Evening star., 1952-01-27
By Alexander ]. Wedderburn
cvrator Of Photography
The Smishsonian Institution


cwafor Of Photography
The Smithsonian Institution
Much Of the success Of q movie
depends on the degree OF skill OF
the man. who edits the film. In
amateur flming it is usually the
man behind the camera who edits
or "cuts" the film after 1t is re-
turned from the professor. Un-
fortunately too few seem to un-
derstand the importance OF get
ting rid of bad scenes and tying
the remaining footage together In
orderly sequence.
It is our belief that the tilm has
never been made that could not
be improved by 1udicious editing.
No matter how hard you work
over matters Of exposure, story,
camera angle, change Of pace,
continuity, etc.. there will always
be room for Improvement through
use of the cutting shears, even
though you may only remove q
few frames from the entire filn.
Often, after a picture has been
cut and reasSembled, it will be-
come apparent that the story will
unfold in a more logical manner
with the transposition Of q scene
or two. Or the picture may be
improved by taking out one scene
or an entire sequence that has
lost its original Importance.
What is editing? Merely telling
O story on film in q logical Sc
quence by removing unnecessary
footage and transposing what is
left until it all fits together in a
free-fiowing and intelligible film
document. Any one. can edit film
who can shoot a story with his
movie c a m era. The equipment
needed for editing. which we will
discuss later, is not too expensive
and definitely should be part OF
the standard equipment for any
serious cinematographer.
All Films Need Editing
Many a beginner has the idea
that he can shoot the film in the
same sequance in his camera that
it will appear on the screen and
thus avoid the cutting room en-
tirely. In very simple films where
the action can be fully controlled,
this theory is partly valid but the
job Of getting rid Of the unusable
footage still remains. In theory.
this practice could be carried
out in almost all film making.
Let's see what would happen if
we tried to carry out this editing
in the camera to an ultimate de-
gree. We would soon find our
selves moving the. camera lights,
reflectors and other accessories
back and forth from one place
to another time after time and
then perhaps repeating the pro-
cedure. It would be much simpler
TO shoot all the scenes that are
to take place In one spot or gen.
eral area at one time and then
later on cut the film apart and
splice it so that each scene comes
in its correct sequence.
To carry this thought further,
the photographer should prepare
q script Simple though 1t may
be- so that it can be checked
during the filming to insure a
minimum of moving equipment
from one place to- another. The
script need only be list OF the
scenes needed for the film and
the locale Of each. Each scene
should be allotted number and
this number should appear on a
slate that is to be photographed
on a few frames Of the film pre-
ceeding the scene for easy iden-
tification during the editing later
on.
Keep Only the Best.
Those cinematographers who
take pride in their work get rid
of all but flrst-rate scenes. Mis-
takes are easy to make during the
filming of o picture because the
operators attention Is on the ac-
ton and these mistakes result in
material that must be ruthlessiy
pruned from the finished film even
though several retakes have to be
made. There will be edge logged