patents, they pooled their resources and from 1909 onward the company continued to systematically monopolize the growing American film industry. They also imposed legal restrictions on up and coming independent film makers this was made possible due to their contacts in high places and strong lawyers that would enforce their wish to prosecute. Edison wished to end the ceaseless lawsuits since he filed a patent on his motion picture camera in 1891 which was his chief reason for forming the company. In one case they sued Carl Laemmle, aspiring film maker and distributor and sued him 289 times for breaching rights to their intellectual property.
Requiring producers and exhibitors would pay $2 a week just to hold a license, in order to purchase then screen films. Anyone who failed to adhere to their demands would be labeled "pirates" and would be sued by the cartel consequentially.
In 1912 Carl Laemmle founder of Universal Pictures and William Fox founder of 20th Century Fox, both filed antitrust legal action against the Edison Trust. In 1915 a federal district court ruled the trust was most certainly a monopoly, and it soon dissolved.
The Purpose of Editing
In Camera Editing In camera editing is a technique in which the director will shoot every shot in the order it will appear, this technique was famed by hugely influential and important directors like Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford. The term is largely self explanatory, as all the shots are edited in camera. It is often used because the director believes that much in their vision, they leave no room to edit film using all that post-production technology has to offer.
The 1948 film 'Rope' based on a play of the same name was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and is a perfect example of in camera editing. It is widely described as one of his more experimental films, due to the fact the film appears to be shot entirely in just one take, but the film was actually shot in 10 takes. Hitchcock was already synonymous with his long takes, in this film the takes were much longer, lasting up to as long as 10 minutes a time, as this was the maximum ammount of time a reel could take back then. The film is a masterclass in making you feel as though you're there, its very much alive what's on screen, and the technique compliments the content greatly. American director John Ford was also noted for his use of in camera editing, in a time where directors often had little say in the final cut edit. Ford typically shot footage he only needed to use, in the exact same sequence he wished it to appear on screen. This limited the capabilities of any editor working on his movies he stated "I don’t give ‘em a lot of film to play with. In fact, Eastman used to complain that I exposed so little film. I do cut in the camera. Otherwise, if you give them a lot of film ‘the committee’ takes over. They start juggling scenes around and taking out this and putting in that. They can’t do it with my pictures. I cut in the camera and that's it. There's not a lot of film left on the floor when I’m finished" Ford never used storyboards when producing his films.
Another example of a feature length film that utilizes this technique well is the 1960 film 'Breathless' directed by French new wave director Jean-Luc Godard, the film was shot almost entirely in chronological order, the entire film was shot using a hand held camera, with next to no lighting. the cinematographer Raoul Coutard had to use Ilford HPS film, which was not available in motion picture film stock at the time. He improvised by using 18 metre lengths of HPS film that were made for 35mm still camera use and once the shots were taken, Coutard spliced them together to 120 metre rolls. A Cameflex camera was the only camera adaptable to this film.
In camera editing does require extensive preperation, when shooting to edit, film makers can shoot their scenes in any order as they will re-arrange the footage in post-production. But when editing in camera every shot must be shot chornologically, in continuitiy. It may also require actors to act out every scene maticulously, before the director records, they will have to be sure they don't shoot too long or too little, this requires great planning and practise.
Editing in camera also has its other benefits for example you could edit your own films without expensive computer hardware and software such as Final Cut Pro, Avid or Adobe Premier. A film can take around three months to shoot, it is usually the editing process that can take up to a year to finalize. However by using the edit in camera technique you can reduce the time it takes to shoot your film. Edited in camera films still exist today, at Straight 8 Film Festival based in the United Kingdom, film makers are internationally invited to produce and submit a film shot on a single 8mm film cartridge reaching a maximum of 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Straight 8's assigned judges then pick the best films after entry and the best films that are chosen screen at two major world film festivals, Raindance Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.
