2D Animation 5 Seconds

Unit 7: Editing History

History of Editing

Those born in the modern age have the advantage of picking up a camera, filming it then editing digitally in specialized software; such as Adobe Premier Pro and Final Cut Pro. This form of editing has only been introduced in the last 5-7 years, so where did it all begin?

The Creation of Cinema

Eadweard Muybridge

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Eadweard Muybridge was a english photographer who lived in Kingston upon Thames for the majority of his life. Muybridge is one of the early pioneers in the development of creating motion through photographs (photographic motion) , and early work in the projection of motion-picture.  He is known as the "father of the motion picture" and laid the path for modern cinema with his study entitled: "The Horse In Motion"/"Sally Gardener at a Gallop" .This study took place in 1878 at Stanford Palo Alto Stock Farm which is now part of the campus of Stanford University.

(Image from: http://www.stephenherbert.co.uk/mStanfordMemorial.jpg)

Prior to the study,  in 1872 Muybridge was given a challenge by a gent named Leland Stanford, who who was the governor of California at the time. The reason Muybridge was hired, was to help Stanford prove that a galloping horse's 4 hooves left the ground at the same time.Stanford believed that horses did in fact do so, however it was impossible for him to judge due to how humans view moving objects; an average human can process 10 to 12 separate images per second.Stanford wanted this proving after a bet was placed, whilst he and his friends were intoxicated.

The prize sum for winning the bet was a total of $25,000. Stanford provided his prize horse, "Occident" for the experiments. The project was delayed for several years due to Muybridge shooting his wifes lover at point blank range. Although he sort of  proved the argument in 1872 with a single photo of a trotting Occident airborne.

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This wasn't enough for Stanford, who then wanted a study of horses galloping , with the real experiment taking place in 1878. In order to do this, Muybridge placed 12 cameras all facing the same direction. A series of tripwires/string were arranged coming from each camera to form a line, so when the horse crossed the trip wire, the shutter would go off a take a photo.

(Image from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYKZif9ooxs)

This left Muybridge with a series of 12 images each with the horse in a different position. After watching a series of videos, I found an image from the same video, displaying all 12 images taken by Muybridge.

From this we see that the frames 2 and 3, all 4 hooves are of the ground. Not only did this win Stanford the bet and prove that indeed all 4 hooves do leave the ground; it was a groundbreaking achievement for the world of cinema. This caused a sensation to the public and as humans we started to get a better understanding of motion. 

Although, having 12 separate photos by themselves doesn't show us the full movement of the horse. To create a moving image/"film". Muybridge copied the images by turning them into silhouettes.The silhouettes were then placed onto a disc and viewed on a device, a zoopraxiscope, created by Muybridge himself. The machine acted as an early projector as it turned the images into motion for overs to watch; think of it as an early reel of film going into a projector. When the disc was spun, the 12 images blended together to trick the human eye, thus creating the illusion of movement.

(Image from: http://itsallaboutrhythm.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/zoopraxiscope1.jpg)

After printing his 12 images of the horse onto the disc, he finally created what was considered the first ever film "Sallie Gardner at Gallop"/"The Horse in Motion". 

(Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEqccPhsqgA)

This film is so significant, due to the fact that it actually contributed to how we see films today. The 12 images can also be known as 12 frames. With 1 image equalling 1 frame, from this experiment 12 frames are put together in one second to create the illusion of movement. Although due to limitations at the time , due to slow shutter speeds,  12 fps ( frames per second) was the base line and did not make motion look fully realistic. In modern times film makers currently use 24 frames per second (with 35 mm films starting to be in 24 fps in the years 1927-1930) which makes movement look realistic, although some filmmakers such as Peter Jackson use 48fps which further adds to the look of realism. Never the less, Eadweard Muybridge discovered the concept of movement which has since been improved by various other pioneers in the filmmaking industry.

