EditDroid - System used for editing on Young Indy

T.E.Lawrence

New member
Finally a documentary about EditDroid - first revolutionary non-linear editing system (that was used on Young Indy). System was later sold to Avid:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/85hk71PEFHQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dZNffHkQOdA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I also located very interesting reference here by Edgar Burcksen:
http://ace-filmeditors.org/tech-blog/the-end-of-final-cut-for-me/
"I embraced ?electronic? editing in the early nineties because it expanded my creative possibilities especially with the advance of the Editdroid which I used on the Young Indiana Jones TV series at Lucas Film. "

More about it on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003404/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Burcksen's prowess in visual effects was noticed by ILM and they hired him to become the visual effects editor on The Hunt for Red October (1990) and later Diehard 2 (1990). As one of the early fans of non-linear editing he became an expert in the use of the Editdroid, George Lucas' invention to pull editing out of the dark ages of film. When Lucas started his production of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992), he asked Edgar Burcksen to set up the post production for his prestigious TV series and also to become one of the editors. His collaboration with George Lucas on Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal (1992) earned him an Emmy; for best editing in 1992. Soon after, Burcksen served as editor and post production supervisor on "500 Nations" (1995) an 8 hour documentary miniseries for CBS about Native Americans hosted and produced by Kevin Costner.
 

MDew

Member
Cool, that's definitely one to keep an eye on! If you haven't already read it, the book Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution is a very detailed account of the development of the EditDroid and the early days of Lucasfilm. I find it a fascinating subject as well. (y)
 

T.E.Lawrence

New member
MDew said:
Cool, that's definitely one to keep an eye on! If you haven't already read it, the book Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution is a very detailed account of the development of the EditDroid and the early days of Lucasfilm. I find it a fascinating subject as well. (y)

It is fascinanting how did they try to solve non-linear access to the media in that period of time. As far as I could understand after some research, film was digitalized to Laser Disc and then EditDroid would do "virtual edits" using EditDroid and make a track list of cuts - like a timeline project but to be applied later.

After the "virtual editing" was done, real edits would be done on the film itself based on timeline cuts from the EditDroid. In fact, cutting was still done on the film, but this time you would know exactly where to go and where to cut, not lossing time and there would be less physical harm to a film.

So it was sort of a preview editing system, not a direct one. I hope that I did get it right.
 
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