The history of film editing

Francesca Atkinson

How editing has changed over time.

The history of film has had many changes up until today, which inevitably means that editing styles have changed. Film first started out in the 1800's with no editing at all.

The Lumiere brothers. Auguste and his older brother Louis are credited with capturing the world’s

first motion picture films and holding the world’s first public screening.

Their work consisted mainly of moving images from scenes of everyday life.

The Lumiere Brothers have been credited with over 1,425 different shortfilms and had even filmed aerial shots years before the very first airplanewould take to the skies.

An example of one of their films:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk

The first film editor, the Moviola.

A Moviola is a device that allows a film editor to view film while editing.

It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in1924. Iwan Serrurier was a Dutch-born electrical engineer.

The Moviola allowed editors to study individual shots in their cutting rooms, thus to determinemore precisely where the best cut-point might be.

Russian cinema. The cinema of Russia began in the Russian Empire, widely developed in the Soviet Union

and in the years following its dissolution, the Russian film industry would remaininternationally recognized. In the 21st century, Russian cinema has become popularinternationally with hits such as House of Fools, Night Watch, and the popular Brother.Moscow International Film Festival is held in Moscow from 1935 and Nika Award is themain annual national film award in Russia.

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, apioneer in the theory and practice of montage.

One of Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein’s films:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr3S6ItLMTo

D. W. Griffith

David Llewelyn Wark was an American film director, mostly remembered as the director of the 1915 film ‘The Birth of a Nation’ and the subsequent film ‘Intolerance’.

Griffith began making short films in 1908, and released his first feature, Judith of Bethulia, in 1913.

One of his films:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr3S6ItLMTo