(Video from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfjaObWrgHg)

After Muybridge had  his success with his method of photoing the horse, he went on to perfect his method to show movement of other creatures/humans. The improvements consisted of using more cameras and clockworks to set of shutters, instead of tripwires. His total image count comes close to 100,000 thousand images of motion taken throughout his life. The things he photographed ranged from buffalos, to lions,  to humans carrying out daily activities and even to women washing each other. Some more examples are covered in this short video: 

(Video from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm1iVbYns3Q)

The set up used by Muybridge was also an inspiration for the technique of freeze motion, which is related to the technique used to create "bullet time" in the film "The Matrix". As the process used in "The Matrix" uses a series of still images to detach the scene from time and space. In later life Muybridge took photos at different angles to show how some one climbed a set of stairs. Which was the aesthetic opposite to the modern "bullet time".

For a full look at the "bullet time" method check out the video above.

Muybridge's late success greatly affected the industry and paved inspiration for Thomas Edison who introduced the use of high speed shutters to movie making technology. Without contribution contribution, the cinema industry as we know today, could be so much different. Although Muybridge wasn't the only one to help in the cinema industry.

Thomas Edison 

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Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He had took inspiration from Muybridge and used it in his work. The main invention in the cinema industry, was his camera/experiment for a future project was the Kinetograph. The design for this was based of an early invention of Edison's, the phonograph cylinder. Which contained a series of small images on the cylinder, when the cylinder was spun the images would create an illusion of movement through reflected light. But was proved to be useless after testing. Edison changed his approach when other inventors in the industry began working on new projects. After the development in celluloid film, Edison started to use them in his work.

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Edison hired Dickson to make the concept a reality, although Edison would take full credit for the invention. After a series of experiments the prototype was finally unveiled in 1891, in a National Federation  of Women's clubs. The device combined the process of film making and projection, with the projector known as a "peep hole viewer" which allowed people 1 at a time to witness shot footage for themselves. This was then used to produce the first ever film, to be shot in the US, entitled "Monkeyshines No 1 and No 2" which was shot in 1890.

The final product was said to have been completed in 1892. The kinetoscope was described to be an upright cabinet that had the following dimensions: 18 in x 27 in x 4 ft high. On top of the box was a peephole slot with a magnifying lens so the general public could see the film. In the box a long band that was approximately 50ft was wrapped around a series of spools. Under the film was a lamp and the film, between the lamp and film was a revolving shutter containing a narrow slit.  So as each frame came under the lens, the shutter created a flash of light so the frame appeared froze. Put together the series of frozen images and a moving image appears due to the perception of the human eye.

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The peep show was put in penny arcades and allowed one person to watch short films.

This was similar to a later invention by the Lumiere brothers, however multiple parties (group of people) could all see the film at once using the brothers devices.  This design was then patented and set up as a product invented by Edison.

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Not only did Edison do this , he set up the patents for Hollywood, the worlds largest film community. 

After this patent, Edison filed for a patent on the motion picture camera in 1891 and bought a series of related patent with all his wealth. Edison brought all the biggest film companies in the United States together in 1908 to for the Motion Picture Patent Company/Edison Trust.  This became one of the strongest forces in american and meant that producers must pay to use the patented equipment and to pay for a theater license, granting permission to screen their films. The M.P.P.C also banned film credits for movie actors so they wouldn't gain popularity and demand more money. This annoyed movie makers and limited them to producing 20 minute films. All because Edison only wanted the original film makers in the industry, preventing the new film makers full access to the technology. Think of Edison as a big bully stopping all the little guys from doing any thing fun.  In the end Hollywood was set up to try and avoid all these patents set by Edison and managed to avoid them by settling in the state of California. This would avoid Edison as he was situated in New York with his film company, "Edison Studios". So if Edison hadn't had set force these patents, Hollywood might not have existed and we could of had a whole different film community. 