The Invention of Video Editing
The process of editing post 1924 was either obstructed by hand or mechanically by machine, this was called linear editing. In 1951 the first video tape editing system was invented by the Ampex research team at Ampex. Video editing machines didn't fully come into mass production till 1956, this piece video editing technology was the Ampex VR-1000. It shot in black and white in mono audio. It was acompanied by an audio splicing device the Smith Splicer, a cut needed to be made very precisely using a microscope, you would then use a 3m long splicing tape to join the two ends together. Here is an example of some of the equipment used in a demonstration made in 1967 for training purposes in Television production: http://www.vtoldboys.com/editm02.htm
However none of these systems or editing techniques were used for cinema and were only deemed adequate for Television. However systems that were produced in the 1970s introduced in and out points which would mark where one clip would start and end, this was controlled via the control deck.
Non-Linear Editing Systems
The first edition of a non-linear editing system (NLE) was created by CMX Systems in 1971 the CMX 600 a joint fusion of technology and resources from both CBS and Memorex. The 600 had a central console with 2 black & white monitors built in, as well as a light pen used to control the system. The right monitor, which played the preview video, was used by the editor to make cuts and edit decisions by using the light pen to select from options which appeared as text over the preview video. The left monitor was used to display the edited video, after edit. This piece of equipment was highly advanced at the time and cost around $250,000 on introduction, only six systems were manufactured and were used to edit several television shows and commercials.
By the 1980s George Lucas's company Lucasfilm started to develop a system with their EditDroid a system developed through laser disc technology. This software never reached commercial success and after the closing of Lucasfilm's The Droid Works department in 1987, additions slowed down and the software was eventually sold to Avid Technology in 1993.
The next instalment...
In 1986 the creation of digital video cameras was born the first edition was the Sony D1, this was the first step towards digital video camera production . However digital film wasn't fully embraced after the technology was improved. Some of the first directors to utilize the cameras in films were a Danish collective of directors the Dogme 95, in the mid 1990s. This avant-garde movement was named Dogme 95 and featured the admired but controversial cult director Lars Von Trier. A manifesto also restrained the group, some of these rules were: films would only be filmed using handheld cameras, no superficial action, no props, no specific genre and no credited director. Handheld digital feature films were later made mainstrem after the release of 28 Days Later directed by Danny Boyle in 2002, using just handheld digital video cameras it proved that the digital age was in fact here, 28 days later was initially influenced after Boyle's viewing of Dogme 95 film 'The Celebration' directed by Thomas Vinterberg created in 1998.
A major pivitol point for video editing came in 1989 when Avid launched the first comercially successful professional NLE system named the Avid 1 Media Composer. It was released in 1989 created on the Apple Macintosh II as an offline editing system. After footage is shot using digital cameras, the edit takes three times longer than it did to shoot your film. This system has been the dominant non-linear editing system for film and television since the early 1990s first on Apple Mac then Windows. Several additions have been made to the equipment over the past 23 years, most recently being the adition of Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD). This system was also the first to convert taped video into file saves, this is now known as the drag and drop, when using programmes such as Final Cut Pro or Avid.
When the data wrangling files off the SD card are automatically copied from the existing master, it is at this point in post-production that you will comprise an edit decision list otherwise known as an EDL this contains the order of reels and the timecode data.
Story Telling
If there's one thing that draws film and all its genres together its the use of effective storytelling, this is done by controlling the audience's point of view, the shots that are executed, need to be carefully composed, in order to tell the story in the edit
Genre in film.. Film as a medium is host to a broad spectrum of genre, they are generalised because they have a target audience, and arouse emotions that the viewer find entertaining and worth while.
Factual documentaries can sometimes contain opinions, or versions of a story expressed by someone other than who the documentary concerns, but the main intention is to tell the story, or share a message or ideology expressed by the creator of that documentary. An example of a well made documentary I watched recently was a biopic on beat poet and author Charles Bukowski. The film 'Bukowski: Born into This' was directed in 2003 by John Dullaghan. The film is a great example how visual and audible expression can meet so well, its also illustrated through photographs, archive footage, and interviews. Here's a link to the feature length documentary via. Youtube.
