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Editing Notes


What do editors do?


  • Edwin Porter discovered that cutting shots could create a linear storyline.
  • The use of multiple shots in the same scene creates an emotional impact.
  • See The Great Train Robbery.
  • Editing piques interest in movies - "wouldn't people love to be able to edit their own lives?"
  • A major Hollywood production produces at least two hours worth of filming content. 
  • D.W. Griffith(?) 1912 melodramas were the first to reel an audience in by the use of editing. 
  • The Birth of a Nation includes editing techniques like flashbacks in order to better concentrate audience focus on certain elements of the film. 
  •  The "invisible" style of editing worked so well editors were not recognised for their professional talent. 
  • Jimmy Edwards Smith 
  • Today, editors are better recognised, and the relationship between the director and editor is much more emphasised for a film-making process. Today, no one works more intimately with the director than the editor. 
  • The Russian Revolution is integral to the evolution to film editing. 
  • Sergei Eisenstein saw editing like history. 
  • Where Griffiths tried to hide his cuts, Eisenstein wanted to expose them fully to the audience in order to create the ultimate impact. 
  • Griffiths had classical editing, whereas Eisenstein had created a form of juxtaposition montages. 
  • In the 1930s, cinema became a huge business. Hollywood had retooled itself and the studios were producing more and more movies at alarming industrial-like rates. 
  • Large numbers of editors were women when the business first started, as the profession was seen as almost domestic. 
  • As the emphasis on editing became bigger, the profession was taken up by more and more men as the job was seen as more technical and important to film. 
  • "The editor has the most objective eye in that creative environment." - Steven Spielberg 
  • Filmmakers realised that sound and image could not only manipulate the audience's emotions but also influence their beliefs and ideals. 
  • After ww2, editors were unionised and viewed as "highly skilled mechanics" only. 
  • Editors were expected to conform to the established rules of editing at the time. 
  • There was a strict, formulaic set of rules editors felt forced to follow, e.g. incorporating a long shot was integral. 
  • In France, a few film critics turned directors began to challenge the established editing style. 
  • See Breathless.
  • Dede Allen's editing use on Bonnie & Clyde was one of the first major Hollywood productions to actively break the set formula. 
  • "Fast Cutting" wasn't new to Hollywood, but it became very popular in the 21st century - see The Fast and The Furious 

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