Important People in Film Editing History

EDWIN S  PORTER

He was the first to use techniques such as closeups and intercutting for narrative purposes. Porter was a projectionist, inventor and entrepreneur before starting work in 1900 for the Edison company, where he was swiftly promoted to head of film profuction. In 1901, he made multi-short films including “The Execution of Czolgosz”.
He’s best known for “The Great Train Robbery (1903) which is a sophisticated, 12-minute narrative split into separate scenes and uses camera movement and continuity editing to establish the story. His last contribution to film was to give an unknown actor and playright named David Wark Griffith his debut role in the 1907 production, Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest.

VERNA FIELDS

 

March 21, 1918 – November 30, 1982.

Known as Mother Cutter, Film Clip Example

Her film editing carer began in 1960, when Irving Lerner hired her to edit Studs Lonigan; they had worked together before on The Savage Eye. 1963, she worked on An Affair of the Skin, which was directed by Ben Maddow. Over the next 5 years, she edited many other independent films such as The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle.

Starting in mid 1960’s, Fields taught film editing in the University of Southern California. Her students included Matthew Robbins, Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, John Milius & George Lucas.

Fields left no written lectures from her USC years, but a transcript exists from a 1975 seminar hat she gave at the American Film Institute. She said that “On Jaws, each time I wanted to cut I didn’t, so that it would have an anticipatory feeling – and it worked”.

Fields also edited Steven Spielberg’s first major film, The Sugarland Express (1974) and became widely celebrated for her work as editor on Spielberg’s Jaws. The editing of Jaws  has ben intensely studied over 30 years.

D.W.GRIFFITH

 

January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948, Film Clip Example

In 1907, Griffith was still working as playwright went to New York and attempted to sell a script to Edwin Porte. The script was rejected but Griffith was offered an acting part in Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest.

Griffith was convinced that feature films were commercially viable, he also produced and directed the Biograph film Judith of Bethulia (1914), which was one of the earliest films to be produced in the USA.

Griffith took his stock company of actors and joined the Mutual Film Corporation because Biograph resisted his goals and his cost overran on the film. He built a studio with the Majestic Studio manager Harry Aitken, it was later renamed as the Fine Arts Studio.

Griffith used Close Up shots first and flashbacks as well as classical film editing. He also suggested the invisible cut which keeps action fluid and considered as an “invisible art”. Editor’s were kept a secret for years and were considered as hands of hire, not creative partners.

Griffith’s top editor was Jimmy Edward Smith. They were the only people who worked closely on the entire set, they were considered to be a married couple because of all the time they would spend together.