The History of Editing

So the history of editing is something that isn't as old as motion pictures. That's because back when motion pictures were invented, most films were one take, just footage. Small little side show acts, nickelodeons, one shot gimmicky stuff. There was no narrative.

To preface, a lot of these rehash the same details. I Still suggest watching all of them because they all have their own unique elements and bits of different information to learn. Specifically, their take on what defines an edit.

These first two videos are especially interesting (I prefer the first one I've linked, "Crash Course: Know Your Film Editing History")

I have a small little issue with this video, a very minor disagreement (which is a little subjective on my end). I know they're specifically talking about continuity editing (taking different but similar shots, ie. a Two shot and cutting it with a medium shot and a close up of the characters) at this point, but I still feel the need to interject. At about the 2:46 mark, Tyler Danna, the guy on the left says,

"There was no understanding that you could actually create the story through the editing. And that's what editing is, people overlook that. They think it's 'Ohh, you get someone to cut it together.' It's not a cutting thing, it's creating a story."

No, I think it absolutely is a cutting thing. Danna uses Georges Méliès' A Trip To The Moon as an example of how old films didn't employ continuity editing because everything was a master shot, everything was filmed from head to toe. And while that is true A Trip To The Moon is chock full of "editing". The substitution splic