Unit 16- Film and Video editing techniques Charlotte Ford

Development of the principles of film editing

What is Film editing? Film editing is part of the creative post-production
process of filmmaking. The film editor works with the raw footage, selecting
shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture.
Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film.

Linear and nonlinear editing

Linear

Before the widespread use of non-linear editing systems, the initial editing of all films was done by
physically cutting and pasting together pieces of film, using a splicer and threading the film on a
machine with a viewer such as a Moviola, or "flatbed" machine such as a K.-E.-M. or Steenbeck.
Longevity is linear editing's great asset. Editing your projects with a linear system may take some
time, but it's only a one-step process. Once you make the last edit, you can immediately sit the
audience down and let them watch the show. Most linear edit systems work fine, but they make you
play the editing game according to some annoying rules. The most unsettling: everything happens
on videotape. To get from one place to another on a tape you have to shuttle past everything in-
between. One could argue that you spend more time waiting for
tapes to cue with a linear system than you do making edits. Linear
editors also aren't very flexible. You can't easily build a program out
of sequence or in separate "chunks" using a linear edit system. For
example, say you'd like to build the middle of a show first, and then
add the beginning and the end later. With a linear system, you can
create segments on separate tapes and then dub each one onto a
master tape at the appropriate time.
Non Linear
Today, most films are edited digitally (on systems such as Avid or Final Cut
Pro). In digital video editing, non-linear editing is a method that allows
you to access any frame in a digital video clip regardless of sequence in
the clip. The freedom to access any frame, and use a cut-and-paste
method, similar to the ease of cutting and pasting text in a word
processor, and allows you to easily include fades, transitions, and other
effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing.
Without a doubt, the future of video lies in computer technology and non-linear editing. Unlike the
VCRs and controllers you may use today, computers make the editing process simple and incredibly
flexible.

Offline and online editing
Offline editing is part of the post-production process of filmmaking and television production in
which raw footage is copied and edited, without affecting the camera original film stock or video
tape. Once the project has been completely offline edited, the original media will be assembled in
the online editing stage.
Modern offline video editing is conducted in a non-linear editing suite. The digital revolution has
made the offline editing workflow process immeasurably quicker, as practitioners moved from time-
consuming (video tape to tape) linear video editing online editing suites, to computer hardware and
video editing software such as Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro and Avid. Typically, all the original
footage (often tens or hundreds of hours) is digitized into the suite at a low resolution. The editor
and director are then free to work with all the options to create the final cut.

Moviola-1924 (Linear)
What is it? It is a device that allows a film editor to view film while editing
thus enabling you to study individual shots in cutting rooms and determine
more precisely where the best cut-point might be. The vertically oriented
Moviolas were the standard for film editing in the United States until the 1970s, when horizontal
flatbed editor systems became more common.
Who invented it? -It was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924 and was the first machine for motion
picture editing. His son Mark Serrurier accepted a special Academy Award for Technical
Achievement for himself and his father for the Moviola in 1979. There is a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame for Mark Serrurier because of the Moviola's contribution to Motion Pictures.
Who has used it? - A few very high-profile filmmakers such as Editor Michael Kahn and director
Steven Spielberg. Kahn received an Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing in 2005 for his
work on Spielberg's Munich, which he edited with a Moviola.
Steenback Flatbed editor-1930s (Linear)
What is it? It is a type of machine used to edit film for a motion
picture.
How does it work? Picture and sound rolls load onto separate
motorized disks, called "plates." Each set of plates moves
forward or backward separately, or locked together to maintain
synchronization between picture and sound. A prism reflects
the film image onto a viewing screen, while a magnetic playback
head reads the magnetic audio tracks.
What are the common models? The two most common
configurations are the "six-plate" (one picture transport and two sound transports) and the "eight-
plate" (two picture and two sound transport) models. Common brands of flatbed editor are
Steenbeck and K-E-M (Keller-Elektro-Mechanik) which were invented in Germany in the 1930s.
There are also the Italian Prvost, the Dutch Oude Delft or Oldelft, the French Atlas as well as
Moritone flatbeds.

