My Editing Journey

I’ve been editing both picture and audio for motion pictures for decades. I have no idea how many films I’ve edited over the years. I also have no idea how many different editing systems I have used.

Currently in my computer I have two documentary features and one documentary short that I’m editing picture on and will do all of the sound design and editing when picture is finally locked. I have three different picture editing programs, Avid, Premiere Pro, and DaVinci Resolve, I use as well as Pro Tools and Fairlight for Audio.

I’m still amazed at how much footage I have stored on my eight hard drives that I have immediate access to.

I remember some of the early projects and systems I learned on.

My earliest adventures in editing Super 8 had been with a little plastic splicer, and a cheap plastic viewer with a dull bulb where I could hardly make out the action unfolding. It had flimsy little rewinds on each side. If you tried to actually view your edits on it you had no idea if they worked because there was no way to could judge what speed the film was going through at.

I do remember editing one 16 mm project on two rewinds and a metal viewer that was better than the Super 8 versions, but not by much. I had to make all of my cuts with a razor blade on a metal splicing block and then put them together with these little editing tapes you bought separately. You’d make your cuts with the razor blade, then line up the two pieces of film in the splicing block and line the tape over the cut band aid style, pulling each side of the backing off the tape and laying it across. And you had to do it on both sides otherwise it wouldn’t go through a projector.

My very first real editing exercise was in a class at USC, Editing For Non-Majors. I took some film classes for non-majors as I was waiting to hear if I had been accepted into the film program.

And what was this editing assignment?

Editing a scene from the television show, Gunsmoke. The producers of Gunsmoke must have made this scene available and allowed people to use it for teaching. I know so many people who cut it at some point. Looking at the sequence now, it’s all pretty basic but at the time I was editing a scene from A Real TV Show!

A Very early Upright Moviola

The most amazing part of this first editing assignment? I cut it on an upright Moviola.

A real, professional 16mm Moviola with both picture and sound heads. This was the real deal. The instructor gave us a brief lesson on the equipment and told us since we were also editing the audio we had to make sure everything stayed in sync. It all seemed so hard at the time. There were so many ways to fuck things up and have your little scene go out of sync.

And what happened if you trimmed a few frames off and then realized you made the wrong cut? You would have to find the tiny two frame pieces and try to tape them back together.

What I didn’t know at the time but quickly found out was, not only was an upright Moviola a professional editing machine, it would also rip the hell out of your work print if you made a bad splice. Or a messy splice. Or sometimes even a good splice if the gate wasn’t adjusted properly. These machines lived to rip up your film.

At USC there was one big room where all of the Moviolas lived. There were I believe twelve editing tables and machines set up. There was a giant sign up sheet on the wall for each set up and you signed up for four hour blocks. The students who were in the film program had priority on the editing room so you could get bumped if someone else wanted your machine.

It was frustrating at first. These other students were doing what I wanted to do, they were real film students!

If you were having a problem and needed help they would help you, but not being in the program (yet) it was scary to ask for help. You didn’t want to feel stupid and the real film students all seemed so confident. At the time, just stepping into the editing room was intimidating.

Once I was accepted into the program I never had a problem helping others (non-majors) trying to deal with the Moviolas as I remembered how nervous I was to ask.

Here are a couple of examples of the Gunsmoke scene I found on YouTube, and no these aren’t scenes I cut, I have no idea what happened to my version…

Gunsmoke Exercise #1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-0Ewe4lfBM

Gunsmoke Exercise #2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbAvGJUsIVI

In addition to eating your film the Moviolas were incredibly noisy when they ran. The single speaker used a tube amplifier. You had to turn on the amplifier and wait for it to warm up. Although you couldn’t use the speaker most of the time unless you were playing a cut sequence back for someone. There were too many other people working in the room so everyone had to use head phones when they edited. And those head phones ran through that same amplifier tube set up. More often than not, you would be hearing a ton of static in your head phones. This was not the most pleasant way to work, but you got used to it.

Side Note – One of the reasons so many editors who learned how to edit on Moviolas ended up with hearing issues is because of those old amplifiers. There were times you’d really have to crank up the volume/static to hear everything and make sure you were still in sync while editing. Over the years I cut a lot of picture and sound effects on those machines. Syncing up things like gun shots, explosions, car tires squealing and even foot steps. I believe part of my hearing loss and tinnitus has to do with those horrible old tube amplifiers, although loud rock and roll probably didn’t help either… What?

I fell in love with editing. I learned all the theories and how to edit shots/scenes for the most appropriate impact/pay off. I knew the “Seven Things That Attract The Eye”. I studied the Russians and their theories on montage, Hell I still have all of those books on my shelf today. Picture and sound editing were things I knew I had to learn and get really good at if I ever wanted to make my own films.

I love the solitary feeling of working in the editing room, solving problems and fixing mistakes made in production. In addition to studying editing, I studied different filmmakers to learn how they approached their films.

I remember reading that David Lean (director of, Lawrence Of Arabia, The Bridge On The River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, among others) had started as an editor and when he wanted to direct he told the studio head that there was no way he could direct himself into a corner that he couldn’t get out of as an editor. I loved that.

This was part of my education to become a filmmaker. Make no doubt about it, as much as I loved editing my goal was always to become a filmmaker.

Over the years I cut a lot of films in both 16mm and 35mm on upright Moviolas and yes, they always ripped the hell out of everything. Ten years into my editing career, I finally had enough money to purchase a used KEM flatbed editing machine. Mine was a six plate and it was really basic. But it was a think of beauty. I could run two audio tracks at the same time in sync with picture, and it rarely, if ever, ate film the way Moviolas did. And with two sets of heads I could bounce back and forth between 16mm and 35mm.

I really thought I had made it to the big leagues with my own KEM.

Then video editing arrived.

End of Part One – I’ll finish this next week.

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