5

Editing

From nearly the very beginning of motion pictures, the continuity with which the pictures were projected was not the same as the continuity with which they had been filmed.

This initial tampering with the continuity of filmed pictures was possibly the result of the need of removing damaged frames, but this tampering was also soon to be done on the narration. Little by little, yet quite rapidly, editing took on fundamental importance with regard to both constructing the story on film and with regard to the readying the original materials for printing.

Editing Stages

The process of editing a movie is comprised of two consecutive stages.

During the first of these two stages, the stage actually referred to as editing per se and which is done on a print of the filmed material, the materials are selected and the motion picture story is constructed. For sound films, this stage has been divided into two jobs, which are done at the same time in conjunction with one another that is picture editing and sound editing.

In the second stage, negative cutting and montage, all of the decisions made during the editing process are put onto negatives, readying them for printing.

As far as the sound is concerned, since optical cutting systems or magnetic media recording and editing systems were invented, it is during this stage that the sound negative is physically made.

In silent films, the process of readying the negative for printing did not include the final constructing of the "film story" which would later be done on the release prints.

Film Cutting & Splicing

Modifying the continuity with which motion pictures were originally filmed inevitably entails cutting the materials and piecing them back together (splicing). In fact, the main distinguishing physical feature of picture negatives lies in that each one of the shots of which they are comprised (with the exception of some effects which are done by overprinting) are spliced together.

Within this scope, the fact that one of the features of the plastic derivatives of cellulose is that of their not holding up well under the effects of industrial solvents such as acetone (2-propanone CH₃COCH₃) became a crucial factor in the development of filmmaking technology.

Up until the sixties, solvent-made splices were the only possible way of piecing together the segments into which the filmed material had been cut.

To have enough overlap space for making these splices, the two frames to be partially overlapped must be properly cut. Hence, if one of the frames is cut through the imaginary line connecting two sprocket holes, the other one must be cut at least to the edge of the next sprocket hole in line. This technique makes it necessary for one frame to be lost at each splice.

For many years, this splicing was done manually, and splicers progressively used to a greater extent served to ensure the aligning of the film and control frame cutting precision.

For editing work, tools such as metal splicing blocks were used, which made to possible to put material together and to take it apart without losing any material in the process.

In the sixties, pressure-sensitive tape first started being used on editing splices which did not stay in good condition very long, required overlapping frames and afforded the possibility of readily making and taking apart the splices.

When polyester film bases first began to be used, this plastic, which is highly resistant to the acids and alkalis employed as solvents, led to the development of a new way of splicing material, which was by using a controlled heat source (heat-sealing).

FILM MATERIALS

Filming

The original camera negative (OCN), that is, the material exactly as it was taken out of the camera. This material can include several either good or bad takes of each shot and, in any case, can contain segments (camera start-ups, identifying slates), which must be cut. When talking motion pictures first started being filmed, the clapper was added to the slate for purposes of better synchronization. Up until the time when magnetic film bases were developed, the sound recording was done on negative film.

On the edge of the negative is an edge number (footage), which is added, in latent image by the film stock manufacturer that will be copied on the prints to afford the possibility of identifying each frame during the editing process.

Developing Negatives & Printing

After developing, the original camera negative is printed as a picture check print to assess the quality achieved. This print will later be used as the work print. In some cases, following the instructions of the shooting log, the negative is immediately classified and cut and a picture check print in made solely of the good takes.

As of the time when the computer editing systems first came out and bar codes began to be used on the edges for key coding each frame, the negatives have been transferred over to videotape to process them for use in these systems. When sound was being recorded directly on the film, the materials of the original sound negatives shot were processed the same way as the picture that is, the sound negative filmed during shooting was developed and printed as a sound check print to be used in the editing process.

Readying Materials for Editing

The original recordings made on unpunched stock are printed on perforated magnetic stock of the same pitch as that used for the picture.

In the editing room, the magnetic sound and the sound check copy are cut. Each picture or sound take comprises a small-sized roll, which is marked with the numbering on the slate/clapper and with the first and last picture negative footage number. In the laboratory, the same work of cutting the negative and putting it into proper "as shot" order is done.

Editing

From the time when motion pictures first started being screened in an order other than that in which they had been filmed, the montage process has comprised the point in time when the continuity of the story to be told on film is put together. This is a job, which must be done over and over again until the desired result is achieved.

