In the Blink of an Eye

I am currently reading a set text for this module In the Blink of an Eye by American editor and sound designer Walter Murch. Originally transcribed from a talk that Murch gave in 1988 at Spectrum Films in Sydney, Australia and then revised and updated.

The book is written in a very easy to understand, conversational style and Murch uses anecdotes and examples of his time in the industry to get across points about editing techniques and film in general.

He begins by talking about Cuts and Shadow Cuts and uses the metaphor, "more can be learnt about water from ice and steam" in reference to the extreme ends of the editing spectrum in which Murch and his team had over 230 hours of footage to edit down when working on Apocalypse Now.

He goes on to describe how although there was so much footage, the ratio of time spent in post production to cuts in the film was relatively small and that the real use of an editor's time is less in the actual splicing and more in the consideration and use of shadow cuts (cuts made or considered and subsequently removed or undone) or as he puts it "finding a path".

Murch begins to explain why and how cuts work and how they originally came about. In this he explains how discontinuity of shots when shooting a film is the most practical approach, because the task would be too great to shoot everything continuously and also this adds to the artistic elements of film making in that you can use discontinuous cuts as a means of expression, communication, exposition and elaboration.

Carrying on from this Murch talks about how "past a certain point, the more effort you put into wealth of detail, the more you encourage the audience to become spectators rather than participants. The same principle applies to all the various crafts of film making: acting, art direction, photography, music, costume, ect"