Fascinating stuff, thanks a lot.
So now a quick summary, if I understood it all correctly. Let’s do it on an example, e.g. Star Wars.It has scenes of 3 types :
I) scenes consisting only of live action shots
II) scenes containing some simple visual effects like fade-ins, fade-outs, dissolves etc.
III) scenes containing composite shots created using live action shots and visual effects
Yes.
If I was the Star Wars editor, I would do …
I) these scenes would be done by cutting and joining the original camera negative
II) these scenes would be created using negative A and B rolls
III) these scenes would be a combination of edited negatives and various optical elements joined together using an optical printer
If you were a Star Wars editor you would not be touching the original negative. Only the negative cutter and the lab will ever touch it. The editors on Star Wars were editing on B/W answer prints.
Understand that an editor at the time did not deliver a finished film print. They edited the movie with a bunch of tape, black leader and grease pens to mark dissolves, cross dissolves (they would draw a large X along the frames that would be part of the dissolve). This was then carried over to the lab who would do the dirty work of piecing together the negative.
The A/B rolls contain the original camera negatives and the negatives of the completed effects shots. (In the case of Star Wars, I think the wipes were done separately as effects shots due to their complexity.)
So we would have properly edited scenes of 3 types, and they would still be negatives - correct? Then we would join these scenes together, and interpositives would be made? Then from these interpositives new internegatives would be printed, and these IN would be the source for theatrical prints?
Correct or complete bull…?
That’s pretty much it.