development of film & video editing
TRANSCRIPT
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
Development of Film/Video Editing Technology
Since the beginning of film and TV in the late 1800’s there have been undeniable changes in the way
motion pictures, film and television programmes have been shot and edited. You could say that the
earliest form of editing began at the same time as motion pictures with the invention of motion toys,
items that used illusion to cause the person to see motion from a set of still images. Such motion
toys were the thaumatrope or zoetrope (hitsorycooperative.org, 2015). This type of editing required
no state-of-the-art editing software or even a camera to complete, this type of editing was created
by the people using the thaumatrope whereby they seen what the illusion wanted them to see. This
worked on a principle known as “the principle of the persistence of vision” whereby the
thaumatrope switches images faster than the eye and brain can respond to the stimulation, i.e. the
image on the thaumatrope, making it seem like they are one image. If you do this with several
images it gives the impression of a moving image. (Orem, W. 2011)
Editing can be described as the process of manipulating and rearranging video shots to create a new
piece of work (mediacollege.com, no date). Editing can be done in either linear or non-linear form.
Linear form means starting with the first shot to edit from the edit tape onto the edited tape and
working through to the end, like working from A to B. Linear editing made it almost impossible to go
back and re-edit the mistake if one was made.
Advancement in film editing still required no editing software to create impressive pieces of film
history. All the editing done at this stage of the film career were done “in camera”. This meant that
no actual editing was involved to create the scenes the early viewers witnessed, instead the film was
shot in the order that it would be shown to the audience, also known as linear editing. The
continuation on linear editing also occurred during the next stage of editing technology, camera
movement. This again required no actual editing software and was done “in camera”, the only
difference is that this time the camera would film the scene with the camera in one position, pause
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
or stop recording, move the camera to a different position and then begin recording again. This type
of editing allowed the film to conceive several angles similar to the editing practices of modern film
and TV editing. These advancements in editing allowed the creation of The Great Train Robbery of
1903, which not only included these elements but also was the first film to employ cross-cutting to
show two stories simultaneously. This film was created by Edwin S. Porter who was credited for
using the cross-cut in the film.
As time continued so did the advancement and evolution of editing technology. This next
breakthrough came in the form of “cut and stick”, which is exactly what the editors did. What this
means is after the scenes had been filmed, the camera roll, as it was not digitally recorded, was then
taken to be edited where the editors would scroll through the film reel and cut the reel at sections
where they wanted to edit using good old fashioned scissors and then stick the reel sections
together using glue so that when played back the film would have cut points from one scene to the
next. This was very tedious as it required the editor to constantly look at tiny film strips housing the
tiny frames and cut them in certain areas. The size of the frames would make the job difficult so a
magnifying glass would be used so as to take away some of the eye strain. Luckily for the editors a
new piece of technology was being created that would become the industry standard of the time for
editing film reels, the Moviola. However, this would not be born until 1924. Before then the Moviola
was more of a VCR of its time as its creator, Iwan Serrurier, wanted to invent a machine that would
allow people to watch films in their own homes. The Moviola was created to be a more modern take
of the phonograph, the Victrola, but due to it being too expensive Serrurier then began to adapt his
machine so that it would be able to be used in the cutting room to aid editors when cutting film reels
allowing them to be more precise with their cuts making the “cut and stick” editing much easier. The
film reel that was used for the editing on the Moviola was done on the positives of the film reel
rather than the actual footage so that the original wasn’t damaged should anything go wrong.
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
Non-linear form of editing is more commonly used in digital editing of the modern era where the
editor can edit different sections of footage in a random order from a hard drive. Any mistakes that
were made were more easily rectified in the editing process and on-the-fly and when it is finished
the final video can be recorded back onto a disk or tape for viewing. Although mistakes could be
rectified more easily, digital editing caused a new problem as it allowed for several video standards
that could be incompatible with each other making editing more difficult (Pinder. V, 2016).
