About a new film editing machine

Simon Wyss · June 2, 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen

It’s time again for buildup. It is my plan to manufacture and sell motion-picture film equipment, amongst it an editor.

Direction is solid, reliably machinery. The editor shall be a combination of all the good things there are without the drawbacks of the known products. Example: With most flatbed machines you need rather long arms to reach everything. They are too big. Some have cold or warping materials such as aluminium or chipboard table plates. I want to improve on the accessibility of everything, flexibility of use, and size. I want to offer a fusion of table and Moviola.

As mad as it may sound, this is my question: Would anybody deem the project viable in one or two points? Who would think of purchasing a fresh 35-mm. editor providing one image and three sound gangs? Other formats?

Kind regards, your technician

Brian Drysdale · July 23, 2011

Is there a large enough market to do this? There's a lot of used film editing kit that lasts for years in a small niche market.

K Borowski · July 23, 2011

I know there is some new equipment out there, Simon, coming out for archivists and such I assume, but it's been almost a quarter century since mainstream cut-film editing died. "Murder She Wrote" was the last TV holdout (off the air 15 years) and I think there's still a few holdouts in the movies.

What Brian said about durability; these aren't like iPhones 4, they last forever! (Of course, you know that.)

If you decide still to go ahead with it, you're competing against industry standards, so it will be tough. I'd cater towards the archive market, rather than for new production, maybe find something appealing to film schools as well. I'd think for the latter though you'd want to deal with 16mm. Overall, I'd think more hand-cutting of films business is out there to be had for 16mm