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Lumiere Brothers

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Louis and Auguste Lumiere were the sons of the portrait painter, Antoine Lumiere. After a new process in photography had been introduced, Antoine set up a business which made and supplied photographic equipment which was based in Lyons. During this period his son, Louis starting experimenting which the equipment Antoine was producing.  After a serious of experiments Louis discovered a new technique which assisted in the development of photography. Because of the success. he set up a factory in the Lyons Suburb which produced "dry plates" using his founded technique. It was estimated that by the end of 1894, 15 million plates were produced. 

(Image from: http://www.historiccamera.com/history1/plates.gif)

After the great achievement and prosperity of the factory, Antoine was invited to witness Edison's invention, the kinetoscope. Which was being presented in Paris at the time. What Antoine saw, excited him and on his return he showed Louis a short film from a Kinetoscope. According to  EarlyCinema.com Antoine told Louie " This is what you have to make, because Edison sells this at crazy prices and the concessionaires are trying to make films here in France to have them cheaper" 

During the end of 1894 the two brothers began work on there own camera/projector system. The main purposes of their work was to overcome the flaws in Edison's designs. With the main flaws consisting of its huge size and the limitation in number of viewers. 

Image of Antoine Lumiere 

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After working throughout winter, the final product was  patented in 1895. The final device was called the Cinematographe which combined a camera with a projector and printer. The Cinematographe was a lot lighter and was hand cracked unlike Edison's creation. It could also be moved into different places due to its density. Although, it used a film speed much lowers that Edisons 48fps. In fact the brother device could film at 16 frames per second. This meant there was less movement inside the device so the clatter and grinding that occurred during Edison's device was reduced. The movement scheme within the device came from Louis who used a design similar to how a sewing machine operated. This had a roll of film which had pegs move the film at 24fps on a rotating shutter but you could only record at 16 frames per second. 

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The first film tot produced on this camera was shown at an industrial meeting in March 1895. The film on show was everyday workers leaving the Lumiere factory. This was the first time anyone had got the chance to be in a film and witness it seconds later. The workers would all rush to view the footage and would be amazed when they saw themselves in the film. Here is footage of the first film made by the Lumiere brothers:

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After filming lots of different activities  of normal people carrying out everyday tasks, such as bathing in the sea or filming a blacksmith creating a piece of work. All of the hype from the private screenings lead to a public event in the December of 1895; which was in the Grand Cafe located in Paris. This was a milestone for the beginning of cinema, a selection of the brothers work was on display with each film being around 40 seconds long. One of the most famous films shown was "Arrival of a Train" 

(Video from youtube)

Because this was the first time for anyone who hadn't saw moving footage. The audience thought the train was coming towards them and caused them to scream and jump in there seats. It is fair to say that this preview was a success and left the audience amazed at what the brothers had produced. 

After this ground breaking moment, the rest of cinema/editing history took off and continued to change the world of cinema.

Development in the history of editing

The no edit stage

In everyday life stories are told in a structure, novels have flashbacks and chapter orders; plays are full of different scenes and acts so why wasn't this in movies? Well the first ever films were shorts, that were normal one shot than rang on for a long period of time. Everyday activities were filmed that amused the audiences in this fact alone, but there was no story or an edit.

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Here is lots of examples of early films, that would normal last up to 40 seconds long; without an edit.

In fact the pioneers in film making were scared to edit, they thought if they split up clips and put them with other shots it would confuse the audience. This opinion quickly as film makers found that putting shots into a sequence, it added to the sense of story and helped make complex stories on screen.

Edit in camera

The first types of cuts, were those that are made in camera. The camera operator would stop cranking at the end of a shot, move his camera and begin cranking when he wanted to film again. Instead of  moving location, he could of also put something in front of the camera as if something "magically appeared" This type of edit allowed for early special effects and was discovered by a man called. George Melies. 

