Lauren Rushton. Unit 16 Film and Video Editing Techniques: Task one.
Unit 16 Task One: Development of Editing.
Editing has come a long way beginning in the 1920s, the technologies of editing has developed with time with some devices being more effective than others, but for their time was still ahead of other technologies. All devices still being used throughout time, and some still being used now in modern day by famous directors. In order to record the information to create the footage to be edited, the camera converts the light into electrical signals which is recorded onto a magnetic tape. Before devices were released that allowed editing to become easier, film editors worked with raw footage by selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a final motion picture production. Editors work creatively and complete the puzzle by joining the story with the use of photos, dialogue, and music to re-imagine the production to create a final production. Before technology was created for editors, they had to manually cut and splice film, getting rid of the frames of film that wasnt necessary for them to use. Although this method was time-consuming, it was effective and allowed each frame to show clear information to the audience. During the 1920s, technology began being made in order for editing to become easier for film editors to use and for the film to end up as well-created as when the old method of cutting and splicing was used and being done over half the time than what is was like when it was created manually. For the first time, technology was produced and was introduced as being invented before its time. The timeline begins with the first device of editing that was introduced, the Moviola.
Moviola (1924): The Moviola was seen as being a device for Linear Editing. This was released in 1924 by the pioneer Iwan Surrier and this was a device that allowed you to view the film while you were editing for the first time. It was released in Hollywood where the large studios were located. This was the first device that was used an allowed the editing of motion pictures, and many studios quickly snapped one of them up when it was released, these include: Universal Studios Warner Brothers Charles Chaplin Studios Buster Keaton Productions Mary Pickford Mack Sennett Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The Moviola was originally supposed to be developed to be a home cinema projector, although an editor that worked for Douglas Fairbank offered the idea of it being equipment that could be used for editors to allow easy process editing to footage to create a well-executed production, and as a result it was a piece of editing equipment and Douglas Fairbank was the first to buy one of the devices when it was released. This device allowed the study of individual shots in their cutting rooms, it focused on where the best point for cutting was when editing. Although this was the most effective device that was used around its time, more advanced technology was being released and different editors ran to the next craze of technology that was being created. This with the exception Lauren Rushton. Unit 16 Film and Video Editing Techniques: Task one.
of a few, this includes director Steven Spielburg who still continued using this device as he thought it was effective, it was still used to edit with years after other devices were released. Steenbeck Flatbed (1930s): The Steenbeck Flatbed is seen as a form of Linear Editing. This method was released during the 1930s and it allowed editors to load picture and audio rolls onto separate motorised plates, the plates moved forward, backward and separately or if not they were in motion together to maintain synchronisation between the picture and the sound. There were two most common flatbeds, these were both created in Germany during the 1930s, and these were: Steenbeck Flatbed K-E-M (Keller-Elecktro-Mechanik Both of these types of flatbeds were the most common and really the only ones that editors used. The mechanism works through a prism that reflects the film image onto a screen to view, when a magnetic playback head reads the magnetic audio track. There was two most common plates that were used, these include the six plate and the eight plate, the different between them both is that the six-plate where one picture is a transport and there are two audio transport and the eight-plate being where there are two pictures transport and two audio transport. With the device the requirements is that the picture is recorded on film and then the audio is recorded separately and the audio is transferred onto a magnetic track called a mag. The magnetic film is usually edge-coded: sequential numbers are stamped on the edge of every few frames to facilitate locating frames or scenes when editing. CMX600 Non-Linear Editor (1971): This device was the first device that introduced non- linear editing which was created by CMX Systems in 1971. The equipment was known as RAVE by the company that produced it, it represented: Random Access Video Editor The way of editing with this equipment was using the right monitor which played the preview video, and was used by the editor to make cuts and edit by using the light pen to select and edit features on the film and the left monitor was used to display the edited film. The problem with this method was that it recorded and played back in analogue on a specific modified disk, that were commonly used to store data on mainframe computers at the time, but they were the size of washing machines. Lauren Rushton. Unit 16 Film and Video Editing Techniques: Task one.
