History of Editing

Editing

In the early days of film, editing was done in very different ways to how we edit films in the modern day. For example at the very start of film, to edit clips together the editor would just literally cut the film with a razor and then reorder and paste them in a new sequence to give the film some continuity, which is why this early form of editing was referred to as continuity editing.

The next significant improvement to editing film was in 1924 when the invention of the moviola came about, this machine allowed the editor to watch the editing being projected while they edit the footage making it easier to see what they are editing and when to best to make a cut in the footage. The Moviola was used primarily as the main editing machine in the US up until 1970, it was around here when Flatbed edit systems became a more common practice.

Flatbed Edit Suites were the next major editing system for editors after 1970. The flatbed editors allowed for picture and sound rolls to be loaded onto the machine and edited at the same time, this allowed for the pictures and audio to be synchronised, it worked the in almost the same way in allowing the editor to see what he's editing, just with the added ability to keep the audio and film synchronised.

After this editing techniques and technology started entering the modern age and moving onto powerful computers using software such as Premiere Pro, or final cut which allowed for much editing to be much simpler and affordable as well as reducing the amount of editors required