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George, who was a magician, was at the Lumiere brothers screening in the grand cafe. He tried to buy a cinematograph for 10,00 francs from the Lumieres. Although they viewed Melies as a threat so the offer was denied. Instead of buying the french device, Melies bought an english device called the, Animatograph. He then modified the device using his knowledge of mechanics and reversed the devices process to make his own camera; and it only cost 1,000 francs. A couple of weeks after the screening, Melies had turned himself into a filmmaker and showcased his films during his magic act. 

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In 1896, whilst out filming the film in his camera jammed after shooting a bus coming out a of tunnel. After sorting the jam, he began to crank his camera again, although the bus had gone and a hearse replaced the bus. After the shoot, he developed the film and witnessed that the bus had turned into the hearse as if it was a special effect. Melies had also did this to turn men into women, on screen. This technique got given the name of a "jump cut" which Melies started to use in his work. It seem that his favorite time to use this was for appearing and disappearing people. I.E dropping a smoke bomb and poof, your gone. Here is an example of this being used in his film, "The Temptation of St Anthony"

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Melies also founded other techniques, including: fade in and out, overlapping dissolves and stop motion photography. This moved the cinema industry on from having 40 second single shots, into an overall story being told through. Although his films were shot at the same angle and appeared more as a stage show, in turns out that after all his films he never moved the camera once. In one of Melies famous movies, " A trip to the Moon" a series of pulleys and mechanics were made to make a rocket go into the eye of the moon. If he decided to move the camera instead; it could've saved a lot of time and ease.

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Another prime example of a film being edited in camera, was " Life of an American Fireman" directed and produced by Edwin S Porter. Which shows lots of overlaps in time because there was no idea of the language of cinema as it was still being created at the time. 

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Because there was no idea of time, lots of the same actions are repeat. For instance in one shot we see the fireman go down a pole, but in the next we witness them doing it again but from the outside. There was no cohesion or continuity and it made the film unrealistic. For more information on Edwin S Porter and continuity skip to the "Conventions of editing" section.

By hand

In order to edit in the early days you would put film into a light, and then mark the area you wanted to cut. You would then get your scissors and physically cut the film to create a clip. (A clip is a piece of footage) The clips would then be put in order and attached with tape. Then the clips would then be rested in metal bins . This explains why clips are stored in .bins, instead of folders ,in editing software and computers. This method would needed to be done on every spool of film used for the movie, not only was it really hard to judge were to cut; it was really hard to cut and keep the spool from going all over the place. This made editing an art at the time; as only certain people could edit correctly and effectively.  Surely there must be an easier way to edit?

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The Moviola

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A couple of years after using the tedious, cutting by hand method a chap called Iwan Serrurier created a new solution.  In 1924, Iwan created a device that would help massively in the editing process. This would work by placing the spools/reels of 35mm film into the 3 film reels located at the top of the device. Using the projector you could view your footage as a light was underneath the film, you would pull the film to move, move the frames along in the footage.

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 You could then find the area the wanted from the film and mark it using a stamp like mechanism. This makes a little indent in the clip where you can then mark with a pen. Also located on the side was a crank (or foot pedal)  so you could review your footage with reeling forward playing the clip  and vice versa. After you have marked the clip you would pull the footage out so it is easy to move and would place the footage onto a splicer which had  4 prongs. A lever could then be pulled which would bring down a razor style blade which would cut the clip. You could then put the two clips over the 4 prongs and fx the new edit with some tape. This was very similar to cutting by hand, but by having a machine hold/store the film whilst you could mark where to cut, meant it was easier to operate. Especially when you could see your footage without having to hold it up into the light.

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Steenbeck 

Steenbeck, is another brand that has become known for its film editing machines, they were founded in the early 1930's although the machines were not released until years later,1953 to be exact.Instead of  producing vertical machines, Steenbeck produced a horizontal flat bed editing device. This became the popular choice to edit on in the 1970s and replaced the use of the Moviola . Moviola's are still used to this day in Hollywood and are kept in one of the original  cutting room floors. Steenbeck flat beds could used both 35mm and 16mm film.

