The history of editing

The history of film editing goes back to the 1890's where the Lumiere brothers made the first film in history. They held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895. Their first public screening of films at which admission was charged was held on December 28, 1895, at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. Their presentation featured 10 short films which all ran approximately 50 seconds. The brothers had invented their own device combining camera with printer and projector and called it the Cinématographe which was the start of all their films.

After the Lumiere brothers first films, Edwin Porter made The Great Train Robbery which was released in 1903 and was very popular at the time, with a total running time 12 minutes. It used a total of ten different indoor and outdoor locations and was groundbreaking for the use of "cross-cutting" in editing to show simultaneous action in different places. It was the first film to do this and editing techniques went from there.

Years later, film director DW Griffith made the film The Birth of Nation, which ran 190 minutes and was the first film to use narrative and really use editing techniques to tell a story. It was the first proper use of the close up angle which is one of the most powerful elements of a film even now. He was also the first person to use the "flashback" in film editing, one of the earliest examples is a single shot of a mother rocking a cradle, repeated many times representing the passing of generations, in his film Intolerance, released in 1916. From then on flashbacks have been used many times in films to show a past event and develop a story.

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most well known film makers and one of the most successful in terms of his style and the techniques he used. He is best known for his use of editing in films to create suspense particularly in horror and thriller films. An example of this is one of the most famous scenes in horror films, the shower scene in the movie Psycho which was highly influential for future films and really made people realise how creative Hitchcock was.

Sergei Eisenstein was another one of the most famous/successful film directors, famous for films such as Strike, October: Ten Days that Shook the World and the Ivan the Terrible trilogy. He was most well known for his use of the montage technique in his film, he used a new form of editing in which clips would not be presented in chronological order but in the order that would have the most impact on the audience.
Another one of the most influential film makers is Jean-Luc Godard who has made a lot of French films over a very long career. He is largely regarded as the greatest French film maker of all time. Several of his films express his political views and he often expresses his knowledge of film using references to earlier films.
George Lucas is another one of the best film makers, best known for the Star Wars films, a six film science fiction saga. He also worked on the Indiana Jones trilogy. He  is one of the American film industry's most financially successful directors/producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion as of 2011.
Quentin Tarantino is another film maker who has been massively successful and influential in his style. His most successful is Pulp Fiction which is well known for it's non linear storyline, different stories happening simultaneously which we eventually see from the point of view of the characters involved in each story over the course the film. He has also made other films such as Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds and more.