The Importanc
“It’s hard for people to
understand editing, I think,
It’s absolutely like a sculp-
ture. You get a big lump of
clay, and you have to form
it – this raw, unedited, very
long footage” – Thelma
Schoonmaker
The history of editing has
expanded a lot over time. In
1895, the first form of edit-
ing was introduced which is
called simple cutting but back
then it was known as cutting
and sticking and was the first
part of editing within the film
industry. To do this editing,
you would have to physically
cut the still images before
putting them into the Kineto-
graph. A Kinetograph was the
world’s first motion picture
camera. It was developed in
1890 by an American inven-
tor Thomas Alva Edison and
his assistant William K. L.
Dickson. It was powered by
electricity and only worked
with celluloid film, which was
advanced though the camera
by a system of sprockets.
The first film to be edited was
‘The Great Train Robbery’ in
1903.It is a 10-minute short
film and was created and ed-
ited by Edwin. S Porter. The
Great Train Robbery is an
American silent Western film
which was made by Edwin
for the Edison Manufacturing
Company. Porter produced
and photographed this film in
New York and New Jersey in
November 1903. The Edison
studio started to sell it to
different venues like Vaude-
ville houses in the following
months after being produced.
Some of the filming and
editing techniques that Porter
used in his film include wide
shots, a matte effect, and an
attempt to indicate simulta-
neous action across multiple
scenes. He also incorporated
camera pans and special close
ups to add different perspec-
tives and emotions for the
audience to feel throughout
the film. Edwin added the
close ups either at the start or
end, in ‘The Great Train Rob-
bery’, he added one at the end
of Barnes (the outlaw leader)
emptying his gun directly
into the camera.
In 1915, films were still in
black and white 25 years after
the first camera device was
constructed in 1890. Howev-
er, more distinctive editing
techniques were being in-
vented into the film industry.
One of the ‘best editing’ film
nominees of many was ‘Hyp-
ocrites’, also can be known
as ‘The Hypocrites’ and ‘The
Naked Truth’. This film is a
silent drama film written and
directed by Lois Weber. This
film includes several scenes
with nudity in, however they
were very respectful whilst
filming these scenes as they
only had the director (We-
ber), Edwards (the woman
who appears in the scenes
nude), and the cameraman in
the closed set.
By the early 1920s, almost all
American feature films incor-
porated at least one coloured
sequence, but despite that,
after 1927 it was discov-
ered that toning and tinting
film stock obstructed with
the transmission of optical
sound. Both of these colour
sources were abandoned and
left the market open to new
systems of colour photogra-
phy.
Erich Vin Stroheim added
colour to certain parts of
films in 1924. The way he ac-
complished this was by, being
very careful, he coloured each
printed shot individually by
hand.
After 15 years since colour
editing was introduced to the
film industry, editor Blanche
Sewell and director Victor
Fleming presented Snow
White in the cinemas and
made history as it was the
first full feature film to be all
colour shots.
The first CGI film was cre-
ated in 1995 by Pixar, which
was the film Toy Story. The
people that worked on this
film were inexperienced and
some had never worked with
a computer before creating
the franchise, with a very
low budget. Considering the
workers had no experience
with the technology used, I
think it was filmed and edited
very well as it is entertaining
to watch and has a clear sto-
ryline which makes it easy for
the viewers to follow it and
understand what is happen-
ing throughout the duration
of this movie.
Thelma Schoonmaker is a
famous American editor
who has worked with Martin
Scorsese (who is a director)
and she is known for her over
50 years of work with him.
She has edited all of Scors-
ese’s films since ‘Raging Bull’
which was filmed in 1980.
She has also edited ‘Shutter
Island’ and ‘The Departed’
which both stars Leonardo
DiCaprio. She has won and
been nominated for many
awards in her lifetime. A few
that she has won have been
‘Raging Bull’, ‘The Aviator’,
and ‘The Departed’ which
are, in my opinion and many
others, incredible films. Nu-
merous other films that she
was nominated for Best Film
Editing were, ‘Goodfellas’,
‘Woodstock’, ‘Hugo’, and ‘The
Irishman’. Shutter Island has
a very controversial opinion
from the public. Some view-
ers have said that ‘it is anoth-
er fantastic collaboration
ce of Editing
between DiCaprio and di-
rector Martin Scorsese’ and
includes how the film is a
twisted psychological thriller
that leaves you guessing until
the very end. However, other
viewers have very different
opinions towards this film.
One individual has expressed
that this film may make you
leave with and upsetting view
and hatred for it as it, appar-
ently, messes with you.
Schoonmaker was born
on 3rd January 1940. She
attended Columbia Univer-
sity whilst taking a gradu-
ate course in primitive art.
Thelma saw an advertisement
in The New York Times that
offered training as an assis-
tant film editor.
“Editing is really like
plumbing a good deal
of the time. You put two
things together, and a
current runs through it.” –
Thelma Schoonmaker
Sally Menke was also an
amazing film editor, with
producing more than 20
feature films in her 30-year
career. She started her career
with film in 1980 but sadly
passed away in September
2010. Menke moved to New
York and studied at New York
University’s Tisch School
of the Arts film program in
1977 and graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in
film. She started working in
collaboration with director
Quentin Tarantino and edited
all his films until her death.
Sally Menke was nominat-
ed for 25 several different
awards and won 12 of them,
some of them being ‘Kill Bill:
Vol.1’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’.
Pulp Fiction was released in
1994 and has received nearly
a 5-star review. Menke has
used a variety of editing
techniques to produce ‘one of
the best Hollywood films’. It
is about the lives of 2 hit-
men, a boxer, a gangster and
his wife, and a pair of diner
bandits who all want violence
and redemption. This film
stars John Travolta, Samuel
L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim
Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma
Thurman. Pulp Fiction is
very good film and has been
edited very well, as she has
used different techniques
like making it occur chrono-
logically. She also included a
linear editing, which is where
the movie scenes are kept in
order of beginning, middle,
and end which helps keep the
criminal stories in order and
makes it easy for the audience
to follow.
“I’ve learnt so much from audience to feel. There are
every film and every direc- many different types of sound
tor – a new perspective, that can be used, for example:
a greater appreciation of Field recording – It is exactly
what it says, sound editors
the art” – Sally Menke
go out in a field to record
different sounds, Foley –
Another incredible Ameri-
These are custom sounds that
can film editor to look into
a created like a zip on jeans
is Michael Kahn. Most of the
or a glass being smashed, and
films that he worked on were
ADR- Automated Dialogue
in collaboration with Steven
Replacement is when the
Spielberg and his first film
actor has to recreate their
that he edited was ‘Close En-
performance on the set whilst
counters of the Third Kind’.
also getting near-perfect lip
The only film that wasn’t a
sync with the film.
film directed by Spielberg
The first film to include
that Kahn edited was ‘E.T the
audio had only used music
Extra Terrestrial’.
and sound effects which was
Kahn has received 8 Acade-
directed by Alan Crosland.
my Award nominations for
The Jazz Singer was the first
Best Film Editing. He has on
film to use sound and was
3 times for ‘Raiders of the
originally presented as a ‘talk-
Lost Ark’, ‘Schindlers List’,
ie’, which premiered on 6th
and ‘Saving Private Ryan’;
October 1927. It is said that
which were all directed by
it is remarkable as the first
Steven Spielberg. He also got
feature-length motion picture
many nominations and wins
with both lip synch singing
for Best Editing for BAFTA
and synchronised recorded
Awards, some of these films
music.
are ‘Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom’, ‘Bridge of
Spies’, and ‘Fatal Attraction’ “The less the camera
is able to capture what
which was a winner.
you’re seeing in a scene,
the more editing it needs.”
– Tom Anderson
Audio/Sound is a big part
in the editing industry. It
can help with the storytell-
ing and helps add emotions
and feelings into the film for