The Journey to Modern Non-Linear Editing (Part 1)

Trace the history of modern day film editing - starting with electronic engineers developing solutions for capturing and editing television through to the first computerized editing systems.

If you have any further questions be sure to check out our questions page on Filmmaker IQ:

[KarlBunker]

I got so caught up by that scene from The English Patient that I was zoned out for the next few sentences of John Hess's lecture when he came back. A nice demonstration of the power of editing.

[videolabguy]

I was lead engineering technician on the assembly line of the Sony BVE-3000 electronic editor in Palo Alto California, 1984. Three one inch type C VTRs (at my work station), built in audio and video switcher SEGs it was a full college education worth of knowledge for me. It was not even the best loved controller of the Sony series. But, it means a lot to me. I collect old video gear today and I have one of these editors in my collection. Long past its due date, all we can do is look at the silent carcass with love and longing. I'm good friends with the founder of Avid and know or met many of the big names in the industry, especially the VTR design team at Ampex.

[MrTim]

I was fortunate enough to have started working in television when I was 16, in 1980. My father started 20 years before me and spoke about the major pain of developing and cutting video tape. This was the 1st time I ever saw an image of the process. Thanks, even if I'm 5 years too late.

I've edited on all these devices and more. This brought back so many memories.

[VoiceoverIsland]

Congratulations on an outstanding presentation. I spent the years from 1977 to '07 as a commercial producer in New York. You've neatly compressed the evolution of video editing that I lived through in those 30 years. The first TV spots I made were on 2" quad; the last used mini DV for source material. I appreciate that you gave credit to Bing Crosby. He may or may not have been a good dad, but he is the father of both audio and video tape, through his funding of Ampex research.

[GmanMF]

This video should be watched by everyone who is interested in/affiliated with creating film, vlogs, docu's, tv-shows, etc...

[miltoncallan]

Don't forget Newtek's VIDEO TOASTER. Loved that machine!

[FilmmakerIQ]

That was one of the nicest comments I have ever read. Thank you!

[gaijin]

Great stuff from you guys!  I'm a film professor and I use your videos as educational resources to supplement my lectures.  Great work and thank you for the smart, informative, and entertaining videos.

[MrRKWRIGHT]

Interesting, informative, compelling, with outstanding production value... Every video on this channel.

[berendharmsen]

Excellent, excellent. Casually clicked the link and was instantly hooked. On to part two.

[rty]

I actually worked on the very early quad machines doing physical editing. I have worked on every machine Ampex made. And WABD was a network is the longest on-air broadcast network in the world. It is still on the air as the Fox network now. I must point out, the electronic editing on quad machines had two modes of editing: assembly and insert. if you were building a show in a "linear" fashion, you would choose assembly mode, if you were modifying a show, you used insert mode. the difference was thay in assembly mode, the record machine layed down a new control track, where in insert mode, the control track was preserved. also in assembly there was not really a defined "out" point as it didn't matter because the next segment was going to write over the last bit of previous segment. Also the Editec system invented by Ampex, never had a microprocessor. Edited was merely a tone on the question track that signaled the in/out point of the edits. After editec came a timecode editor that used thumbwheels to set in/out points on Ampex equipment. Ampex was king of broadcast video tape. In fact the word "video tape" was copywrited by Ampex. RCA had to call it "television tape"
also I must comment on the CMX 600system (which I worked on) it was the first system to use a light pen interface, I can only store 20 min of b&w images onto a sea of 300mb disk drives. the result was an edl on an 8" floppy to be used in an online CMX online edit system, where the actual edits took place. you could NEVER use the video output on the CMX 600 system, only output was an EDL.
One of the companies I worked for obtained to source code for the online CMX editor and Re wrote it to use up to 26 video/audio sources (even film projectors) that used timecode.
to standing a room with over 20 2" video tape machines, either playing back or locating thier cue points was a thing of beauty. if one machine could not reach its que point in time, the sysyem would stop the record and first input machine, wait for the second input machine to reach its cue point, then it would rewind the first input machine and the record machine to do an automatic "match cut", then do the edit it was supposed to do.
At the time, I was the youngest ever to be nominated for an Emmy for editing. I remember when the world switched to tape from live. Sad moment.

[nahuelma]

It's really nice to see you speak as passionately about this as you do

[MrIllusionEyes]

I used windows movie maker to edit on for the longest time but moved on to premiere pro in late 2014. Both were and are a fantastic learning experience. I don't care if I wasn't around when the old fashioned editing machines were being used, I'll always have a deep appreciation for them. The old b&w films we watch today to learn from were most likely cut on those machines.

[zhatdude]

This is an absolutely amazing video! It was well-made with great visuals, and kept my attention the whole time.

[FilmmakerIQ]

Check out the link in the video description - it links to the course we have on the site and the written page is essentially the script that I'm reading off:

[TEACHYOUTEEWHY]

I've learned a lot today. I'm most definitely gonna be sure to watch this video again.

[SkuldChan]

I first started editing in the early 90s - all linear, but one thing that helped was video LAN (rs422) and computer control of the switcher and the VTR. Reassembling the entire production for changes was as easy as popping all the tapes in and hitting go.

[JarrodTetreault]

I just LOVE the way you present the information. I don't know exactly how to say it, but it's like I start watching any of your clips, and I can not NOT watch. As if it's something I didn't know that I needed to know it, but once I start watching it, I realize that it will make me smarter.... not only that, but I also really enjoy learning from you. I once heard a quote about an author, when somebody said "You're like eating vegetables, and having it taste like dessert"... you're like that :)

[davidcampbell]

in all seriousness, this video should be playing in the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit Michigan...and if they don't have a film area (which if remember correctly, they do have some sort), then this should be the FIRST!

[IWTBFOY]

I love your videos because it provide new information and not the 3 point lighting guide like most others youtube channel.