Thriller films are a big market in the film industry, but the most important of motifs in this genre would be suspense which creates tension for the viewer. This is controlled through the pace and rhythm of certain scenes in thriller movies. A good example would be 'Seven' directed by David Fincher in 1995, his varied use of camera angles and quick cuts and heavy use of cinematography all add substantially to the film's mis-en-scene. It opens with a panning shot then follows detective Mills (Brad Pitt) and detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and the SWAT team to the suspected perpetrator's home. All through this scene the lighting plays a pivitol part, in setting the mood. Here is an example of how Fincher can manipulate his audience so well:
Art house films usually contain heavy use of imagery, varied angles, painstaking lighting, unusual directing methods and ambitious screenplays. What turned me onto arthouse were directors Stanley Kubrick (The Shining, A Clockwork Orange) Roman Polanski (Rosemarys Baby, Chinatown) Gasper Noe (Irreversible) and David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive). Again the pace and rhythm of arthouse cinema tends to be disjointed and erratic, often carefully placing sound effects and using unusual music scores or long periods of silence. This scene from 'Lost Highway' directed by David Lynch in 1997 has the ability to distrub most people. In the film this 'Mystery Man' appears in only a handful of scenes, with no indication from where he has come from, it is suspected that he is a manisfestation of the film's protagonist featured in this scene Frank. The film seemed to me a precursor for Lynch's later neo-noir masterpiece 'Mulholland Drive' released in 2001.
As a director Lynch uses situations, characters and dialogue to explore areas of the psyche that are not comforting for most people to explore, such as schizophrenia, delusion and paranoia. He also uses symbolism to illustrate the turmoil the protagonist is faced with noteable examples of this can be found in 'Blue Velvet' (1986) and 'Mulholland Drive' (2001).
One of my favourite scenes from a television drama has to be a dream scene sequence from Episode 8 of The Sopranos. The scene features character favourite Christopher Moltisanti played by Michael Imperioli. It begins with a medium shot, slowly zooming in as we see Christopher holding a cup of coffee up to his face, the next shot shows a coffee machine that Christopher is sat facing, the camera mimics the same slow zoom. The scene then switches to see his girlfriend from the series Adriana eating a sausage from the refrigerator held out to her by a hand. Strange lighting and imagery follow as it cuts to a man Christopher had killed in a previous episode. The man he murdered makes an order as Christopher used to work in the cafe, serving up sandwiches. The man then gives him a message, when he reaches down for the meat in the refrigerator the same hand grabs him then he wakes. I believe this scene took influence from David Lynch's work in Twin Peaks, after some research I discovered that David Chase creator and director of The Sopranos had in fact listed David Lynch's work as a direct influence on him. That very scene can be viewed below:
Conventions and Techniques
The 180 degree Rule...
Film makers do have to follow a code the shot-reverse-shot is a prime example of the 180 degree rule and why it exists in film. The 180 degree rule states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left and right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene, and disorientates the audience. Picture two characters sat facing eachother, if the 180 degree rule is broken it switches the direction of which the character is facing, the audience's immediate reaction would be to ask the person next to them when they switched places. A perfect example of following the 180 degree rule would be the scene in which for the time ever Robert Deniro and Al Pacino meet on screen in the box office smash 'Heat' in 1995. This scene is a perfect example in how the alternate over-the-shoudler shots should be captured, which focuses on the dialogue and the cat and mouse, cop and thief plot.
Montage...
