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The Cutting Room Floor: A Look at Video Editing Throughout History

Posted on 05/11/2018 by Jonathan O'Brien

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Georges Méliès was filming a Parisian street scene when his camera jammed. This camera jam occurred in 1896, when movies consisted of unedited scenes from real life scenes, like Locomotives rushing down railroad tracks and busy street scenes. Méliès fixed the jammed film and continued shooting the street. When he viewed the footage later, he realized the jam produced a variety of effects, including one man appearing to turn into a woman and a hearse appearing where a carriage had been. Méliès' camera jam led to him accidentally pioneering the use of film editing to achieve movie special effects. He would continue experimenting with special effects throughout his career. British filmmaker Robert W. Paul made one of the first films (1898's Come Along, Do) consisting of multiple shots cut together. Fellow Brit James Williamson used the first reverse cut in film history two years later when he made Attack on a China Mission Station.

American filmmakers soon built upon the new editing techniques pioneered in Europe. 1903's The Great Train Robbery shows a marked jump in sophistication in filmmaking. The film's editing impacted the pace and urgency of the movie by using close-ups and splicing designed to keep the action moving. Splicing allowed the audience to follow the robbers from one set to another, although the actors shot the scenes in different locations. D.W. Griffith's highly controversial The Birth of a Nation is an excellent example of how these increasingly sophisticated techniques allowed filmmakers to create more involved narratives for their films.

Advanced editing techniques were made possible by advances in technology. Today, film editors still refer to cutting and splicing video. This terminology came about because editors working in the pre-digital era actually cut and pasted film negatives. Editors were very precise about where they cut and how they glued the film together. A mistake could mean another workprint had to be made, and that was often very costly. The Moviola first hit the market in 1924 and was advertised as a home movie projector. Its high cost kept it from becoming a success in the home market, but an editor realized its potential, and the company redesigned the machine as an editing device. Moviolas were standard editing equipment until the 1970s when flatbed editing systems became common. Flatbed systems use separate motorized disks, or plates, for picture and sound film rolls; most machines are either six- or eight-plate models. These systems were the industry norm until digital editing became the standard in the mid-1990s.

By the 1920s film editing jobs were mostly filled by women. Since studios did not hold the position high esteem-sometimes editors were even referred to as cutters; many of these women's names are lost to history. Some made a lasting mark, though, and are still known today. These include Margaret Booth, who began her career working for D.W. Griffith and later worked for MGM, where she helped the studio develop its "look." Women editors also helped the movie industry transition to sound. Barbara McLean edited Mary Pickford's first talking film in 1929. Jane Loring, an editor at Paramount, developed a way of fixing actors' misspoken dialogue that same year. MGM's Blanche Sewell and Goldwyn's Viola Lawrence helped their studios develop talking films.

Editors often developed relationships with filmmakers that allowed the filmmaker to more fully develop their distinctive style. Hitchcock's work with editor George Tomasini on Rear Window gives the film it's defining sense of claustrophobia. All of the editing choices reinforce the feeling that the audience is trapped in the wheelchair with the main character. Great editing can also salvage a mess of a movie, and sometimes even turn it into a classic. Some people believe that the Star Wars: A New Hope footage George Lucas delivered to the film's editors (including Paul Hirsh, Marcia Lucas, and Richard Chew, who all won the Academy Award for Best Editing for their work on the film) was, frankly, a mess. This theory states it was the editors who crafted a coherent, compelling story out of the available footage. Special effects added during editing also transformed the movie into a space saga and introduced the rolling animation in the prologue. Perhaps the most critical editing done on the film was adding James Earl Jones voice to the portrayal of Darth Vader.

In 1992 an independent film called Let's Kill All the Lawyers was released. This small film is remembered today because editor Christa Kindt used the digital editing platform Avid to edit the movie. She was the first person to edit a feature-length movie using only digital technology. Walter Murch also used Avid technology to edit The English Patient and won an Academy Award for Best Editing in 1996. It was the first Academy Award given to an editor who used digital editing. Apple released Final Cut Pro in 1999, and it soon overtook Avid as the digital platform of choice for professional editors. 2001's The Rules of Attraction was the first studio-released film editing using Final Cut Pro. These advances in professional editing software soon trickled down to the hobby market. Digital editing software used by hobbyists on their laptops today is more powerful than the professional software editors used in the 1990s.

There is much more to the editing process. Learn more about editing, including how editors can psychologically manipulate film viewers, with the resources below.







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