Walter Murch Book

[Richard Greenhalgh]

Hi all,

I have just read a really good book called:
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

It is by Michael Ondaatje who was the writer of the English Patient which Murch edited.
It os published by Bloomsbury.

The book is basically a series of interviews in which Murch talks about editing, sound and so on. It has hardly any technical info but is full of stories of why he edited particular scenes the way he did. It's more of a rumination of the art of editing. I highly reccomend.

Cheers,
Richard

[E_Tedeschi]

One of my favourite books.

Another great one is "In The Blink Of An Eye" - this one is by Murch. A lot of it crosses over with Conversations, but in a different way.

Murch's tendency to create formulas for everything amuses me - like how to decide on a cut: 57% this, 34% that...

:o)

[Daz]

Well, I loved "Conversations" and I've heard Murch in person and found him amusing, illuminating and inspiring, but I have to say that "Blink" was a great disappointment - for the reasons Enzo mentioned. Mad formulas. Bizarre methods to "find the perfect cut".

I'm also really annoyed at his enjoyment of "a ten (or 100, whatever) million dollar picture cut on a thousand dollar software: i.e. Cold Mountain on FCP, version 3ish I believe. Reading between the lines it appears as though Murch's Umpa Lumpas suffered greatly for him to be able to utter this gnomism. Who gives a toss.

[E_Tedeschi]

"Blink" had some clangers, Daz, it's true. But there is still plenty of interesting stuff in there.

Anyone who thinks they can effectively cut to a strict formula is kidding themselves, but the gist of what he is saying there is on the right track I think. The things that need to be considered when cutting (particularly drama) kinda do follow a priority list of sorts - it's just not percentage numbers and figures!

And I have heard mixed reports re: Murch's cutting on FCP. Haven't read his last book specifically about cutting on FCP. At least with the cheap suites he's able to hire more Oompa Loompas...?

[JWRL]

Originally posted by Daz
Reading between the lines it appears as though Murch's Umpa Lumpas suffered greatly for him to be able to utter this gnomism. Who gives a toss.

My understanding is that the editing of "Cold Mountain" was rather like a duck swimming. On the surface things looked peaceful, but there was an awful lot of pedalling going on underneath.

[Roberta Horslie]

Yep good read "conversations...."

Another Murch book is "Behind the Seen"..."how walter murch edited cold mountain on final cut pro and what this means for cinema"
by charles koppelman publisher New Riders

i got it through amazon.

enjoyed it

regards roberta

[projectsplat]

I have also just read "Behind the Seen"

Definately a good read.

Cheers

Alister