Development of Editing Technology

The Development of Editing Technology

The purpose of editing a film is to piece together a sequence of clips to create a film that makes sense and also has an impact on the viewers emotions. The idea of editing is to determine in what order the information is to be received, how the audience is meant to feel about the events and the characters, the pace of the narrative etc.

To begin with, all editing was done in-camera. Each clip was shot in chronological order, therefore one reel of film was played at a time. One of the earliest known edited films was 'The Great Train Robbery' which was written and produced by Edwin S Porter. The film was only 12 minutes in length but includes a wide variety of editing techniques such as jump cuts and cross-cutting. 

The Moviola

The earliest forms of editing were very basic. Laboratory processing of the exposed film negatives was required and then if a film editor wanted to cut a scene, they would have to cut the reel of film over a well of light. This method had to be repeated several times and was very time-consuming. However, in 1924, the moviola was introduce by a man named Iwan Serruier. It was a device that allowed a film editor to view a film whilst editing it simultaneously. 

Film editors could study individual shots in the cutting room so that they could pin-point an appropriate point to cut. The moviola was a vertically-orientated machine where the work prints and magnetic sound tapes were run in a similar way to the thread in a sewing machine. At one point in the process, each frame on the print would pass through a lens and the image would get viewed on the machine's viewing screen. A special chalk-like pen could then be used on each frame to mark on what the editor intended to do - whether he wanted to cut or splice the frame.

The Moviola was adopted by many huge names in the film industry, such as Universal Studios, Warner Brothers and Charles Chaplain Studios. Even today, famous director Stephen Spielberg instructed that the film editor he employed for his film Munich, Michael Kahn, use the moviola machine to edit. 

Modern Editing











References:

• Timrohamro.com,. "Moviola: The First Movie Editing Machine". N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.
•  Itchyfish.com,. "Old School Film Editing Machines: Moviola And Steenbeck - Itchy Fish". N.p., 2010. Web. 6 Jan. 2016. 

References:

1 - http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Editing-THE-DEVELOPMENT-OF-EDITING.html
2-http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/fade-brief-history-editing.html