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You'd start the editing process by placing your spool of film onto one of the plates. You'd then turn the device on, at the switch. Then place your film through a series of editing rollers which were often made out of nylon; which was that soft it didn't damage the original film. 

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When passing through the rollers, the image would be projected through a series of mirrors onto a screen. The device could also pause, and control the footage (I.E whether to fast forward or rewind). After finding it on the screen, the editor would then remove the tape and find that frame in the film.Once the editor had found the clip he wanted, he would mark onto the film with a grease pencil you you. Then you  would splice the footage back together with tape. Which is very similar to the final process when using a Moviola. There was various variations over the years on the Steenbeck, some that start off very basic, until those that started to use monitors to display the footage.

Here is some footage of a woman cutting on a Steenbeck device.

Films such as "American Graffiti" and "The Rain People" were edited on the Steenbeck.

 This would take forever, but was the best editor around for a long time. This was however, came to an end with the introduction of NLE/ Digital film editors. There was no longer a need to spend hours going through clips, marking them with a pencil, cutting them physically and sticking them back together. Within seconds you could do all of this with a mouse. Although the company still produces the flat bed editors today. 

The Path To The Digital Age

Although the real development towards the digital age of editing came from the broadcast of television. The first ever commercial broadcast  (programme aimed to make money)  aired in American in the late 40's . early 50,s. And by 1954  TV was in great demand,  in fact TV was using more raw film stock in their kinescopes than all the films produced in Hollywood at the time. It was a ground breaking time as everyday people could watch TV shows and news in their houses. Shows were cut live using a multi camera setup, which is controlled by a master control board; a set up that is carried forward today.

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This all had to be done live as it was impossible to film a tv signal at the time. The only way to edit was to delay the broadcast. A key example would be delaying the broadcast for a different time zone in the country, I.E in the USA you might "record" the TV broadcast in California but hold it back until later on for New York which are 3 hours apart.

This process was used with a kinescope, which in short was a video camera that focused on a monitor. The basic idea was to film the monitor as the show was being broadcast, which is a simple idea, Although it produced images that were off centre and position and created an unwanted effect called "ghosting", which produces motion blur.

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Here is an example of a TV show, Ernie Kovacs "Silent Show" which was recorded on a kinescope.

From the clip we can already see that the quality isn't great. The ratio of the clip is also very square shaped, as it would be the size of the TV/Monitor it recorded off.. It was also really expensive to produce this method, so a cheaper format was needed.

The Introduction of Tape

The tape used was magnetic, which had been used in the past to record audio. It only recorded audio as it was an immense struggle to get an video image onto the magnetic tape. In 1951, the Bing Crosby Production company were the first people to get an image onto the tape. However, the image quality was hideous. 

5 years later, Ampex (another production company) brought out the publicly available  tape recorder the 2 Inch Quadruplex video tape. Which would now make tape the standard  for TV for the time being. 

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The image above is from the West Coast delayed broadcast which was released on 30/11/1956 by TV company CBS.

It was possible to edit the first versions of the Quad tapes and followed a similar trend to cutting film, although it was even harder to do. Before you could view the tape is needed to be developed, which used fine iron filings dipped in a deadly solution of  Carbon tetrachloride. Which is a see through liquid that is toxic , carcinogenic and a pollutant. This made the bands on tape visible under a microscope. You could then line the tape up with a splicer to be cut, although the audio and video would be out of sync. To fix this you would cut the video first with some of the audio, then copy it back into place. This was very hard to do as magnetic tape cannot hold still frames 

Here is an example of someone who is editing magnetic tape together, who explains the process in more detail. 

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This guide focuses on editing after the development of the tape/audio but still follows the process of how you would splice footage together using a magnetic tape editor.

