History of Editing
Before the widespread use of non-linear editing systems, the
initial editing of films was done with a positive copy of the film negative
called the cutting copy in the UK and known as a film workprint in other
regions. This was done by cutting and pasting together pieces of film, using a
splicer and threading the film on a machine with a viewer such a Moviola or
Steenbeck (a ‘flatbed’ machine). In today’s world films most films are edited
digitally on systems such as Final Cut Pro or Avid. Editing digitally bypasses
the cutting copy altogether. Using the cutting copy (not the original negative)
allows the editor to do as much experimenting as he/she wish without risk of
damaging the original.
Filmmaker Edwin Stanton Porter was hired by Edison (the
company who invented a motion camera and projector) in 1899 and was put in
charge of his New York motion picture studio. Porter is generally thought of as
the first filmmaker who experimented with editing. Porter then worked on many minor films before
making Life of an American Fireman in 1903. The film was a breakthrough as it
had a plot, action and a close-up of a hand pulling a fire alarm. He took
inspiration from George Melies in his early films.
Porter then continued to experiment with different cinematic
techniques in his films. The Great Train Robbery was ground-breaking and is
still shown in schools today as an example of early editing form in film. It
was produced in 1903 and was one of the very first examples of dynamic, action
editing that pieced together scenes that were shot at different times. This was
done to get an emotional impact that is unavailable in a static long shot.
Porter was the director, editor and engineer of the film and became one of the
first hyphenates.
Porter then went onto discover aspects of language in motion
picture. Through this he discovered that the image on screen doesn’t need to
show a person from head to toe and that splicing together two shots creates in
the viewer’s mind a contextual relationship. This was an important discovery
that made non-live narrative motion pictures and television possible due to
shots being able to be photographed at widely different locations at different
times and then combined into a whole narrative.
Around 1918, Russian director Lev Kuleshov did an experiment
that proved this point. He took an old clip of a Russian actor and intercut the
shot with a shot of a bowl of soup, then a child playing with a bear and then
grief when looking at a dead woman in a casket. The piece was praised and said
that the acting was good unbeknown that it was shot years earlier. This is when
the time of the Kuleshov experiment came along.
When it comes to editing there are three different cuts (the
editors cut, directors cut and final cut). The editors cut is the first pass
and is quite often longer than the final film. The process can go on for months
or more than a year depending on the film. The director’s cut is edited once
principle photography has finished and the director can collaborate with the
editors and further refine the cut of the film. The final cut is supervised by
the producers and have the film edited to the film studios request. There have
been many conflicts between directors and film studios on how the final cut of
the film should look. The final cut of a film is sometimes edited to get the
film within the requirements to get it to a lower or higher film certificate
which can effects box office gross.
By Josh Jermy
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