Montages are a sequence in which the director portrays a character's development through time, from the character's perspective. A noteable director who has used this technique with great success would be Italian-american director Martin Scorscese, in his 1990 gangster epic 'Goodfellas'. Through the entire film the montage act's as the film's precedent, following the film's protagonist Henry Hill, through 25 years of experience working within the Lucchese crime family. This example is probably the best I've seen although he used the same methods for his follow-up to Goodfellas 'Casino', and had previously used it with just one character Travis Bickle played by Deniro in the New York classic 'Taxi Driver' (1976). In Goodfellas he also used a Steadicam aswell as a range of interesting vantage shots, very effectively cut in the edit, the film is regarded as a classic and in my opinion the greatest gangster film ever made.
Editing In The Drag and Drop Era...
The following stages of editing is the process of editing you must follow when using Final Cut Pro...
In and Out Points: Marking in and out points in Final Cut Pro is an effective and clean way of deciding where you want your selection begin then end. When the footage is in playback you can mark an in point by hitting the I key then mark the out point by hitting the O key. After this is done you can then drag your clip from the clip viewer onto the timeline or if you need to make adjustments just drag on the arrows that appear in the clip viewer window either shortening or extending your selection.
Transitions: There are various different transitions you can use, but the most useful and common is the 'Cross Dissolve' transition. You select the end of one clip then right click and add cross dissolve transition. You can make a wipe transition between two clips by right clicking then selecting 'Add Cross Dissolve'. To create a 'Wipe' transition select video transitions then wipe then edge wipe. You can also set the edge wipe's angle. When finished making amendments simply drag and drop the transition onto the timeline
Cut-Aways: You can create cut-aways by separating the audio from the video, by selecting the split selection, you can then delete a selection of footage and leave the audio track on the timeline and place another video clip over the audio this will leave the audio run that would feature music or dialogue when the clip changes.
A corporate video is a video commissioned by a corporation or organisation. Every corporate video has a purpose, no matter whether the purpose of the video is to make money, promote political ideology, raise awareness, strengthen a brand's identity, or document a specific event. In this report I am going to identify the purpose, codes and conventions of five different corporate videos. The mise-en-scene of the corporate video will often reflect the purpose of the video and will also reflect the brand/organization's identity.
The following advert for the music provider Spotify featured a use of classic advertising techniques, however its purpose did not override its visual credibility. I thought the use of its graphics to impart information in a stop-motion style seemed fresh and light-hearted, which of course complimented the music bed. The video also did not promote its premium service, instead concluding the slogan “instant, simple and free” I suspect this was because at the time of its release in 2009 they were still establishing themselves as a music provider. The video starts out from a point of view perspective from a man drawing with a pencil, then animation follows and so does text while their trademark jingle plays underneath. I would say the video is simple, brief and clear the main purpose of this video is to establish and promote their service using convergence methods by posting this video via their website, Facebook page and YouTube. Facebook now promote Spotify and now people can share playlists via their Facebook page. The purpose of this corporate video is to effectively market their service through an internet based medium. The company relies on advertisers and investors to fund their marketing ventures. Their popularity as a music server has grown as of 2012, Spotify was said to have 20 million users. I'd say the target audience for this corporate video appeals to 16-36-year-olds.
The next recruitment video for internet search engine to business tycoon Google uses very different codes and conventions for the purposes of recruitment within their organisation . The video is presented by Google's engineering director Jen Fitzpatrick, the focal point of the video is to demonstrate and detail the methods and training the company use when recruiting new employees. The video's scenario is a reconstruction of conversation, from engineering director to employee it's set in a way that the message is clear on emphasising their most recent success. The presenter uses face to face interviews featuring carefully composed questions, the use of language is very professional and mostly informational, many of the questions reflect the employees standard of living, promotional opportunities and innovations they've achieved as employee at Google. The video's music score is a selection of quiet lounge music, this is because the video relies heavily on speech, training methods and presentation. The video has a moderate use of graphics, a professional environment (which adds to the video's mise-en-scene) unusually the video doesn't use titles to introduce the employees instead they use cutaways where a voice over from narrator Jen Fitzpatrick feeds the intended audience the information. There is also little use of Google's logo, the video seems very professional, particularly in approach to presenting its employees and promoting the quality it strives to hire. I would say the video appeals to post-graduates who have previously had experience in the industry who want to cooperate by offering fresh innovative ideas to expand on as an employee for Google around the ages of 21-45. I would imagine Google would also air this recruitment video on a show reel at company conferences and internal training days in order to reinforce a sense of brand identity, striving to employ the best they can in the industry, those who would use their positive work ethics and work environment to create and produce as part of a team some of Google's greatest online additions as the world's most popular search engine. I believe the video could have been just as effective given half its duration, its choice of presenter and key contributors are chosen carefully to ensure stakeholders their company is being regulated properly in approach to employment within the organisation.