TV company, NBC got round the problem of matching the audio to video by going back to the kinescope method. To edit a show NBC would use prints containing cues in the audio which could then be matched back with the video in the editing process. This became known as the Editors Sync Guide or "ESG". Which is the very similar to a process used in digital editing, offline editing. Which uses lower file quality (the copy of the raw footage)  in the edit, so when you come to  prepare to export/render the footage it is assembled back to the high quality based on the edit. The modern offline editing is done in the non linear editing software and makes the process a lot quicker than methods such as tape to tape. 

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This diagram explains that instead of taking in the huge files like an online edit, offline reduces the file size and creates references which will be fixed later on. So after the edit in an offline editor it will bring the file size back to its high quality and finalize the effects with the references.

Linear  Editing

After video another editing technique was being developed. The linear edit. It was discovered that if you used a video deck containing the source of the footage, you could move a cut to another deck, known as the master deck. This would then start to build up a series of cuts in a linear fashion, hence the name. But because it was on a deck you couldn't undo a take a piece out. The edit must be decided before had as once you start the last shot cannot be changed without starting again.   

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The image above, gives a visual representation of the last paragraph.

Before the linear phase of editing truly got underway, a few founding machines were needed first. The first one was the Editec by Ampex released in 1963, this was another tape recorder that used electronic components that could control in and out points created by the spikes in tones of audio.  

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Shortly after this came another useful advancement in linear editing, helical scan systems which were devices that had tape wrapped around a circular drum in a helix fashion. This added more bandwidth (number of bytes per second) so you could pause the tape and see what's in each frame. 

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Then in 1967 the SMPTE timecode came along. Which was introduced by the US, Society of Motion Pictures of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. This feature meant you could find any frame within your footage. Each frame within the footage was given a location. Which was broken up into 4 sections. 

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This made editing a lot easier as you could find a place you wanted to cut exactly on the spot, without checking through every single frame and remembering which frame you needed to cut at. This feature is also another we carry forward into modern editing. At the time, you had to follow the strict codes of linear editing otherwise your final product would be rubbish. But because you had to follow such strict rules, editors lost their creative flair.

You would have to manage large EDL's, which are edit decision lists. Which had the information on the in and out points of clips you were taking from footage. Again any changes made would mean starting at the beginning again so you needed to be really careful were to place clips. This meant there was no such thing as a rough cut, as the cut you made would be permanent. It is argued in modern day that linear editors are better editors as they had to deal with this process and think before they put clips together. This was the only way to edit video tapes. To edit creatively you needed to go back to the old process of film.

Non Linear Editing

Alongside linear editing was non linear editing, which is the complete opposite. In non linear editing systems you can control the order of the clips ; if you wanted to change a clip or modify the sequence of clips, you could easily do so using the copy and paste features within the NLE software/machine. NLE allowed editors to start using their creativity again alongside making the editing process a lot easier and more effective. 

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As you didn't need to copy footage from tape to tape. All you needed was to put the footage onto a computer, and upload the footage into a NLE software/machine. Once you were, you could drop and drag clips into a sequence whilst maintaining the original footage. This meant there was no "generation loss" (Losing quality each time footage is copied) . Also, because you could manipulate and change the footage as much as you like, NLE is non destructive. This type of editing was computer based and moved away from using machines such as the Moviolas, Steenbecks and video tape recorders.

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But as for any other development in editing, it took time to reach its full potential. As all NLE systems require good computer power and masses of data storage, to function effectively . The first ever NLE  device was a CMX Systems product released in 1971, the CMX 600. The device were commonly used to store 30 minutes of digital data at a time. The hard drives were the size of washing machines and had 2 built in monitors. The right hand side monitor would play a preview,  so the editor could make cuts and editing choices; whilst the other monitor displayed the edited version of the footage.Due to its limitations the device was best suited for offline editing. They cost around $250,00 which is now worth over a million today. Here is an advertisement for the release of the product.

