Appendix 1

5 Finishing on Film
Film Editing Basics
Historically, fi lms were edited on, you guessed it, fi lm. The workfl ow went like this: The original
negative was printed to a “work print.” Sound was transferred to magnetic sound fi lm (or pre-1950,
optical sound fi lm). This is simply clear fi lm with an oxide coating allowing magnetic sound to be
recorded, also known as “full coat” or “mag stripe.” It is still available, although not used all that
much. The sound fi lm was cut, spliced, and matched to the clapper on the work print, putting the
sound into sync with the picture. The work print reels were then projected interlocked to the sound
reels at the “dailies” screening.
The work print and sound were then splice edited on a machine that looked like a green sewing
machine, the ubiquitous Movieola upright. Later, these were replaced by “fl atbed” editing machines
that ran the fi lm and sound horizontally on a tabletop.
After the fi lm edit was completed or “locked,” sound effects and music were edited on sound fi lm,
interlocked to the work print or a “dirty dupe” of the work print. These sound tracks were all interlocked
together and mixed down to a fi nal sound track. This was shot onto optical fi lm for printing
with the picture.
The camera negative was edited to match the edited work print in a process called “conforming.”
This was accomplished by matching “key code” numbers located on the edge of the fi lm. These
numbers were fl ashed on the edge of the fi lm by the manufacturer and became visible when the
negative was processed. They printed through onto the work print and could be read from the edited
work print and matched to the original negative.
The conformed negative was color timed and printed in combination with the sound mix to a “fi rst
answer print.” More adjustments were made to the color and the fi lm was fi nished. The entire process,
however, was actually quite a bit more complicated than this; the demons were in the details.
57