Using the selected picture takes and based on how long the final negative must be, the work print, on which the exact position of the effects (fade-ins, fade-outs and dissolves) and how and to what length they are to be done by the laboratory are also marked and incorporated into the negative.

Using the sound takes, which are processed in the same way as the picture takes, several types of materials, that is, the synchronized sound tracks, are conformed. Each track is comprised of a certain type of sound material (dialogs, music and effects) mounted on rolls of the same length as those of the work print, with which they are perfectly synchronized.

During this process, the new sound which must be recorded (effects) or which must be repeated (dubbing) are analysed and marked.

On each one of the synchronized tracks, the sounds which must be recorded separately yet reproduced at the same time are conformed on separate rolls, hence there may be several rolls for one same track for one single work print roll.

The techniques employed in the silent screen era differed appreciably.

During the silent screen era, in order to select the frames to be used, the film editors held them directly up to the light to look at them without seeing them in motion. The need of synchronizing with sound led to the widespread use of machines (editing tables, viewers), which screen the image at the actual speed synchronized with the sound tracks.

The fully conformed negative may not include the titles and credits (or may incorporate solely markings for purposes of positioning), nevertheless, up until the twenties, incorporated effects (fade-ins, fade-outs, dissolves and wipes) that had been done during the shooting process proper.

Roll Editing

The idea of a "roll", the common unit of measure in the motion picture industry, is not directly related to the length of the film but to the print-making requirements and to the well-known fact that the beginnings and ends of each one of the rolls are the parts of the film undergoing the greatest amount of wear and tear during screening. Despite the fact that the current situation has advanced far beyond the approaches which gave rise to this idea, custom dictates referring to the "roll" as measuring around 300 m of film in length.

Mixing

During the recording process, each one of the sound elements included on the synchronized tracks is tuned to the degree of loudness most suitable for listening purposes. After conforming, all of the synchronized tracks are mixed on one single element, the mix track. When this new track is being recorded. The loudness and inclusion of each sound element will be modified to suit the needs of the movie as a whole.

Apart from the above, the preparation of versions in other languages requires making another mix track including those sound elements, which must be included in all versions of the movie, in question. This international track, containing solely music and effects, is mixed with a new dialog track recorded in the other language in question.

Conforming

After the laboratory effects which are marked during the editing process have been filmed following the instructions included on the work print, the takes selected as good are cut in the precise length - to match the frame-- and are spliced together in continuity. The process of putting the picture together is almost finished at this point.

A & B Cutting

The small size of 16mm negatives lead to the splicing done using solvent being visible on the screen. To solve this problem, a system (sometimes employed in scope formats) was invented that divided each roll of the negative in half, dividing the consecutive shots into two strips (the odd-numbered ones on one half, and the even-numbered ones on the other) and inserting opaque film of an identical length to replace the shot mounted on the other strip.

For making prints, the positive stock is run through the machine twice, once with each negative.

Conforming Negatives in Split-Colour Systems

Conforming in systems for colour which, like Technicolor or Cinefotocolor, used to be filmed directly on two or three negative films, was identical to the system discussed above, but of course had to be done for each one of the split-system negatives.

Silent Film Negatives

Since the fact that motion pictures had developed into "talkies" afforded the possibility of making films several minutes long, the negatives were no longer being conformed with the final continuity, this being a continuity which was set aside for the release prints alone.

Silent film negatives were conformed following the instructions of the work print, yet grouping the materials into sections according to their printing requirements. The density and contrast of each take and the colour in which the print was to be made or toned determined the continuity with which the negatives would be conformed.

Photographic Properties & Length

The limited speed-related margins of the emulsions employed for both negatives as well as prints, combined with the limited range of adjustment of the laboratory systems and machinery employed made to necessary to print and/or process those shots or scenes which were not of compatible photographic properties in separate sections during the printing process. Apart from this, the loading possibilities of many printing, developing or drying equipment drastically limited the length of the rolls in which the negative could be printed. For example, up until 1927, most of the filmmaking laboratories in Spain could not take rolls over 60 meters in length.

Adding Colour to Prints

The intention of adding colour to the showing of films by means of colouring, toning or dying the print stock also made it necessary to modify the continuity of the negative, thus conforming the scenes which were to be of identical related-related features on the prints in continuity.

