From the course: The History of Film and Video Editing

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The pioneers: First days of film editing

The pioneers: First days of film editing

From the course: The History of Film and Video Editing

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The pioneers: First days of film editing

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- By the mid-1890s, audiences were gathering to watch movies. And, as we just learned, over the previous 70 years or so, there had been considerable advancements to make this possible. And once the magnificent possibilities of film projection in a public space became a reality, the era of film as public entertainment began throttling full steam ahead. But as early filmmakers began experimenting beyond the capture of everyday events, and into the telling of narrative stories, it became desirable to be able to structure those stories in meaningful ways. Enter editing. And at first, this was done very sparingly, and very simply with just scissors and glue. In 1898, Robert Paul made the one-minute short comedy, "Come Along, Do!", of which only 38 seconds survive today. This is generally considered to be the first edited film. Simply put, where one scene follows another. So we're just talking two shots here. It begins with a man and his wife sitting outside an art gallery, and then they…

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