In 1878, English photographer Edward Muybridge discovered that if you take several photos of a moving object in a short space of time, when played in sequence the image will begin to move. Muybridge took photos of a horse racing in quick succession, creating a sequence of images. 'Race Horse' was therefore the first film ever, filmed in 1878.
After this, the very first motion cameras were made in the 1890s. The Lumiere brothers created 'The Cinematograph', a three way machine that recorded, captured and projected a motion picture. Films being made at this time were often one long roll of film that would be played showing the progression of the action until the film ran out. this meant that there was no real form of editing at this point. In 1895 they made their first film 'Workers Leaving The Lumiere Factory' which was screened in Grand Cafe in Paris.
In 1896, magician and theatre owner Georges Melies who was at one of the Lumiere screenings, began shooting short films. He filmed a horse and carriage and partway through the camera jammed meaning halfway through the filmed they disappeared, therefore he accidentally invented the 'jump cut'.
The Cinematograph
Not long after, the Kinetogrpah was invented by Thomas Edison and others. it was a machine designed to take photos in quick succession in order to form a film. they then also created the kinetoscope which allowed people to view the films.
in 1901 Thomas Edison's assistant, Edwin Porter, started to experiment by sticking different parts of film together proving that film didn't have to be one continuous shot, and could be combined together by 'cutting'. Films then became several minutes long consisting of multiple shots.
Initially, the cuts were made in the camera itself, by the cameraman stopping cranking and then continuing to film at the next scene.
American film producer DW Griffith created a variety of films using the revolutionary cutting technique. He used techniques including jump cuts and more, but also included a variety of cuts that had never been used before in film, such as extreme close ups to portray emotion of a character. His film 'For Love of Gold' featured the first ever continuity cut used in film.
In 1924, a device called the 'Upright moviola was invented, which allowed editors to view the film at the same time as editing. For its time, the Moviola was quite an advanced piece of equipment and allowed editors to make specific edits and cuts in the films, which were previously more difficult to do.
The Upright Moviola
Flatbed Edit Suites
A Flatbed Editor is a type of machine used to edit films and the Moviola is an early example of this. Picture and sound rolls are loaded onto separate motorised disks called 'plates'. A prism reflects the film image onto a viewing screen whilst a magnetic playback head reads the magnetic audio tracks.
Compared to more modern flatbeds such as the K.E.M and the Steelback, the Moviola was difficult to use as it did not have high speed operation. The European flatbeds came into more common use in the 1970s, although they never quite replaced the Moviola.
Later, during the 1970s and 80s, the new developments of digital editing introduced a Non linear style of editing. This meant editing the sequences out of order and then going back to make changes to the film later in the editing process. On the contrary, Linear editing is the process of selecting arranging and modifying images in a predetermined order.
Offline editing is a rough draft of the edit using low quality footage, in order to give the Editors and sometimes Director, a general idea of what the final cut will look like. An offline editor would also create an EDL, (Edit Decision List), similar to a log sheet. This would allow the online editor to work through this when editing the final cut. Online editing is editing the final cut, using the high quality footage. The online editor will also add visual effects, colour correction and lower third titles.
Digital Editing Software
As the Digital Era came about, one of the first digital editing systems invented was called the CMX 600. This was a Non-linear editor created in 1971 by two American companies; CBS and Memorex. They wanted to create a revolutionary offline video editing system. it allowed the editor to see changes in real time, and make cuts and edits of magnetic tape. The machine itself had two monitors in black at whit. a light pen was used to control and input the editing process.
The CMX 600
Another Non-linear editing system at theis time was know as the EditDroid. It was made by a Lucasfilm spinoff company which existed from the 80s to early 90s. however unfortunately the company was never successful and ended up closing down. the software was later sold to Avid Technology in 1993. Avid Technology were the creators of Avid 1, which was developed in 1987, using the Apollo computer, and was later built on the Apple Macintosh II.
Modern Editing Software
In recent years, more modern ways of editing have been developed, including software such as Final Cut and Premiere Pro. These applications are much more advanced today as many versions of them have been developed over the past few decades. They now allow editors to easily and efficiently make cuts and edits to allow for the best sequence possible. The first version of Adobe Premiere was released in 1991, but many newer versions have been developed since then. Similarly, in 1999, Apple released Final Cut Pro. At the time, this was a major competitor to Avid. Two years later, in 2001, 'The Rules of Attraction' was the first feature film edited using Final Cut Pro. In 2007, 'No Country for Old Men' was the first Oscar winning film edited with Final Cut Pro.
Film and file types
MP4
this is the most common type of video file format. Apple widely use this file type, but it can play on most other devices as well. it works well for videos on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MOV
(QuickTime Film) stores high-quality video, audio and effects, but these files tend to be quite large. Developed for QuickTime Player by Apple, MOV files used MPEG-4 encoding to play in QuickTime for Windows. MOV is supported by Facebook and Youtube and it works well for TV viewing.
WMV
(Windows Media Viewer) files offer good quality and large files sizes like MOV. Microsoft developed WMV for Windows Media Player.
AVI
(Audio Video Interleave) works with nearly every web browser on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. AVI offers the highest quality but also large file sizes. It is supported by Youtube and works well for TV viewing.
AVCHD
Advanced Video Coding High Definition is specifically for HD video. Built for Panasonic and Sony digital camcorders, these files compress for easy storage without losing definition.
FLV, F4V and SWF
Flash video formats are designed for Flash Player, but they're commonly used to stream video on YouTube. Flash is not supported by iOS devices.
MKV
(Matroska Multimedia Container) developed in Russia, this format is free and open source. It supports nearly every codec, but is not self supported by many programmes.
WEBM or HTML5
These formats are best for videos embedded on your personal or business website. They are small files, so they load quickly and stream easily.
In recent years, more modern ways of editing have been developed, including software such as Final Cut and Premiere Pro. These applications are much more advanced today as many versions of them have been developed over the past few decades. They now allow editors to easily and efficiently make cuts and edits to allow for the best sequence possible. The first version of Adobe Premiere was released in 1991, but many newer versions have been developed since then. Similarly, in 1999, Apple released Final Cut Pro. At the time, this was a major competitor to Avid. Two years later, in 2001, 'The Rules of Attraction' was the first feature film edited using Final Cut Pro. In 2007, 'No Country for Old Men' was the first Oscar winning film edited with Final Cut Pro.
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