History Of Editing

Development of Editing Technology: 

The editing process can be dealt with by way of many different approaches. However primely, the editing process involves compiling a group of moving images together in order to create a smooth tradition between each shots which will subsequently create a cohesive narrative.

Before technology advanced and editing could be completed purely using as computer and the right software, other methods had to be adopted. These including physically cutting and sticking rolls of film together using glue (or a specialist kind of adhesive which did not damage the film). The way the editor knew that that this was the frame of film that he desired to cut between, was by holding the film close to a light sourse which would then reveal which frame that piece of film contained. Even though this was a very tedious process, it became the foundation of what editing became as we know it today.

Later on long the line, the Moviola was designed in 1924 in order for editors to create much more precise cuts which made the process much more easier than what it was before. This device also involved "edge numbering" which allows editors to cut video as eel as audio in synchronisation.

Flatbed Edit Suites

The manufacturing company Steenbeck made a name for itself for manufacturing some of the most widely used film editing, viewing and controlling tables since the early 1950's.

In 1953, Steenbeck released the the first ever flatbed 16mm 4 plate, known as the ST200. This editing device provided optics, sound and playback of 16mm perforated magnetic tape and was seen as revolutionary technology at the time. Despite these breakthroughs i editing technology, the process of editing itself remained very impractical and hands on, including the use of splicers, tim bins and a light table.

Another well-known flatbed editing table was the KEM (Keller-Elektro-Mechanik). While the Steenbeck was more dominant, the KEM was also commonly and widely used. It notably had a modular construction and supported up to three sound tracks.

There is another important difference in the technology behind the original Moviola and the flatbeds. The Moviola used a Geneva drive (or “Maltese Cross”) mechanism to advance the frames, whereas the flatbeds employed a rotating prism. Aside from the fact that the rotating prism handles the film more smoothly with less wear and tear, it is also a lot quieter and, more importantly, allowed for high-speed operation. Due to these factors, as well as its soft nylon rollers, the Steenbeck was known to have a gentle touch on precious film stock, although editing was usually done with a work-print positive so as not to damage the original.

Other manufacturers also developed flatbed editors including Moviola itself and credit is given to Francis Ford Coppola and his longtime collaborator Walter Murch, A.C.E., CAS, MPSE — among the first people in America to embrace flatbed editing enthusiastically.

In the 1940's live television editing became the pioneering form of editing. These advancements in editing technology led to kinescope recordings which entailed picture and audio recording during a live broadcast. There were some bumps along the way however. This form of broadcasting was very impractical and unreliable and commonly resulted in issues such as ghosting and banding. However the tv industry was still using more raw footage in their kideoscope  than most Hollywood film studios combined.

Bing Crosby's production company excelled in recording images onto magnetic tape in the early 50's. Later on in the decade, around 1956, manufacturing company Ampex released the first 2" quadruplex video tape. Due to the fact it was magnetic tape, it had to be developed with extremely fine iron filings suspended in a toxic, carcinogenic carbon tetrachloride solution. This method was utilised so that the magnetic bands on the video tape were made visible when viewed through a microscope, so that it could be aligned in a specialised splicer much more precisely. Video and Audio read ads were several inches apart in the machine. This means that it was much more difficult to make a physical cut that would function correctly for both audio and video. As a compromise, the cut is made for the video and a section of the audio would then have to be re-copied into the correct position. 

In order to get from one position to another on tape, you are required to scour through every other piece of footage in-between. It is commonly believed that more time was spent wading through the footage than making actual specific cuts. To make the matter even or impractical, linear editors are not particularly flexible and it is difficult to build up separate sequences, especially if it is required for the editor to revisit the footage to make additional cuts. This meant that the only method of changing an edit is to perform a new edit on top of the old one. However if a scene you wish to replace over the old edit happens to run longer than the old scene then the editor would have to cover up a bit of the next scene on the tape. On the other hand, if it happened to be shorter then you would have a bit of the old shot still in the program.

Non-Linear and Digital Editing

Non-linear editing is a non-destructive process and a much more natural way of editing. However the requirements for this form of editing are much more demanding. These include; computer power as well as data storage. It is obvious that non-linear editing and digital technology will have many positive effects such as a much more practical way of editing. As the process becomes more simpler, the more coherent the story can be produced. It also gives the editor much more freedom by which they can explore different narrative structures and techniques. As it takes up a lot of fantail resources, the shorter the post production stage of movie making is, the less money will be spent which of course is a positive impact on the post production budgeting process.

Not only does the advancement of technology mean a more practical and less time consuming editing process, but also means the creation of special effects that can be used to enhance certain pictures. For example the well known disappearing and repairing of the time machine in 1985's Back To The Future and of course many other effects such as these. As well as these advancements in special effects, the ability to remove potions of the image seen on screen was also developed. The same technology can be used in film or sound restoration also.

The CMX 600 which was introduced in 1971. However only 6 of these units were produced.  They lay down the foundation of what would soon become non-linerar editing. The EMC 2 and the Avid 1 followed in its path, which was a macintosh based non-linear editor (1989), it became the highest form of editing in Hollywood during that time. Storage capacity however failed to keep up with the advancement of technology.
This issue was addressed when in 1993, Avid debuted a 7 terabyte system. Editor Walter Murch won an oscar for best editing in 1997, for The English Patient, which he edited using an avid.

Digital Editing

Digital editing has many benefits including; it is easy to copy, is resistant to noise, it is not subject to generation loss and finally it is much more easier to sync audio and visual together. In 1990, a manufacturing company known as New Tek released the first "Video Toaster" on the Omega system. Despite its limited capability, it brought video production to establishments such as small television studios, production shops and schools. It came with the ability to apply various effects and even a 3D effect which was known light weight 3D and proved that there was a market for small scale media production.
In 1995, there was the introduction of dvd optical discs, using new types of compression referred to as MPEG-2.

The first ever US public HD broadcast occurred in 1996, which was around the same time in which hollywood studios began using digital intermediary to create special effects. This process involves sending 35mm film through a telecine, which scans the film and creates a digital file, that can then be manipulated in a computer using special effects and composing. Once this is complete, the optical printer would then place the video images back onto film.


References:

https://www.editorsguild.com/Magazine.cfm?ArticleID=1104