EditDroid: Rise and Fall


Documentary by Tom van Klingeren on the pioneering non-linear film editing system created by Lucasfilm in the eighties.

Video info:

In contrast to many other aspects of film production, film editing has remained the same for a long time. Until around 1985 all films were physically cut and pasted using mechanical editing tables, which had remained largely unchanged since the 1930's.
Filmmaker George Lucas, spiritual father of the successful Star Wars series decided to invest 40 million dollars to develop a new editing system. From 1983 to 1986 the revolutionary EditDroid system was developed. This new system was created to replace the mechanical period in which film editing found itself.  
The EditDroid was (one of) the first nonlinear electronic editing system and used several laser disc players loaded with the raw footage of a film. The simple computer interface was unique for its time. After a short period of success the EditDroid disappeared from the film scene and George Lucas sold the machine's patents to a small company called Avid.  
In the spring of 2005 Tom van Klingeren and Bruce Gray (both editors and instructors on filmmaking at the University of Amsterdam) went to Marin county in the United States in search of the lost history of the EditDroid. They visited the editors who had worked on the system in the 1980’s and 90’s. They made a return journey to the Skywalker Ranch with the now retired coordinator of the EditDroid project. At the ranch they explored the archives of Lucas’ production company in search of the last EditDroid.

Ponyo wa Kōshite Umareta (ポニョはこうして生まれた)


If the four-part documentary series about Hayao Miyazaki that NHK World Japan aired throughout 2019, left you hungry for more. You should take a look at Ponyo wa Kōshite Umareta. ~ Miyazaki Hayao no shikō katei ~ (ポニョはこうして生まれた。 ~宮崎駿の思考過程~) or what would translate as: Ponyo was born this way. ~ Hayao Miyazaki's thinking process ~. A twelve and a half hour long documentary by director Kaku Arakawa (荒川格) filmed during the three year period that went on making Miyazaki's film Gake no Ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ), released in Japan in July 2008.

Sadly the Japanese edition doesn't have English subtitles, but some of the footage from the documentary was reused to make the NHK four part '10 years with Hayao Miyazaki' series, so if you have seen that, you can have a slight idea on what is going on. The documentary was released as a standalone multi disc release both in Blu-ray and DVD and it was also included in the special box sets of Gake no Ue no Ponyo, released in 2009.



Ponyo wa Kōshite Umareta. ~ Miyazaki Hayao no shikō katei ~ 
Publisher: Walt Disney Japan
Release date: 2009-XII-8
Format: NTSC | 2xBD50 | MPEG4 AVC | 16:9 | 1080p
Audio: Japanese Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Japanese
Running time: 752 minutes
Retail Price: ¥11,880
Catalogue number: VWBS-1093



Ponyo wa Kōshite Umareta. ~ Miyazaki Hayao no shikō katei ~ 
(ポニョはこうして生まれた。 ~宮崎駿の思考過程~) DVD

5 DISC SET DETAILS:
Publisher: Walt Disney Japan
Release date: 2009-XII-8
Format: NTSC | 5xDVD9 | 16:9
Audio: Japanese Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Japanese
Running time: 752 minutes
Retail Price: ¥9,680
Catalogue number: VWDZ-8144



「崖の上のポニョ」特別保存版 Blu-Ray

This 3 disc set includes the movie and the documentary in HD.

3 DISC SET DETAILS:
Publisher: Walt Disney Japan
Release date: 2009-XII-8
Format: NTSC | 3xBD50 | 16:9
Audio: Japanese Dolby Digital & DTS
Subtitles: Japanese, English
Running time: 853 minutes
Retail Price: ¥19,360
Catalogue number: VWBS-1079


  「崖の上のポニョ」特別保存版 DVD

This Collector Edition of Gake no ue no Ponyo includes 9 DVD discs. 2 for the movie and the storyboards, 5 for the documentary and the last 2 for Joe Hisaishi's Budokan concert that was also released with the catalog number VWDZ-8130.

9 DISC SET DETAILS:
Publisher: Walt Disney Japan
Release date: 2009-XII-8
Format: NTSC | Region 2 | 9xDVD9 | 16:9
Audio: Japanese Dolby Digital & DTS
Subtitles: Japanese
Running time: 968 minutes
Retail Price: ¥20,020
Catalogue number: VWDZ-8146