Technique of Film Editing, Reissue of 2nd Edition, 2nd Edition

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The knowledge and views which have gone into the following pages are those of the British Film Academy

committee which was formed to write this book. Individual members made specifi c contributions as fol-

lows: Reginald Beck on the early stages of planning; Roy Boulting on Chapter 2, and the passage from

Brighton Rock ; Sidney Cole on the historical and theoretical chapters and the section on comedy; Jack Harris

on action sequences and the excerpts from Great Expectations and Once a Jolly Swagman ; Robert Hamer on

the historical material; David Lean on dialogue sequences and the excerpts from Great Expectations and The

Passionate Friends ; Ernest Lindgren on the historical and theoretical sections (he also gave permission to base

much of the theoretical discussion on arguments put forward in his book The Art of the Film and to use many

of his defi nitions in the Glossary); Harry Miller on sound editing and the passage from Odd Man Out ; Basil

Wright on all the documentary chapters and the excerpts from Night Mail, Diary for Timothy and Song of

Ceylon ; Thorold Dickinson, as chairman, on every phase of the writing.

Others who helped the committee were: Geoffrey Foot who contributed the analysis of the passage from

The Passionate Friends and gave much patient advice on the complexities of cutting-room procedure; R. K.

Neilson Baxter who supervised the chapter on instructional fi lms; G. T. Cummins and N. Roper who sup-

plied the information on newsreels; Jack Howells and Peter Baylis who spent much time with me on the

excerpts from The Peaceful Years and made written contributions; Paul Rotha who advised on The World Is

Rich ; Wolfgang Wilhelm who advised on dialogue scripting; J. B. Holmes who gave an account of his work

on Merchant Seamen ; and R. Q. McNaughton who provided the analysis and break-down of the passages from

Merchant Seamen and Night Mail .

From the U.S.A. we received the advice of Viola Lawrence on Lady from Shanghai and James Newcom on

Topper Returns . Helen van Dongen’s long contributions about the editing of Louisiana Story are printed in full:

to her we owe perhaps the greatest individual debt.

Dr . Rachael Low gave freely of her time and knowledge of fi lm history in discussion and Julia Coppard gave

invaluable help in the preparation of the manuscript. Dr. Roger Manvell of the British Film Academy and

A. Kraszna-Krausz provided sympathetic help — and patience.

Acknowledgements