Editing Technology

The development of editing technology

During the infancy years of moving image, all projections were just of one static shot and it ran for as long as there was film in the camera. The first cuts were used to establish continuity, like continuing action from one shot to the next. One of the first times this was done was in 1898's "Come Along, Do!", where a couple are outside an exhibition having lunch and then walk inside, and the camera cuts to them inside the building. This style of editing was done by literally cutting the strip of film and sticking it back together, which is where the name 'cutting' comes from in film.

In 1924, Iwan Serrurier invented the Moviola, which was a device that allowed the editor to view the film while cutting up the segments. Now, instead of looking at the film infront of a light and estimating where a good cut point was, you could get a much more precise idea of where to cut and thus helped push editing in a more efficient and sophisticated direction. Even today, amidst all the technological advances, some editors prefer to use this method, such as Michael Kahn who received an Oscar nomination for editing in Spielberg's 'Munich'.

Next were flatbed editors, which featured separate disks that you load film and magnetic tape (for audio) into. This meant that the audio and video tracks could be edited separately but most of the time they were synchronized with the help of a Clapperboard, which the editor would use to sync the action of the board snapping with the noise, and then the rest of the film would be synced the same. 

Non-Linear editing systems work in a copy and paste form and allow editors to cut and edit footage without actually working with the original material. This meant that instead of having to get it right first time because there was only one copy of the film, they could experiment more without the negatives of destructive editing. On the other hand, Linear video editing is a form of sequential editing. Often used for tape recordings, the editor goes through the footage, and records segments onto a master tape. This clips are recorded in order and a negative of this technique is that you can't go back and insert a clip in the sequence without completely starting again. 

Offline editing is the stage of editing where the footage is modified without the original footage being affected. This is done by importing the raw footage which can be thousands of hours long and then converting or digitizing it. The editors can then arrange it and then the online editing can begin, which is the final stage and has been largely replaced by video editing software. The process affects the original footage which is why there are stages before it to make sure everything is as it should be.

In 1971, the CMX 600 was introduced which was a computer that featured two screens and a light pointer input. The right monitor displayed the preview video, and was used by the editor to make decisions on cuts and other edits, and the left monitor showed the edited footage. Although the machine produced low quality video, it didn't matter since the machine's sole purpose was for offline editing, not the final edit. Then a LucasFilm spin-off company created the EditDroid, which was similar in that it was a nonlinear editing system but this one used Laser Discs, another advancement in the technology. The technology was sold to Avid and became 'Media Composer' or just 'Avid'. Avid is a software application, which meant that instead of editing being something done on a specific machine, it could now be done on any computer that could run the software.

Over the last few years, software like Final Cut and Premier Pro have provided aspiring film makers a cheaper alternative to the usually expensive editing tools. The main user base for these are hobbyists, but some major films have been edited on them. An example is The Social Network which won an Oscar for best editing, that was edited on Final Cut Pro.