Viewing - Text 1
Once it became necessary to cut the film stock, there arose a need to examine the continuity of the photograms to decide where to cut. During the so-called silent cinema period, this inspection was carried out in various ways: one placed the piece of film either in front of a light source and observed it, with or without a magnifying glass, or on a table equipped with a source of light. In each case, the task was to examine the film stock in order to identify where to cut, not to check whether an assemblage of tableaux was sound. In other words, the task was to look at a succession of fixed images, rather than to view a procession of moving images. These are two different actions which employed equally different equipment before editing took root as a moment which brought together cutting and joining and then viewing what had been cut and joined.
In fact for a long time editing was divided into multiple activities, dispersed across various phases of the work and scattered about a variety of places. For about the first fifteen years of kinematography shows, light tables were most often seen in only two places in film manufacturing plants: in the colouring and inspecting areas, with the final assembly of positive exhibition prints taking place in the latter area. In these two places female workers meticulously inspected images and their quality, either to colour them or to make precise joins and ensure that tableaux were in the proper order in positive prints.