Throughout the 80's there were a series of NLE being produced, but the real wait was for the power of computers to catch up. One of the experimental products during the time was the EditDroid created a spin off company by George Lucas, Droid Works. It used a series of multiple laser discs containing the same raw footage, although this didn't work out and resulted in the company closing. 

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In 1988 Editing Machines Corp,  introduced the EMC2. Which was a PC based NLE that used optical  disks for storage and playing back footage. The EMC2 wasn't as groundbreaking as other devices, but started to pave the way for other PC based NLE's. Here is a 9 minute clip going into the full detail of the EMC2.

Avid

After years of build up , we start to look at the technology that paved the way for current means of digital editing. Which has only just took shape in the last 5-7 years.

A year later, Avid made the Avid/1 publicly available. The Avid/ 1 was based around an Apple Macintosh II computer, although the hardware and software were original to Avid. Avid went on to become the standard for hollywood films and to this still produce software used in television and film. Although the storage on the Avid/1 wasn't the best and only adverts and music videos could be produced on them. It wasn't until the future of Avid that they really got going. With one of the most popular softwares amongst the 3 commonly used: Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. All of which still compete to this day. 

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People often go for Avid Media Composer as there editing software choice, as they either grew up using it or because of its layout and ease of use. For a full list of reasons check out the link. The video below, is the demo for the Avid/1 which shows its ease of use and resemblance to editing software today. As the Avid/1 began to make use of the timeline, edit preview, video preview and other features covered in this guide.

By the end of the 1980's/ early 1990's Avids products began to replace all the old fashioned tools such as the Moviola and flat bed editors. As they allowed the editors to create films with greater ease. In 1993, Avid produced an editing machine that had 7 terabytes of storage, which could cope with editing a feature length film. The first feature film ever to be edited on an Avid was "Let's Kill All the Lawyers" directed by Ron Senkowski. Also, the first ever studio film to be edited at 24fps was "Lost in Yonkers" directed by Marth Coolidge which was also edited on an Avid. 

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 Although there had only been 3 films using the NLE method and in 1995 more and more people began switching to  Avid machines for editing. Which started to imply that celluloid films were no longer needed.  In 1996 , the editor of "The English Patient"  , Walter Murch, won an Academy Award, with the NLE system used being an Avid.

Avid is still used to this day, with  the majority of  feature films released with have been edited on an Avid Media Composer. Here is a table of a series of films that have used Avid software to edit/ compose music for the feature length film.

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The sheer amount of well known movies on the list highlights the great success in the development of editing. Not is it a massive difference from the first films ever produced, the software came about after hundreds of years full of pioneers and designers working together. The current stage in editing is NLE, but for all we know another style of editing could still be developed in the future. 

Since the creation of the Avid/1, Avid has gained rival companies. With software being produced by Adobe and Apple to compete with the Avid Franchise.  The well known softwares known today are Adobe Premiere Pro , Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer. This put pressure on Avid, so as storage became cheaper and cheaper, so did the Avid machines in order to stay ahead of the game.We have already looked at Avid, so lets take a look into Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut Pro

After the introduction of the Avid, a company called Macromedia wanted to enter the game of NLE.To do this they hired the lead designer ,Randy Ubilos,who worked on Adobe's NLE system - 

Adobe Premiere.

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They wanted to create a program called "Keygrip" which would take influence on the code used in Apple's software, quicktime. The product was well into its way of being developed when they realised they couldn't release the software. This was due to the fact they had license agreements with microsoft and true vision which would be broken if they brought out the program.

Instead of scrapping the program, Macromedia went out to look for a buyer and changed the name from key grip to final cut. They found one in a private demonstration , at a NAB exposition (National Association of Broadcasters) in 1998, it was bought by the one and only Steve Jobs the owner of Apple. The following year the program was released as Final Cut Pro . 

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After losing market shares in Microsoft, Apple offered the users Adobe Premiere a free copy of Final Cut express or a discount of $500 on Final Cut Pro, in order to try and sway them over the their programs.

