The History of EditingBY

HANNAH BIBBY

When the film industry first started out there was no such thing as editing, they filmed until the reel ran out or they got bored. Early films were short films that were one long, static, and locked-down shot. Motion in the shot was all that was

necessary to amuse an audience, so the first films simply showed activity such as traffic moving on a city street. The use of

History

Moviola

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 in 1924. Moviola the company is still in existence and is located in Hollywood where part of the facility is located on one of the original Moviola factory floors.

Iwan Serrurier's original 1917 concept for the Moviola was as a home movie projector to be sold to the general public. The name was derived from the name "Victrola" since Serrurier thought his invention would do for home movie viewing what the Victrola did for home music listening. But since the machine cost $600 in 1920, very few sold. An editor at Douglas Fairbanks Studios suggested that Iwan should adapt the device for use by film editors. Serrurier did this and the Moviola as an editing device was born in 1924 with the first Moviola being sold to Douglas Fairbanks himself.

The Lumiere Brothers

The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were sons of well known Lyons based portrait painter Antoine Lumière. They were both technically minded and excelled in science subjects and were sent to Technical School.

Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière , ran a photographic firm where both brothers worked for him Louis as a brothers worked for him Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images. It was not until their moving images. It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures.began to create moving pictures.

It is believed their first film was actually recorded in 1895 with Léon Bouly's cinématographe device, Bouly's cinématographe device, which was patented the previous year. The cinématographe — a three-The cinématographe — a three-in-one device that could record, develop, and project motion pictures —and project motion pictures — was further developed by the Lumières.

The 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 remain internationally recognized.

The first films seen in the Russian Empire were brought in by the Lumière

brothers, who exhibited films in Moscow and St. Petersburg in May 1896.

That same month, Lumière cameraman Camille Cerf made the first film in

Russia, recording the coronation of Nicholas II at the Kremlin.

D.W. Griffiths

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

The film has been extremely controversial for its negative depiction of African Americans, white unionists, and the Reconstruction, and its positive portrayal of slavery and the Ku Klux Klan. The film was subsequently both lionized for its radical technique and condemned for its racist philosophy. Filmed at a cost of $110,000, it returned millions of dollars in profits, making it, perhaps, the most profitable film of all time, although a full accounting has never been made.