HISTORY TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUE OF VIDEO

EDITING

Development of Video Editing

Editing is one of the most important parts of filmmaking, it’s the final piece of the puzzle of the
storytelling and it can make or break how the film looks, it has the ability to turn a film on its head
and affect the audience in ways the rest of the production couldn’t.

The role of an editor is essentially to piece together loads of different clips to create the best
possible visual story they can. Back before editing the first filmmakers would record what they
found interesting and they would have to hold that shot until they either got bored or ran out of
film because there were no cuts. Over the years editing has developed and expanded in so many
different ways, thanks to the new technology and different ways of thinking editing has been
experimented with in all different forms.

The Lumière Brothers

Auguste and Louis are the Lumière Brothers and they are often regarded to be the first filmmakers
in history, they were the creators of a device called the Cinèmatographe in the 1890s which is
essentially a film camera with printer and a projector combined together. The Brothers created
the first films in history; the quality of them wasn’t that great but it was only the beginning of fast
motion image. After showing their films in private showings and having a good response they
began to open theatres to show their films, this would soon become what we all know as cinemas.
In 1924 a device was created called the upright Moviola, this device was used by film editors
because it allowed them view the film whilst editing. This is an important device in the history of
editing because it was a very advanced piece of equipment for it’s time and it allowed the editors
a clearer sight of where they should make cuts within the editing process.

Edwin S. Porter is an important filmmaker who contributed to the history of editing, he was the
first person to realise you can cross cut to show simultaneous action scenes in different places to
create a narrative; he was the first person to use the cross cutting technique in his film The Life
Of An American Fireman (1903). He realised if he had one shot of a woman trapped in a house
on fire and another of the fire engines leaving the fire station and kept cross cutting between the
two that the audience would recognise what was going on, they would understand the narrative.
It would also give them a feeling/emotional response because they would feel intense; wanting to
know if the firemen were going to save the woman in time.

The Life Of An American Fireman (1903).