A Question

Prior to 1988 the most significant technological breakthroughs were half a century in the past. Before the last decade of the 20th century it was reasonable to assume that as an editor you would work with the same technology for your whole career. Then, that Spring the art and craft of film editing was subjected to the most dramatic change in half a century: the introduction of computers in the form of an Apple Macintosh with Avid Media Composer software. Suddenly one had to learn anew and think anew.
The introduction of computers changed the social aspect of the editing room Editing was a team effort. The lead editor worked with a team of assistants and apprentices. The editor worked away on cuts; assistants logged clips, rewound film and searched for missing frames. Apprentices ran errands to the lab and carried film back and forth to the vaults. As Rosenblum noted, this was how one learned to be an editor (Rosenblum and Karen 1980). The process of learning was what could be called legitimate peripheral participation(Lave and Wenger 1991). With the splendid isolation of the computer only one person could work at a time. Assistants shifted to independent night work to load the materials in the computer. Apprentices were left to get coffee. The editing room became a solitary place. The informal educational process was greatly curtailed if not eliminated.
My question is quite simple. What was the impact of the introduction of computers to the task of learning how to be an editor? How does it happen without the traditional social setting of the editing room?


Lave, J. and E. Wenger (1991). Situated learning: Legitmate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.
Rosenblum, R. and R. Karen (1980). When the shooting stops.the cutting begins. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, UK, Penguin Books.