The origins of editing can be traced back to the origins of recorded video itself as editing is such an integral part of films and their development and many changes and evolutions in editing technology have coincided with advancements in other parts of film, the earliest examples of films were just a series of photographs played repeatedly at a fast rate in order to create the illusion of a moving image. this process was discoverd on accident by a man taking multiple photos of a moving horse to solve the debate of if horses took all four hooves off the ground when galloping, upon reviewing the photos it was discovered that by viewing them 1 at a time at a considerable speed it made an illusion of one image that was moving.
these picture would be places next to each other and then quickly projected using a projector to be shown, this method would later be refined with the invention of film stock which involved exposing negatives to capture multiple pictures at a rapid pace using a film camera, though it came with limitations as the films while now easier to film they were limted by the position of the camera and the method using the negative film meant there was no way to stop recording, repositon the camera, restart recording and have it be one continuous film essentially meaning all films of the era were done in what we now call today single take, making all films or the era effectivley the same as modern day recordings of stage plays.
this limitation was identified by a man named Georges melies who then began experimenting with the film stock by changing the images, the speed and of course the order they played in thus creating some of the worlds first video effects and edits. these edits were all done by modifying the film stock meaning that alterations or aditons to the picture had to be done on top of the original and when reaaranging film the physical film would have to be physically cut and reattached in a new order, in a similar way to how modern editing software such as imovie or premierpro has a layout which is desigined to look simlar to old film stock and the way these software allow you to cut apart clips and rearrange them is reminisent of how film stock would be physically cut and rearanged though that is only in presentation and in practise there is an incredible difference between the methods of editing used in the begining of film making compared to modern methods. a simple cut is the most common form of editing and is still used widley today but its origins lie in the early editing methods, when the previouly mentioned georges melies was experimenting with rearranging film he discovered that the brain would connect two seperate pieces of film together as part of one sequence, this was the first cut in films and took its name from the previoulsly mentioned method of editng involving physically cutting the film. the cut quickly became very popular and films soon developed from being simple single shot captures of stage play like performances to being a completly different form of media as the cut now gave film makers the option to change the position of the camera not only giving the film makers more creative freedom in terms of location and angles but editing also gave them the ability to direct the audiences attention as before the audiences eyes were free to look where they pleased but editing let film makers limit what the audience could see meaning they could now change and control what the audience was looking at during any particular part of the film. along with yhe incresed usage of editing technology also developed, the mioviola was the first device made specically for use in film editing and it would continue to evolve alongside other methods of film.
Eventually a company called steenbeck developed a device called the flatbed edit suite which functioned similar to the mioviola but also included the ability to edit sound, originally films didn’t have sound as there was no way to capture it hence the silent era of film making, but eventually as technology developed sound could be recorded though at this time video and sound were still unable to be stored together and the sound in films was actually a separate recording that was played in sync with the film to give the illusion of sound, this meant that when editing films the editor would also have the edit the sound separately
and make sure it still lined up with the film, the flatbed edit suite allows editors to line up the round and film reels and cut them together ensuring that the correct sound stayed with the correct visual
In modern day video and audio is now able to be stored digitally so traditional film stock is used considerably less, despite this editing is still the same at its core, digital editing now allows for the option to keep the sound and video together but digital editing software still allows for the audio to be made separate to the video and editing separately along side visuals, the way most modern editing software works involves the video being presented in a horizontal strip and could be cut and rearranged in the same way physical film strip would, audio tracks are also presented alongside the video and can be unbound from their corresponding clip and rearranged accordingly
Digital editing can usually be done on any device such as phones tablets laptops or pcs though a con of digital editing isn’t the video quality isn’t always as consistent and using certain devices or software can cause the video or audio to be reduced in quality
Finally I want to talk about the different types of editing specifically linear and non linear editing as well as the difference between them. Linear editing originated when video was first able to be stored on tape, the name linear editing comes from the way it had to be edited as the properties of the tape made it so that edits done to the video had to be done in a specific order, specifically the order that the footage was stored to the tape, it had the downside of meaning that editors could not rearrange the footage or make any major changes to the sequence in which it was shot, devices such as the editec and smpte timecode were designed to make the process easier by allowing more precise pausing on frames and the latter even assigned time stamps to each frame
Non linear editing came to be when films were able to be stored digitally, digital editing allowed filmmakers and editors to be less constructive with the editing process and be able to access any part of the footage whenever they wished, non linear editing also allowed them to bring in footage and audio from multiple different sources instead of being constricted to one or maybe two tapes, non linear editing gave editors a lot more freedom. An early non linear editing device was Lucas films edit droid which used the term droid from the Star Wars series which was a term used for advanced robots, which shows that the edit droid was advanced for its time and unlike other tools, the edit droid utilised laser discs and was one of the first non linear editors and whilst it did not perform well commercially it laid the foundation for later developments in technology and in turn accomplished Lucas’ goal of bringing editing out of what he called 19th century methods which he believed limited creativity. The edit droid would be used in lucas film projects such as young Indiana Jones and return of the Jedi earning it the nickname “Death Star”
https://www.lucasfilm.com/news/lucasfilm-originals-the-editdroid/
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