Sony Edit controller (linear)-1971
What is it? This is a device which connects to and controls the source and
record machines.
How does it work? The Sony edit controller pictured here is a fairly typical
example. The controls on the left (above and including the jog/shuttle
ring) control the source machine. The corresponding controls on the right
are for the record machine (notice the addition of a red record button). The controls in the middle
are for various edit options such as marking in/out points, etc. Some smaller edit controllers only
feature one set of controls, plus a switch to select either the source or record machine. This way you
can still control both machines but only one at a time.
What does it do? Edit controllers usually allow you to program your edits more precisely, preview
the edit before recording it, and perform other useful tasks. In some cases an on-screen menu is
generated to help you program multiple edits.
The Sony U-Matic
What is it? The U-matic is an analogue recording
videocassette format first shown by Sony in
prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the
market in September 1971. It was among the first
video formats to contain the videotape inside a
cassette, as opposed to the various reel-to-reel or
open-reel formats of the time.
How does it work? Unlike most other cassette-based tape formats, the supply and take-up reels in
the cassette turn in opposite directions during playback, fast-forward, and rewind: one reel would
run clockwise while the other would run counter-clockwise. A spring-loaded tape cover door
protects the tape from damage; when the cassette is inserted into the VCR, the door is released and
is opened, enabling the VCR mechanism to spool the tape around the spinning video drum.

From Linear to Non linear.
Developments of editing technology of the late sixties and early seventies revolutionized video
editing, and made it possible for television to have its own version of the film workprint/conform
process. It was during this time that non linear editing was introduced into film editing which has
been one of the greatest technological developments and impacts in the industry of editing in the
last 50 years. The first non linear editing system was the CMX600.

CMX600 -1971 (Non Linear)
What is it? The CMX 600 was the very first non-linear video editing system and was
introduced in 1971. CMX referred to it as a "RAVE", or Random Access Video Editor.
It was a system quite ahead of the technology of the time, and was quite expensive,
costing about $250,000 at its introduction. About 6 systems were manufactured,
and were used to edit several television shows and commercials.
What are its properties? The 600 had a console with 2 black & white monitors built in, as well as a
light pen used to control the system. The right monitor, which played the preview video, was used
by the editor to make cuts and edit decisions, by using the light pen to select from options which
were superimposed as text over the preview video. The left monitor was used to display the edited
video.
What does it do? It records and plays back black-and-white "skip-field" video in analogue on
specially modified disk pack drives which were commonly used to store data digitally on mainframe
computers of the time. The audio is recorded digitally using PCM, and is recorded by being inserted
in the "back porch" of the horizontal blanking interval pulses of the video. The 600's main purpose is
solely for off-line editing, in order to create an Edit Decision List (EDL) for later on-line editing.

Digitally editing software (Non linear)
Avid-1987
Avid Technology is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology;
specifically, digital non-linear editing. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company
in 1993. Avid products are now used in the television and video industry to create television shows,
feature films, and commercials. Media Composer, a professional software-based non-linear editing
system, is Avid's flagship product.

FinalCut Pro-1999
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and later Apple
Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X 10.1, runs on Intel-based Mac OS computers powered
by OS X version 10.9 or later. The software allows users to log and transfer video onto a hard drive
(internal or external), where it can be edited, processed, and output to a wide variety of formats. A
fully rewritten and re-imagined non-linear editor, Final Cut Pro X, was introduced by Apple in 2011,
with the last version of the legacy Final Cut Pro being version 7.0.3.

Adobe Premiere Pro-2003
Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing
software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative
Cloud, which includes video editing, graphic design, and
web development programs. Premiere Pro is used by
broadcasters such as the BBC and CNN. It has been used
to edit feature films, such as Gone Girl, Captain Abu Raed
and Monsters.




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