1971 gave birth to the first non-linear editing system, the CMX 600. This piece of hardware
unfortunately was the size of a washing machine but it could only store half an hour of video onto
the disk pack drives of the CMX 600. Another downside of the CMX 600 was that it was very costly to
use, but it did however, create an EDL (Edit Decision List). This EDL then needed to be transferred to
a separate machine, the CMX 200, which took the EDL created by the CMX 600 and composite the
final video from the disk pack drives. The 1980’s seen large companies, such as Lucas Film or Laser
Edit build systems of non-linear editing like the CMX 600 but used laserdisc or VCR’s, however these
machines were sluggish and created too much of a burden on the computers of their time.
Time and the development of technology kept advancing and in 1992 computers went from being
able to access only 50Gb’s of data to over 7Tb’s of data allowing for better and faster non-linear
editing causing the 35mm film editing to begin drawing to a close (Herman. J, 2012). Further
advancement of editing technology as well as computer systems allowed for the creation of editing
software on computers themselves, rather than as a separate machine, causing software such as
Final Cut Pro, Wondershare Video Editor and Movavi Video Editor to be born. These types of
software continued the era of non-linear editing and allowed editors to edit in whichever form the
chose. These types of software also allowed for multi-editing as well as editing of audio, not just
video. You could also add special effects to your video using built-in features to create a unique final
piece.
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
As well as editing technology being improved, editing practices would have developed over time
along with the technology. These practices would not be a rule of how to edit but would be there
more as a guideline for people wanting to edit so that they could edit videos to a professional
standard and without too many complications. Some of the best practices for video editing would be
to repurpose existing content. There would be no point re-shooting the same scene again if you have
already shot It once as this would cost time and money and as films and TV shows have time and
budget constraints, repurposing content is an efficient way to keep these constraints down. An
editor can re-use certain content but provide it with a new twist for a new show or film. One
example of this would NCIS. Over the years the show has been filming they have used several
different scenarios as well as locations but those locations or scene that can be re-used, are re-used.
Such locations include the NCIS headquarters building or a house that the investigators visit This re-
purposing for newer episodes allows the programme creators to keep down their budget. Another
editing practice would be to keep work consistent. It might seem like a silly thing to say but if work Is
not kept consistent then the final product can throw the audience as they are the ones that try to
make sense of what they are watching. Video files that are not in the same format will provide a new
sense to the final video when being viewed as it could go from comedy to horror only because of the
way the software has rendered the final product with the inconsistent file format. Consistency can
also be an editor’s calling card as each editor has their own way of editing files and this can be
shown in the final edit. By not keeping consistent then people might not know who edited a certain
shot or frame and if people like a certain editor to edit their favourite shows, this could cause people
to stop watching (videomaker.com, 2014). Other practices include the 180o rule, continuity and
motivation. The 180o rule is where two people in a scene always have the same relationship in the
shot so when editing you cannot use shots that break the 180o line as this could confuse the
audience. Continuity plays a big part of editing. Shot sequences are arranged so that it flows and
maintains a clear continuous narrative. If this is done incorrectly or poorly then the narrative is lost
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
and the audience will become confused. Excellent continuity would make it impossible to notice
allowing the smooth flow of the narrative. Motivation editing is the idea that behind every edit there
is a reason for that edit and it was not just put in the final video for no reason. If two shots edited
together make no sense and there was no reason for that specific edit, then like with other editing
mistakes the narrative will be lost and the audience confused (filmandvideoeditingbd. Blogspot.
Co.uk, no date). Good editing practice can make the process of editing a lot easier and smoother if
done correctly. Editing practices would have adopted other approaches with the modern
technology. Such practice would be to keep everything in order when using editing software such as
Final Cut Pro by arranging the files in named bins so that they are easily accessible and it keeps the
project folder looking neater. This practice would help a lot in other editing software’s as well.
Having a project folder neat and tidy like this would make it easier to find the desired clip you wish
to edit into the final video making the process run smoother and quicker.