Here is a video tutorial on basic editing skills, in Final Cut Pro. This highlights the ease of use for older film editors but for new filmmakers this will be totally new for them. The tutorial also covers the key features of Final Cut Pro in a nutshell.

In 2001, the studio motion picture " The Rules of Attraction" was edited on Final Cut Pro 3 and proved that off the shelf software is capable of editing feature films.

Here is part of a list, containing all the films were  Final Cut Pro was used.

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Even though this section wasn't as big as Avid, it still covers the same areas. As most NLE software today all follows a similar trend. According to a 2007 SCRI study 49% of the professional editing market in the USA uses Final Cut Pro.

Premiere Pro

Up until August the 21st 2003, Premiere Pro was know as Adobe Premiere and had 7 versions before changing to the new title. During those 7 titles the platforms it was on changed randomly going from Mac to Windows up until Adobe Premiere 5.0. The first versions of the programme were designed by Randy Ubillos, who left the company after version 2 to create keygrip, which later turned into Final Cut Pro.

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Below is a video, showing how easy it is to do a basic edit in Premiere Pro. This is also very similar to the other two programs, with the only difference being the layout and some of the features:

The uniqueness to Adobe Premiere Pro is that there is integration between other adobe programs.  Photoshop files can be opened from pro and when updated and saved, will update the file in Pro. You can also import compositions from After Effects into Premiere Pro and vice versa whilst maintaining file quality. Last of all, you can also send sound effects and ambience sound over to Adobe Audition to be mixed and designed. This can then be saved as a track and sent back into Pro to use.  In fact most of the C6 collection has some sort of interaction with Premiere Pro.

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Premiere Pro hasn't been used as much for editing feature films compared to the other two competitors. Here is a list of film edited in Premiere Pro:

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Lets take a look at the trailer for one of the films edited, Gone Girl. Which was a 2014 thriller directed by David Fincher and starred Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

Personally, I prefer to use Premiere Pro  as I find it easy to use and is what I am comfortable with. Although, once you learn to edit on one type of software you can apply the same skills to everything else. But which software is the best?

Premiere Pro V Avid Media Composer V Final Cut Pro
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All of software has there only strengths which we have look at individually. The big 3 A's in edit Adobe, Apple and Avid are the best choice of editing software and have been since they were developed. If your on a budget then,: Final Cut Pro X is for you as its a one off payment costing $299.99,; then you have Avid Media Composer for $999 and coming up as the most expensive, is Adobe Premiere Pro which is part of a collection for $1899 or a subscription per month of $49.99.

Apart from budget, its your own choice as all of them can do a basic edit very well. It all depends on how you use the software and how you like to edit. There are loads of views on what the best software is, when in fact there all as good as each other; otherwise they still wouldn't exist. To sum up, I will use this image comparing Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro:

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The only key underlinings is that Final Cut Pro is only available for Macs and isn't good for plug ins. Whilst Premiere Pro has bug issues and crashes and is expensive to purchase. Although neither of the red/bad areas are in each others green zones so they can't one up each other on that front. The rest is unique to the software, so if you are comfortable using Premiere Pro stick with it as all 3 programs can complete similar tasks.

Although these programs didn't really shine until 5-7 years ago. This was because of the great development in computer technology. Computers were becoming faster and storage was increasing, not only did it mean it was cheaper for the big industries, everyday people could buy a computer for editing. Instead of paying $250,00 for a basic machine that wasn't that efficient at editing, you can now buy computer for $4,000 solely for editing. Which comes with 2 screens so you can easily work on different tasks and immense processing power, so you can work with larger files. There is no longer one set company producing the machines, as all computer production companies will produce a PC that is capable of editing.

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In this part of the guide we've travelled back in time to an era without cinema, and journeyed from the creation of cinema, to the development of editing. Who knows what's in store for the future of editing, all it will take is another great advancement in technology.

For a video guide for the following above, check out this YouTube video: