The Importance of Editing

“It’s hard for people to understand editing, I think, It’s absolutely like a sculpture. 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 editing 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 Kinetograph. A Kinetograph
was the world’s first motion picture camera. It was developed in 1890 by an American
inventor 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 edited 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 Vaudeville 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
simultaneous action across multiple scenes. He also incorporated camera pans and special
close ups to add different perspectives 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 Robbery’,
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. However, more distinctive editing techniques were being invented into
the film industry. One of the ‘best editing’ film nominees of many was ‘Hypocrites’, 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 (Weber),
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 incorporated at least one coloured
sequence, but despite that, after 1927 it was discovered 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 photography.
Erich Vin Stroheim added colour to certain parts of films in 1924. The way he accomplished
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 created 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 storyline which makes it easy for the viewers to follow
it and understand what is happening 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 Scorsese’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. Numerous 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 viewers have said that
‘it is another fantastic collaboration between DiCaprio and director 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, apparently, messes with you.
Schoonmaker was born on 3rd January 1940. She attended Columbia University whilst taking
a graduate course in primitive art. Thelma saw an advertisement in The New York Times that
offered training as an assistant film editor.

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 nominated 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 hitmen, 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 chronologically. 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 every film and every director – a new perspective, a greater
appreciation of the art” – Sally Menke

Another incredible American film editor to look into is Michael Kahn. Most of the films that
he worked on were in collaboration with Steven Spielberg and his first film that he edited
was ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. The only film that wasn’t a film directed by
Spielberg that Kahn edited was ‘E.T the Extra Terrestrial’.
Kahn has received 8 Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing. He has on 3 times
for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘Schindlers List’, and ‘Saving Private Ryan’; which were all
directed by Steven Spielberg. He also got many nominations and wins for Best Editing for
BAFTA Awards, some of these films are ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’, ‘Bridge of
Spies’, and ‘Fatal Attraction’ which was a winner.

"Editing is really like plumbing a good deal of the time. You put two things together,
and a current runs through it." – Thelma Schoonmaker

Audio/Sound is a big part in the editing industry. It can help with the storytelling and helps
add emotions and feelings into the film for audience to feel. There are many different types
of sound that can be used, for example: Field recording – It is exactly what it says, sound
editors go out in a field to record different sounds, Foley – These are custom sounds that a
created like a zip on jeans or a glass being smashed, and ADR- Automated Dialogue
Replacement is when the actor has to recreate their performance on the set whilst also
getting near-perfect lip sync with the film.
The first film to include audio had only used music and sound effects which was directed by
Alan Crosland. The Jazz Singer was the first film to use sound and was originally presented as
a ‘talkie’, which premiered on 6th October 1927. It is said that it is remarkable as the first
feature-length motion picture with both lip synch singing and synchronised recorded music.

“Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes” – Robert Altman

“The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself” – Peter Jackson

“The less the camera is able to capture what you’re seeing in a scene, the more editing it
needs.” – Tom Anderson