The audio that was recorded was captured digitally using pulse-code modulation which is a system where it digitally represents sampled analogue signals. The audio that was captured was poor due to the jitter occurring from the signal coming from the playback of disk packs. The quality of film was not great because of it being recorded in black and white but the main purpose of this device was to allow off-line editing. When editing, it was controlled by two equipment racks of support equipment, the first rack contained the electronics for the system including a Digital PDP-11 minicomputer with 32 kilobytes of RAM. The second rack contained all the audio and video electronics, and the Skip-Field Recorder (black and white recording), which took editing from a VTR and then recorded one or more disk pack drives that was interfaced to the CMX600. Each disk pack in terms of format video, recorded up to 5.4 minutes of NTSC video or 4.5 of PAL video. Digital Editing Software (1987 Onwards): Digital Editing Software was introduced in the late 1980s, digital editing software was introduced on computers. In 1987, Avid was released onto the computer which allowed a non-linear editing system to take place. This method of editing was where any footage could be editing using any device with a camera. It introduced colour editing and audio combined where it is clear and no jittering existed. This method allowed the RAM to excel so therefore all editors decided to use this easy, less-time consuming method to edit production footage. It allowed editors to relocate lost clips and using them in their online-editing by re-pasting them back into the programme. A lot of the programmes such as the earliest being Avid, offered high definition import so therefore the quality becomes almost perfect. In order to use this programme, all that is needed is footage recorded on any device and is then connected to the computer and opening the selected programme and importing the chosen footage into it. They offer simple transitions and editing techniques that is needed in order to edit footage. This is the most effective version of editing that is known and will no doubt continue to be the most popular. They progressive programmes release, begin from here: Avid (1987) Adobe Premiere (1991) Media 100 (1993) DV Codec and IEEE-1394 (FireWire 400) (1995) Final Cut Pro (1999)
Lauren Rushton. Unit 16 Film and Video Editing Techniques: Task one.
Linear/Non-Linear Editing: Linear and Non-Linear editing is the process dependent upon which way chronologically you decide to edit footage. When editing, some devices of technology only allow you to do a certain type of editing whether it be linear or non- linear. Linear Editing: Linear editing is where you select, arrange and modify images and sound in chronological order, regardless of what footage is recorded on, the content must be accessed in chronological order. Video Editing Software has replaced the idea of Linear Editing. When this type of editing was first introduced it was used with ferrofluid (film) and it was cut with a razor blade or a guillotine and splicing it with other ferrofluid, a method that was similar to manual film editing. When this method was used, the two piece of tape to be joined was painted with a solution of fine iron filings combined with carbon tetrachloride, a toxic and carcinogenic compound. Devices of this type of editing are typically: Moviola Flatbed Editor Non-Linear Editing: Non-Linear editing is where the material that you are editing, does not have to be edited in chronological order. It can be careful examined in whatever way that you wish for it to be. It is the most common type of editing that is used and it was introduced to begin with when Digital Software Editing was brought in. It has been the most popular source of editing to be used since it was first introduced and has maintained the most popular ever since. Non-Linear Editing has always been produced through Digital Software Editing as it was not possible to be able to do it anywhere else without losing the majority of the footage that was created. Programmes such as Avid FinalCut Premier CMX600 allows this type of editing to exist in a manageable process.
Lauren Rushton. Unit 16 Film and Video Editing Techniques: Task one.
Offline/Online Editing: Offline and Online Editing is the initial before and after, you could say testing the water for the permanent edit that is going to be used for the final edit of the production. Systems such as: Moviola Flatbed CMX600 were used in order to trial offline and online editing, although when Digital Editing Software surfaced, this method was almost non-existent. Offline Editing: Offline Editing occurs before the online editing process begins, this is always the last stages of completing the production. This is where the raw footage is copied and edited without affecting the original footage, it can be seen as the planning stage of the final (online) editing, once this process has been done the editor will make final decisions and begin the online editing process. Online Editing: The term online comes from where pictures are re-assembled at full or online resolution. Online Editing is where the final edit begins for the production footage, online editing has now been replaced with digital editing software that operate on non-linear editing systems (NLE), some production companies still use NLE offline - online editing workflow. Video quality on Avids media composer in 1989 was in cable of producing visible quality images due to computer processing limitations. An EDL (Edit Decision List) is used to carry over the cuts and dissolves during the offline edit. To conclude, I have displayed the technologies and approaches towards the development of editing within the industry including the dates that they were released and using examples to support my knowledge and research. I have developed the idea of technology moving forward and explained the impact that it has on the industry and how people believed that the devices were seen as before their time. I have also displayed my in depth secondary research that I have carried out in order to explain and critically assess the impact that these developments have had on the industry and to find the devices themselves and have included a full references in my research piece and on the task itself.
Bibliography: Moviola: (including images used) Lauren Rushton. Unit 16 Film and Video Editing Techniques: Task one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moviola Film Editing Techniques: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing#Editing_techniques Flatbed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatbed_editor Flatbed image: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/- vEfLl6DZg9g/T3B3R6nl9mI/AAAAAAAAAlU/831T8a4xhik/s1600/Steenbeck.jpeg CMX600 image 1: http://www.studiodaily.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/cmx600.jpg Digital Editing Software: http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fun-facts-and-dates-in-digital-editing-firsts/ Avid image: https://s3.amazonaws.com/pbblogassets/uploads/2011/12/Avid1-c.png Final Cut Pro logo: http://applefinalcutpro.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/final-cut-pro-x-logo.png Linear Editing image: http://www.csudh.edu/televisionarts/images/BetaSPLinearTape.jpg Non-Linear Editing image: http://i1.creativecow.net/u/1027/0_20120413_edius-6.5_main-shot.1920x1080.jpg Offline/Online editing image: http://flylib.com/books/2/193/1/html/2/images/005fig01.jpg