Adding Credits

The titles and the credits used to be filmed separately (often directly in print form by photographing "boards" drawn to look like negatives), and one frame or another of the pertinent text, or a piece of film without any emulsion on it on which the numbered order or the first words of the text or a mere mark (i.e. a "plus sign" stamped with a punch) would be inserted into the original negative to show the print conformer where it was supposed to go. Quite often, the title and credit "mattes", even those at the beginning and end of each part or reel, used to be marked with the numbering indicating the order for conforming prints.

Conforming Negatives & Constructing Prints

All of these limitations and needs boiled down to a system for conforming negatives in which the pictures were put in order based on two simultaneous, overlapping criteria which comprised the negative-conforming unit and the printing unit. Although this type of work was never standardized, as many different approaches as editors and laboratories being known, the above-mentioned units could be grouped into what are known as "Sections" and "Printing blocks".

Sections

Conforming used to begin with a process of selecting and ordering all of the shots, which were to be, printed under the exact same processing conditions using the same dyes or toners. The shots thus selected and ordered comprised the sections.

Each section was comprised of a few shots conformed in the proper continuity - the same continuity with which they would be printed - plus the frames or markings for the titles and credits which were to be inserted in between.

Printing Blocks

After the negative had been conformed into sections, these sections were then conformed into reels of the suitable length in keeping with the loading limitations of the laboratory machinery.

In this regard, one must not confuse these "rolls/blocks of shots" with the reels or parts into which the movie would be conformed on the release prints.

Each printing block could be comprised of several editing sections or, to the contrary, one single editing section longer than the acceptable length could be divided into several blocks.

The editing sections comprised within each block were numbered in keeping with the final edited order in which the release prints would be made. This numbering was written on framed, masked pieces of film or pieces not coated with emulsion spliced to the beginning or end of each section. The blocks could also be numbered, but often lacked their own numbering, although did however include some instructions regarding the colour in which they were to be printed.

The advancements made regarding the speed of the emulsions and the operating features and loading capacities of the laboratory equipment and, above all, the reproduction of the sound prints meeting their own individual continuity-related requirements, led to silent screen era editing systems becoming a thing of the past.

Sound Negatives

A sound negative is the material, which contains all of the sound elements selected and ready to be reproduced on the release prints of which a movie is to be comprised.

In the thirties and up into the forties, optical systems (with the exception of gramophone records) were the only ones which were actually being used. For films, sound had to be recorded, edited and reproduced photographically.

Throughout the first few years, the negative that was in the sound cameras during shooting was conformed directly on the final negative. If different equipment was used for filming (i.e. equipment differing in density in the studio and differing in area for shooting exteriors), the sound negative would also show these same differences. As of the time at which the scanning width for screening was standardized, this did not hinder the reproduction of sound, but rather the printing of exact copies.

Soundtrack Splicing

While the splices made in picture stock are located between two picture frames, the transparency of the film interferes with the splicing of sound tracks, and they are audible. To remedy this problem, a triangular-shaped perforation (a "silencer") is made on each splice and will be reproduced as an opaque triangle on the prints, the gently tapered sides of which will close and will re-open to allow the light to flow through the track uniformly and progressively, thus giving rise to much less noise than would be caused by a straight-edged splice.

On magnetic stock, pressure-sensitive tape is used and is placed solely on the side not coated with emulsion. As this type of splice made on one side alone is not extremely strong, the stock is clipped diagonally in order to spread the stress.

Third-Generation Negatives& Mixing

The need to enrich movie sound by mixing elements in one single moment of sound which is not possible to properly record simultaneously led to the invention of post-production sound systems. In these systems, the original recordings are first conformed separately and are then "recorded" on a new film base. Up until the fifties, this entire process was done on optical recordings, and the sound "work prints" which had been conformed during editing were fed through optical heads in sync, giving rise to a mixed signal which was re-recorded as a picture on negative stock.

This system did away with sound negative splicing (except those splices for correcting errors or those resulting from censuring) while also affording the highly important advantage of unifying the recording system with the reproduction photographic properties throughout the entire track. The use of magnetic systems and digital sound-editing systems has entailed no major change in the process of making sound negatives.

Synchronisation

The sound negative and the picture negative, conformed into rolls of the same length and incorporating the protection and control heads and tails along with the "start" markings which will guide the threading of the prints through the screening equipment undergo the final synchronization adjustment for ensuring that each negative is positioned in precisely the right place in the picture and sound gates of the printing machine. These printing process adjustments may vary according to the machine in which the printing is done.