Shoulder Arms editing question

So, I've been reading the SA posts with great fascination - great
stuff, folks!!

Here's my question, and you can take it where you want...

When Shoulder Arms was made, how was it edited? I mean physically here
- was there a moviola to worrk with, or was it worked by hand in front
of a window?

The later one (version C, though I would call it version R for Revue)
was certainly from the moviola days.

How would this affect the editing, and therefore the experience of
seeing each version?

(I imagine there was plenty of screenings of rushes and trial edits
along the way during the first edits, but I assume that the naked eye
was still the basic source of editing information.)

I hope this is readable, a 15 month old is having me read him a book
as I write this.

Mark

Mr. Moose wrote:
> So, I've been reading the SA posts with great fascination - great
> stuff, folks!!
>
> Here's my question, and you can take it where you want...
>
> When Shoulder Arms was made, how was it edited? I mean physically here
> - was there a moviola to worrk with, or was it worked by hand in front
> of a window?
>
> The later one (version C, though I would call it version R for Revue)
> was certainly from the moviola days.
>
> How would this affect the editing, and therefore the experience of
> seeing each version?
>
> (I imagine there was plenty of screenings of rushes and trial edits
> along the way during the first edits, but I assume that the naked eye
> was still the basic source of editing information.)
>
> I hope this is readable, a 15 month old is having me read him a book
> as I write this.
>
> Mark

Hi Mark,

I think my brother still has this machine that I remember playing with
as a kid. It's pretty funky (homemade-ish) when I think of it in
connection with some of the most popular films the world has known.

Imagine a microscope, a cylinder with a magnifying eyepiece lens, a
'stage' with a 35mm aperature, a ground glass and mirror below for a
light source, with a hand crank connected to what Grandpop called a
"star drive," basically a rotational sprocket drive to advance the
film. Funny thing is that I don't remember any kind of shutter
mechanism connected with it.

I know Grandpop used this machine to preview footage to set up editing
sessions for Charlie. Whether they actually edited using it, I can't
say for sure, but I can't imagine why not. I also can't attest to
exactly when it may have been used, or for how long. There are
recountings of the two of them personally working through editing
sessions and doing the physical edits, but again I can't say how long
that lasted or when the first "cutter" was employed at the studio.