With the ever growing film industry and the editing technology, practices and film genres different
editing techniques would have been developed for each genre, with there being genres that had
overlapping techniques. Genres such as action would have quick cut shots from clip to clip with
dramatic music, while romance films would have longer clips with subtle transitions and more
ambient music. Each genre would be accompanied by certain editing techniques that would give it
not only the look and feel of the genre in question but also help set the tone of the film for the
audience. One such genre would be Science Fiction/Fantasy genre with films like Star Wars. This
genre can trace its roots back to ancient mythology with Homer’s Odyssey, which was written in 9 th
century BC. Other forefathers of this genre would be Beowulf, the legend of King Arthur, William
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gulliver’s Travels and The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen. Although the fantasy genre was written about in Greek mythology fantasy did not
appear in films until 9287 with Georges Meilies’ The Bewitched Inn, which tells of a traveller who
gets a fright when a candle moves, a chair collapses and his clothes come to life. Other fantasy films
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
did not come about until the 1930’s such as King Kong and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by
Walt Disney. These films also depicted other genres within their screening, just like nowadays where
most films could be classed as more than one genre. More fantasy films arrived on scene in the
1940’s with The Thief of Bagdad, which gave birth to the adventure fantasy and included the genie
and flying carpets and other special effects that would later be used in other fantasy films. In 1974
the board game Dungeons and Dragons was created and became a major success. Due to its success
a swords and sorcery boom occurred in the 1980’s with films including Excalibur and Conan the
Barbarian being released. The noughties seen the release of such fantasy films as Peter Jackson’s The
Lord of the Rings trilogy (Sykes. P, 2004-2016). The fantasy/sci-fi genre included within it items and
objects and creatures from the realm of fantasy, hence the name fantasy genre, while the science
fiction genre included elements that could very well be possible with the evolution of science such as
planet to planet space travel or colonisation, teleporters and flying cars. Star Wars, as mentioned
above, falls into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre but also includes elements of the Action genre as well.
Action genre films use fast-paced editing, which signifies the adrenaline used by the character as
well as setting a sense of fear and danger to what is happening on screen or what is going to happen.
Action films use long shots to establish scenes that the action will take place in, referring back to Star
Wars, you can see several long shots of space just before the action occurs such as a ship coming
under fire or when the rebels are about the attack the Death Star.
Other such techniques that are included in video editing would include flash cuts/short cuts;
subliminal cuts; cross cutting; jump cuts and montages. Flash cuts are a form of editing whereby the
sequence of shots are cut so that they are very brief, usually less than two seconds in duration
(kscraps88, 2013) and combines compressed time that can quickly and intensively gets inside a
character’s head (joyoffilmediting.com, 2009-2016). Subliminal cuts are cuts that consist of only a
few frames but pass by on screen with speed that the audience is only subconsciously aware of
them. Cross cutting describes the alternating of shots of two or more lines of action occurring in
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
different places but is usually simultaneously during the film (kscraps88, 2013). The interaction
between the characters, settings or subjects are direct so that they are aware of each other, this kind
of cut works well in battle scenes (joyoffilmediting.com, 2009-2016). The jump cut, unlike other
forms of editing, is used to break the continuous flow of time to show that time has elapsed more
directly than keeping a narrative flow. This breakage in time is very brief and is usually used to get to
the important parts, such as if someone is making a speech and you wanted to leave out the boring
parts so that the audience doesn’t get bored. The last form of editing to be used in films are the
montages. Montages, or known from the French term “to assemble” is a series of images or videos
cut together to show a theme, a contradiction or the passage of time (Bronzite. D, 2013). One such
example of a montage is in the film Rocky, where Rocky Balboa begins training for his big fight with
Apollo Creed, the director uses a montage to show the passage of time as his training progresses and
we can see Rocky getting better at boxing.
Other forms of editing of this genre would include the transitioning from one shot to another due to
the large gap in time that the film would cover. This transition is more favourable than the straight
cut as it allows time to pass quickly yet not throw off the audience to the story being told, they can
see that a time lapse has occurred but the transition had been smoother than it would have
between two shots as one shot can turn into the other and the object of the first shot transitions
into the second but time still has elapsed. Such editing can be seen in Aliens where a pod of glass
becomes a planet. This is known as a match cut. The match cut helps to establish a strong continuity
of action and linking the two shots metaphorically. Fades are another form of editing in the sci-fi
genre where one shot fades into another. These edits can also be accompanied with the passage of
time like the edits above (freeonlineresearchpapers.com, no date). Star Wars uses a lot of fades
during the editing of the film as there is a lot of passage of time throughout the film, especially in
scenes where the Death Star is being rebuilt. Without the passage of time from video editing then
the Death Star would resemble a stop motion picture where the Death Star is being built frame by
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
frame, instead of smoothly over time. Science Fiction can also use the close-up shot. This is mostly
used on scientific elements such as alien technology or scientific elements to emphasise their
importance to the genre. Star Wars uses these techniques when showing the audience, the
lightsabre for the first time as this emphasises the “alien” technology and its importance in the film.
