Technique of Film Editing, Reissue of 2nd Edition, 2nd Edition

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In a digital world where fi lm editing is increasingly seen as the skillful manipulation of software, there is an

urgent need for a universal set of aesthetic standards. Each year the two software giants Apple (Final Cut Pro)

and Avid, like the car makers, compete to bring out a more elaborate version of their latest editing system

designed to include the maximum number of bells and whistles to permit a more advanced modifi cation of

CGIs (computer generated images). The craft of editing that was passed on from generation to generation

through a process of apprenticeship is rapidly becoming lost. It is not surprising that many fi lms schools have

now dropped editing completely from their curriculum in favor of teaching the complexities of the latest

operating systems which increasingly resemble battleships.

Ironically in the same year that Avid won the Academy Award for the greatest contribution to the technology

of fi lm, Michael Kahn won the Best Editing Oscar for “ Saving Private Ryan ” a fi lm that was entirely edited

on a Movieola. This goes to prove that it is not the fastest racing car that wins the race but the racecar driver.

What then is the purpose of re-publishing “ The Technique of Film Editing ” ? This book covers the history of

editing and the discoveries made in silent fi lms like Sergei Eisenstein’s “ Battleship Potemkin ” (1925) through

to the use of the jump cut in Jean-Luc Godard’s “ Breathless ” in 1960. It is simply that this period represents

the golden age of editing and Karl Reisz’s book may be considered a treasury of all the knowledge gained

during this epoch. It could be that the most important discovery in fi lm editing was not computer editing

systems after all but the simple Italian tape splicer. This small piece of equipment revolutionized fi lm editing

in the late 1950s by giving editors the freedom to make picture changes with out having to lose two frames

every time they made a cut. I consider this to be the most valuable tool ever invented for editors.

In 1960 after reading this book as a fi lm student I was inspired to enter the profession of fi lm editor. Many

years later from 1994 – 2006 I taught a course in Editing at Ryerson University in Toronto fi rst on Steenbecks

and continuing on the early versions of Final Cut Pro. My course was based on my own experience as an

editor and what I had learned from “ The Technique of Film Editing ” . In my classes over two thousand stu-

dents probably had their fi rst exposure to the power of editing by watching the opening scene of David

Lean’s “ Great Expectations ” , described shot by shot in this book.

As a young editor I was inspired by the experiments of Pudovkin, Eisenstein, and Kuleshov but I also adored

horror movies, particularly the wide screen, Cinemascope adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories directed by

Roger Corman, who at that time held the record for the fastest ever fi lm production, “ The Little Shop Of

Horrors ” , made in three days. By a circuitous route I ended up as the editor responsible for dialogue scenes

on an epic World War One fl ying picture entitled “ Von Richthofen and Brown ” directed by Roger Corman,

F o r e w o r d