[Frameworks] 1. when was the film splicer invented? (mstarkmcr at gmail.com)

[mstarkmcr at gmail.com]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your responses. 

Thanks for confirming that the razor blade icon in Final Cut Pro and Premiere most likely relates to video tape editing.  I have since also found in Lennie Lipton’s book 'Independent Filmmaking' an image and description of a splicing block for 16mm film which was designed to be used with a razor blade. 

I still can’t find a clear date anywhere for when splicers were introduced to cutting rooms (this information may be in a book about editing in a library i now can’t access!). It seems like histories of editing deal with the editors, films and techniques rather than the specific tools in the cutting rooms…which is what i’m fascinated by. 

Regards cutting film with scissors, John Burder's book ’Technique of editing 16mm film’ states that before splicing film, it should be marked with chinagraph pencil and then cut with scissors, which he says are a basic item of cutting room equipment. He specified that brass scissors are most suitable because they are anti-magnetic and won’t impair the quality of magnetic soundtracks. It doesn’t seem like using a cutting film with a razor blade on a splicing block and cutting film with brass scissors were common practice though? Has anyone experience of either of these?

Hey Robert Withers - regards Peter Kubelka cutting with scissors if you are interested see below - 

Kubelka explains his artistic formation: “The material itself taught me how to make films.” He’s sitting at his wooden kitchen table, tackling the 35mm film strips with scissors and glue.
filmcomment.com/article/peter-kubelka-frame-by-frame-antiphon-adebar-arnulf-rainer/

and this https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/materiality-film-peter-kubelka <https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/materiality-film-peter-kubelka>

Austrian-born Peter Kubelka is a filmmaker, architect, musician, curator and lecturer whose work explores the understanding of film as a material and factual affair. His films are not available digitally and to see them on the big screen is a rare opportunity. The experience of seeing his films is spellbinding and at the same time descriptive, like seeing a tailor’s work in progress: film cut by hand with scissors and then glued together. For him film is nearer to sculpture.

All best,

Mary

> On 20 Apr 2020, at 22:09, Robert Withers <withersr at earthlink.net> wrote:


> 
> When I was working with 16mm film in the late ’60s we used two kinds of tape splicers for work print:
> the ”Guillotine,” which cut with a metal side blade and the ”Rivas,” which cut with a metal blade and usually cut the splicing tape with a serrated plate on top of the splice in the middle of the frame. Pennebaker and maybe others redesigned Rivas splicers by attaching a small razor cutter that would cut the tape on the frame line, making a more-or-less ”invisible” splice. 
> I think a Guillotine splicer was used in 35mm also.
> For a permanent glue splice a ”hot splicer” was used in both 16mm and 35mm, which cut a frame with a metal block. You would lose a frame with each splice and the splice was visible unless used with black leader in the ”A & B roll” contact printing system.
> What happened between the 1920s and the 1960s? I’ve seen that picture of Elizaveta Svilova but I’m curious about Peter Kubelka. 
> Cheers,
> Robert
> 
> Robert Withers
> withersr at earthlink.net <mailto:withersr at earthlink.net>
> 
> 
> 
> 
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