History of film editing

The early age of cinema was a basic stagnant era doomed to

one day fail technology at the time only allowed to create
moving images by taking photographs of a moving target in
rapid succession to create interesting films. After the
discovery of this process many filmmakers created movies
using photographed imagery until the Lumiere brothers had
invented the first ever camera for moving imagery which
they personally used in their filmmaking although at the time
many filmmakers were pessimistic about the trajectory of the
medium due to viewers not wanting to look at moving
images with no plot or story on a projection screen rather
than just going out to see them in real life up close.

The first filmmaker to use editing techniques in their movies

was Thomas Edison’s assistant, Edwin Porter he had
rejuvenated hope and faith in the film medium by using
cutting shots and jump cuts to create emotional responses in
audiences. Edwin had used these techniques in a movie
depicting firefighters rescuing a group of women from a
burning building. At the time there was no technological
assistance in editing movies so to create the cuts Edwin had
to physically cut up the film and rearrange scenes taping
them back together to create a fixed film.
The next revolutionary advancement in film editing created
by D.W. Griffith who used techniques such as jump cuts or
match on action cuts. He had also developed new types of
shots that were never before seen in movies for example the
extreme close ups of characters face to emphasize actor
emotion. The combined use of these cuts and shots had
given him the ability to create more emotion audiences and
draw their attention to specific elements or subjects than
ever before. He had implemented these techniques in a
variety of films including his most famous and controversial
movie the birth of a nation in 1915.

In 1929 a Russian filmmaker named Dziga Vertov created a

man with a movie camera this movie displayed the abilities of
editors and their importance in production of films displaying
this in the film to audiences with less knowledge of the
production and editing process. Another Soviet Russian
filmmaker was one of the first to dissect effects of
juxtaposition in movies. He discovered that depending on
how the order that shots are cut together can cause the
audience will relate various specific meanings or emotions to
the film.

Another marker of advancement in the late 1920’s was the

creation of the Upright Moviola by an American inventor; this
invention was the first to aid in movie editing simplifying the
process. The Moviola was able to allow editors to make
specific cuts and edits in their films which were harder
without technological assistance.
In the 1930’s, sound design was more common and
prominent in film production. Previously sound had only
involved background music which was unrelated to what was
being shown on the movie. It became more prevalent when
filmmakers and editors discovered the power it had to
influences viewer’s experiences during the movie. To
transform the film industry further editors and filmmakers
began to add music and actor dialogue as part of the
narrative to enhance the film. The inclusion of sound design
in the editing process added more jobs in the film industry.

During World War 2 the medium of film had a new use within
the main countries at conflict by using film to influence its
audiences creating the term propaganda film. Powerful
impactful editing and use of sound in film made native
audiences feel patriotic to their countries and leaders of the
time for example a propaganda film called triumph of the will
from Germany that was used to portray their leader as a
godlike entity to increase support and morale.

Although the film industry had developed new technologies

that enhanced aspects of film like colour through
technicolour and developments in animation, filmmakers had
begun to create a constant formula in the editing process
such as using establishing shots to introduce locations in the
beginning of scene sequences.
In the 1950s to late 1960s a younger generation of
filmmakers had found ways to reinvent the medium of film
through how they shot and edited their movies. The changes
these new filmmakers took had conflicted against the till
recently common ideas of continuity and formulas that
previous filmmakers had used in their film. The changes the
younger generation took had affected the pacing of film
making the pace of scenes through the use of jump cuts or
montages. The new wave of French filmmakers’ changes had
influenced filmmakers globally even in the film industry
today.

Also, in the 60s across the ocean a new wave had also begun
in America with new filmmakers innovating and going against
the production or editing stereotypes in film a famous
example of this is the editing in Bonnie and Clyde 1967 by
Dede Allen.

The 70s and 80s editing the film editing’s development had
stagnated and stalled completely until the digital age had
been developed by industry innovators. Digital editing and
the developments that came alongside it would include non
linear editing which involved the process of editing
sequences out of order and going back to make various
changes in a film later on in the editing process. This non-
linear editing process was more advantageous compared to
linear editing as it would allow editing changes to sequences
compared to re-editing entire scenes. Non-linear is entirely
digital as it was mostly done on computers.
CBS and Memormex had jointly created one of the first
digital editors called CMX 600 it had two black and white
monitors with a pen to use as a method of input. It had
allowed editors to make cuts and edits of magnetic tape in a
non-linear manner where one screen was for selecting
editing options and the second screen to preview the new
edit. Unfortunately, due to excessive power use and limited
insufficient storage the CMX 600 became quickly outdated as
more editing devices were being created alongside the
increasing normality and popularity of digital editing in film.

Thanks to technological developments and improvements to

in computers like greatly increased storage and editing
speeds has improved editing in a vast number of ways. An
extreme range of possibilities within the film industry itself
for example CGI and animation which frequently appear in
films now.

Software developments in editing software has incredibly

simplified the editing process to the degree that even
everyday amateurs without experience can even make their
films and edit them using Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro X.
Modern film has around 200 hours of footage that editors
and filmmakers can efficiently cut it down to the average
movie run time of 2 hours. The editing software used to
make modern digital films have a profound effect on the
outcome of the final product and their potential for film
makers to edit and manipulate their films is endless.
Some editing techniques have become staple common
occurrences in certain film genres below is a list of examples:

Action movies tend to have a lot of jump cuts edited in

primarily for filming fight scenes specially to cover up the lack
of action contact between actors.

Sports movies would typically have montages of sequences

to symbolise the passage of time during training scenes to
show the viewer a condensed character growth.

Horror movies include a lot of sound design whether to

create dead silence with soft whispers of environmental
sound to the loud sudden crash of the antagonist’s reveal.