History of Editing

Christopher Haisell

1895 The Lumiere Brothers

The Lumiere brothers produced the
first type of editing. This was before
editing. The horse in motion was a
video filmed before editing started.
They invented

1896 Edison S Porter

Whilst working as a projectionist, one of Porters
many activities included the illegal duplications of
Mlis films. He would split one act reels up and
combine these clips together into 15 minute
programmes.
Porter also tried to create his own camera and
projector which didnt go well so he returned to
Edisons Company in 1900 as a producer. Porter
tried to bring trick photography into films and
ended up as one of the first directors to shoot at
night which he did so in Pan-American Exposition
by Night

1908 D.W.Griffiths
The film "For Love of Gold" was
released and included the first ever
continuity cut when a scene cut.
Griffiths realised emotions could be
conveyed within

1915 The Birth of a Nation

This film is released and included
camera techniques such as
panaramic long shots, still shots,
cross cutting and panning shots

1920 Kuleshov Effect

Lev Kuleshov (a director and film theorist)
discovered the Kuleshov Effect which was a
montage effect. The effect was introduced
on a film which Lev believed the audience
would respond to more. Eisenstein and
Dziga Vertov demonstrated the potentials of
montage in Eisensteins 1925 Battleship
Potemkin montage. Eisenstein praised film
montage by saying it could create ideas
different from the average film

1920 the clapper board

The clapper (also referred to as a slate,
clacker and board), was invented in early
1920s whilst sound was just being
introduced to film. Striking the sticks
would create a clap sound that would be
recorded later and made to go with the
sound of the film. They are regularly still
used today however they have changed.
They are digital which are linked instead
of the computer

1963 Linear editing

A technique within video editing was linear
editing which was done by using 2 video
decks and transferring a video from one
deck to the other and build a video
structured with different cuts.
The first video linear edit was done in 1963.
The idea was made to cut and rearrange
1903 when Edwin Porter used the splicing
machine in The Great Train Robbery
Shown in the order its recorded

1969 Walter Murch

Murch started editing and mixing
sound with Francis Ford Coppolas
The Rain People (1969)
He received an Academy Award
nomination in sound in 1974

1971 Non-Linear Editing

The first truly non-linear edit was
made in 1971 by CMX Systems. It
recorded and played back black and
white analog video recorded in skipfield.
Opposite of linear editing
Not shown in the order its filmed
(e.g. flashbacks)

Compositing
Compositing is the combination of
visual elements from different
sources into a single image, often to
create the illusion that the elements
within are actually all part of the
scene

1986 Georges Melies

Showed a particular interest in stage
design and puppetry from a young age.
Determined to investigate moving pictures,
Melies viewed Robert Pauls camera whilst
he was in London and Melies was able to
present his first film screening on April the
4th 1986 and began screening other
peoples films
His first films were one reels lasting about a
minute

1953 Steenbeck
Sttenbeck was introduced in electronics
and established a company in Hamburg
manufacturing electronic components for
the radio industry on November the 16 th in
1931.
The first ideas to build film editing tables
on their own are from 1952. In 1953, the
first Steenbeck flatbed (the ST200) was
born and were delivered to German
broadcasters like NDR

VHS
VHS stands for Videotape Format
War.