Читать книгу Timeline Analog 1 - John Buck - Страница 1

They say that 'necessity is the mother of invention'. But what creates necessity?

Often, it is intense frustration with something you find really important. For me, I began editing in the early 1980s when consumer VCRs became available. The only editing method available to me was to copy from one tape deck to another. So I did. I had no idea I was using a technology some people loved and other people loathed called “linear editing.”

Little did I know, but this linear editing was capable of inflicting intense pain on its users. It gave the joy of editing — the ability make a story come to life right in front of you — and it coupled this with a devilish characteristic that once you created your edit, you could hardly change it at all without serious consequences of time or quality. It was 1984. As an electrical engineer and product engineer, I at first thought this problem would go away on its own.

Digital technology was here, and many people saw linear editing as the problem that it was. I didn’t realize that I had just poked my nose under the tent of a long, long story. The story of how film editing began, how it evolved, and how video editing started and how linear editing evolved. They say ignorance is bliss. And in my case, it was.

Had I known the full story of editing when I began, it might have given me pause. Instead, I was given one of those great moments that spur people on. The joy of edting. The pain of linear editing. And then a third element. I thought a non-linear editor would arrive if I just waited. So I waited. And waited. After three years, I was doing even more editing. Now the pain was eclipsing the joy. That was unbearable.

I had been thinking for three years about how to build a non-linear editor. And now, the father of necessity -- intense frustration — gave me only one option. We had to build a digital non-linear editor.

I am so indebted to the great team at Avid that built this amazing machine. I knew we wanted to build the best editor we possibly could. But I assure you, I had no idea of the scope of the over 100 year-old story that was about to include this little company from Burlington, Massachusetts.

William (Bill) Warner, January 2018

Warner is the founder of Avid Technology.