Digital Editing - Text 1
Few technologies have had a more significant impact on the post-production process in filmmaking than the development of digital editing technology — the ability to edit films on computers — in the 1980s and the subsequent widespread adoption of these technologies in the 1990s and early 2000s. The earliest such system — the EditDroid — was developed by George Lucas following the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983.[1] Using an array of video laserdiscs, it facilitated non-linear, non-destructive editing: the ability to reference, play back, and edit any shot or sequence in any order without modifying the original media.
The first completely digital systems to see widespread usage for films became available in 1989, and directors, editors, and studios quickly realized the benefits that digital editing offered. Within a decade, the vast majority of films would be assembled using a non-linear, non-destructive editing software platform.[2]
Because these systems were non-destructive, films could be edited much faster than previously had been possible. Editors no longer needed to order new film prints if changes needed to be made to an already assembled scene or sequence because they were no longer cutting physical film, a process that often resulted in the irreversible destruction of individual frames when making edits. Edits went from being utterly permanent to entirely ephemeral; changes that would have been impossible while editing physical film could now be made freely and even viewed alongside each other with little difficulty. As a result, many of the limitations that the use of physical film stock imposed upon the editing process ceased to be concerns.
For composers and film scores, the adoption of digital editing systems has presented a unique set of problems. The ease with which a director can make changes to their film provides them with little incentive to preclude themselves from doing so. In the analog era, composers would rarely begin working on a film in earnest until it was “locked,” or considered to be in a near finished state where only minimal changes might be made. This is rarely the case in contemporary practice, as directors now routinely make changes to their films — often significant changes — right up until the film is finished. The result is that editing often continues long after composers have written and recorded their scores. Re-recording is typically impossible—due to both time and cost—and thus changes must be made to the already recorded music, typically by a music editor. While music editors have always been tasked with editing music that has already been recorded, digital technologies have dramatically increased the frequency with which they are asked to do so. As an example of these changes, consider two films, one made prior to the adoption of digital editing technology, and one made after: James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), and George Lucas’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).
The production for Aliens was notoriously troubled, as filming extended weeks beyond what had been scheduled, while the studio simultaneously refused to move the film’s release date. The film’s composer, James Horner, arrived in London a month-and-a-half prior to the already scheduled recording sessions, and found himself without a film to score.