My next example for the conventions of corporate video is a most recent NHS awareness advertisement on the damages caused by smoking and to promote a smoke free campaign. The advert uses visual graphics and bleak statistics from extensive research into the hazards smoking brings. In awareness raising advertisements, it is commonplace to use shock tactics, to grab the viewer's full attention. This video's mis-en-scene makes no distinctions and promotes its smoke-free ideology in a stark and shocking way. In this particular advertisement released in January 2013. It begins by showing a man as he smokes a cigarette outside while drinking a cup of tea, all a common sight until an extreme close up identifies a tumour like manifestation on the cigarette. A narrator reveals with a voice over, a shocking fact that every 15 cigarettes you smoke, the chemicals cause a mutation in your body, concluding "if you could see the damage, you'd stop". There is a generalisation made in the video, the man smoking appears to be a typically rendered working class stereotype. The purpose of this video is to raise awareness on the damage smoking causes and to encourage more people to quit.
The next video is a short video produced and directed by Pitchfork subsidiary PitchforkTV. The purpose of the video is to to document event coverage from Austin Texas festival SXSW in 2009 and also promote Pitchfork as a source for fresh and independent music. The video is presented by then lo-fi noise punks Wavves which consists of frontman and guitarist Nathan Williams and drummer Ryan Ulsch. They were tipped to play at the Levis Fader Fort stage. The concept of the programme is that of a short fly-on-the-wall documentary, they follow musicians as they walk around, see the bands they want to see and do whatever it is they enjoy doing at festivals (usually smoking and drinking beer). The video's approach is laid back with plenty of leeway for creative expression, it features interviews, live music from other acts as well as two live performances from the band Wavves. Pitchfork as a music publishing medium, are always wise with whom they wish to feature, follow and praise. This has set them apart from other music publications, not choosing to follow the status quo but instead shining the light on some of the best music from recording artists around the world, whether they're big name acts or the next big thing emerging from the underground music scene.
The fifth and final video is The Liberal Democrats Party Election Broadcast of 2010, the central figure of the broadcast being Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg. He is portrayed as a younger, well-spoken, utilitarian. I think this video is a good example of how simple but selective techniques can make for an effective party broadcast video. The video begins, its soundtrack Brian Eno's Another Day looms in the background. The first shot shows a flier in mid-float stuck to an iron gate with a quote from the Labour party 'Student Tuition Fees Scrapped' a pattern follows featuring numerous other fliers with policies promised by other parties that never seen the light of day. The shot then moves to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg walking past Westminster Hall, in an empty almost dystopian London setting. He opens with "Broken promises, there's been too many of them" he continues to condemn the lost policies both Conservative and Labour, proclaiming its time for fairness and change. He details his party's policies in his testimonial promising, lower taxes, better education, better housing, access to renewable energy and stricter political regulation. His party promised to cut tuition fees, the irony was once they made it into Government they went back on this policy which was possibly one of the most important policies for young Liberal Democrat voters. This is now seen as the catalyst for the 2011 england riots, which was one of the worst riots the country had witnessed in recent decades. The purpose of this video was to promote their ideology and policies as a political party to the general public. And also to reassure their funders and supporters while strengthening their campaign on the run-up to the 2010 general election.
