“Film is a popular medium, and the audience is never far from our thoughts, the way the ocean is never far from the thoughts of a shipbuilder.”
Feature film editor Walter Murch
Behind the Seen
Film editor Walter Murch has won three Academy Awards, and in a career that has spanned six decades he’s edited a list of well known films including The Godfather Part III, Jarhead, The English Patient, and Apocalypse Now. And along the way he’s worked with some of the greatest modern film directors (Coppola, Lucas, Sam Mendes, Kathryn Bigelow) so you figure he knows a thing or two about filmmaking. Fortunanetly for us, he’s written a couple books specifically on film editing.
In his first book he shares his six criteria for what he’s after when editing a film that is helpful to know even if you’re a director or screenwriter.
“At the top of the list is Emotion, the thing that comes last, if at all, at film school largely because it’s the thing hardest to define and deal with. How do you want the audience to feel? If they are feeling what you want them to feel all the way through the film, you’ve done about as much as you can ever do. What they finally remember is not the editing, not the camerawork, not the performances, not even the story—it’s how they felt.
An ideal cut (for me) is the one that satisfies all the following six criteria at once: 1) it is true to the emotion of the moment: 2) it advances the story: 3) it occurs at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and ‘right’: 4) it acknowledges what you might call ‘eye-trace’—the concern with the location within the frame: 5) it respects ‘planarity’—the grammar of three dimensions transposed by photography to two (the questions of stage-line, etc.): 6) and it respects the three-dimensional continuity of the actual space (where people are in the room and in relation to one another).”
Walter Murch
In the Blink of an Eye
page 18
Walter even puts a “slightly tongue-in-cheek” value on his six criteria because it’s not really quantifiable. But all the same, he says that editing for emotion and advancing the story are 74% of what makes a good cut.
P.S. If you’re interesting in learning more about editing I recommend you follow the excellent blog Digital Films by Oliver Peters. A good place to start is here:
12 Tips for Better Film Editing
Film Editing Tips Round II
Related Links:
A collection of Walter Murch articles and videos
NPR Interview with Walter Murch
Walter Murch letter to Roger Ebert on why 3D doesn’t work well and never will
Scott. I fell in love with the magic of editing when I read “The Conversations” by Michael Ondaatje – author of The English Patient. It is a long dialogue between these two most fascinating men. I remember so much but the vision I hold is Walter’s editing room and his insistence on standing to edit. The mere dynamic of standing, I am sure, lends itself to a more fluid, spontanteous and ‘right’ cut. I keep experimenting with ways to stand, to move now, as I think, write and edit. Thank-you for this post.
[...] Film editor Walter Murch has won three Academy Awards, and in a career that has spanned six decades he’s edited a list of well known films including The Godfather Part III, Jarhead, The English Patient, and Apocalypse Now. And along the way he’s worked with some of the greatest modern film directors (Coppola, Lucas, Sam Mendes) [...] Original Source… [...]
@Carla—Funny you should mention the part about Walter editing while standing up. I first read his book back in ’04 and thought I’d like to try editng while standing up. Even researched the fancy (and expensive) desks that have hydraulics to make your desk go up or down. Yet seven years have gone by and I haven’t tried it, but after flipping through his book yesterday I thought to myself, “that’s something I’d like to do by the end of the year.”
I have seen pictures where people have gone low tech and just placed blocks under their desks to raise them up. Anyone out there have some creative suggestions for raising your desk? Any good or bad experiences editing while standing up? (Hemingway reportedly wrote while standing up.)
For those of you wondering why Walter advocates standing up while editing it’s because he says you work better on your feet. He basically says most cooks stand in the kicthen and most surgeons stand while operating.
Plus it’s better for your back than sitting all day.
And thanks for the book recommendation (“The Conversations”)—I’ll put it on my wish list.