One great aspect of science fiction films is the use of special effects. Special effects can be traced
back to the 1950’s with George Pal’s Destination Moon, where models were used as part of the
special effect to give the appearance of the moon landscape as well as the journey to the moon
(filmsite.org, 2016). Over time the special effects improved and became more than just props that
needed to be created for the film. Special effects became known to be CGI (Computer Generated
Imagery) that first debuted in Futureworld by Richard T. Heffron in 1976. Star Wars became the next
film to use CGI to create impressive visual effects and completely revolutionised the special effects
industry (theneweconomy.com, 2014). This revolution continued to grow, as did the computers
capable of creating those special effects, until the modern era where special effects can be created
to impressive standards, which can include objects and elements that aren’t even visible when
creating the film. Special effects can also alter the very face of an actor so that they look completely
different, just like they did with Chris Evans in Captain America, where they took his massive frame
and reduced it to the appearance of a small man with no muscle. These special effects can also be
seen on Star Wars where you can see not only creatures of all shapes and sizes but also the large
open space galaxies, as well as the blaster from the weapons.
All of these edits merge together to allow the creation of the sci-fi genre, and other genres use their
own edits to create different effects. Without the ability to edit clips together most narratives would
be universally the same no matter which story you tried to convey so editing is just as big a part of
the film as is what is being filmed. The more technology advances, the greater the development of
the industry and the greater development of editing technology, techniques and practices.
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
References:
Bronzite, D. (2013) A Glossary of Screenwriting Terms & Filmmaking Definitions. Available at:
http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/a-glossary-of-screenwriting-terms-and-filmmaking-
definitions.html#J – Accessed 01/06/2016
Filmandvideoeditingbd (No Date) Relationship to Genre. Available at:
http://filmandvideoeditingbd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/relationship-to-genre.html - Accessed
21/04/2016
Filmsite.org (2016) Greatest Visual and Special Effects (F/X) – Milestones in Film. Available at:
http://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects7.html - Accessed 01/06/2016
Freeonlineresearchpapers.com (No Date) Editing in Science Fiction Film. Available at:
http//freeonlineresearchpapers.com/editing-science-fiction-films – Accessed 15/04/2016
Herman, J (2012) A Brief History of Film Editing Technology. Available at:
https://www.editorsguild.com/magazine.cfm?ArticleID=1104 – Accessed 16/04/2016
Historycooperative.org (2015) The History of the Hollywood Movie Industry. Available at:
http://historycooperative.org/the-history-of-the-hollywood-movie-industry/ - Accessed 21/04/2016
Joyoffilmediting.com (2009-2016) Cut of Month. Available at:
http://joyoffilmediting.com/index.php/cut-of-month/ - Accessed 01/06/2016
Kscraps88 (2013) Editing Techniques. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/kscraps88/editing-
techniques-15915736 - Accessed 01/06/2016
Chris Burns Development of Film & Video Editing CDM Lvl 4
Mediacollege.com (No Date) What is Video Editing? Available at:
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/tutorial/definition.html - Accessed 15/04/2016
Orem, W. (2011) What is a thaumatrope? Available at:
http ://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/thaumatrope/ - Accessed 01/06/2016
Pinder. V (2016) Development and Techniques of Film and Video Editing. Available at:
https://prezi.com/oz0xeipw19hu/development-and-techniques-of-film-and-video-editing/ -
Accessed 15/04/2016
Sykes. P (2004-2016) Brief History of Fantasy. Available at:
http://fantasy100.sffjazz.com/admin_history.html - Accessed 15/04/2016
Theneweconomy.com (2014) How Star Wars changed the special effects Industry. Available at:
http://www.theneweconomy.com/home/how-star-wars-changed-the-special-effects-industry -
Accessed 01/06/2016
Videomaker.com (2014) Best Practices in Video Editing. Available at:
http://www.videomaker.com/forum/topic/best-practices-in-video-editing - Accessed 15/04/2016