I Heart Walter Murch

For anyone even remotely interested in how and why films are edited, The Conversations is compulsive reading. I started my career in film as an editor, so I have a long time love affair with Murch. Many books talk about the technology of editing and provide good manuals. Few, however, concentrate on the art of editing and how it has evolved over the past 100 years. This book does just that. Murch speaks beautifully about the psychology of and emotional responses to editing, and Ondaatje asks all the right questions. Murch is a fascinating and articulate subject and it is obvious that there is a good rapport between the two men.

If you enjoy this, follow up with Murch's 1995 book In The Blink of An Eye which has been reissued with an update on Digital Editing. It's worth buying for the beehive anecdote alone.

I was fortunate enough to have been invited to the 2004 Berlinale Talent Campus where Walter Murch was our "Godfather" and gave some workshops and lectures. The good people at the Talent Campus website put up some transcripts and videos on their site. It can't replace being there but it's worth a look.

Walter Murch - Editing The Sound And Music is a transcript of the lecture of the same name which can be viewed online ordownloaded as a pdf courtesy of the Berlinale Talent Campus website.

The Synergy of Sight and Sound is a similar transcript and Reflections on Being a Filmmaker contains video clips of Murch, Anthony Minghella and David Puttnam reminiscing about their careers. Poor old Guillaume Depardieu, who replaced Béatrice Dalle on the panel at the last minute (under mysterious circumstances), didn't make the cut.

*I will post a piece about Behind The Seen - How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple's Final Cut Pro And What This Mean's For Cinema in the near future.

Technorati tags: Walter Murch, film editing, Berlinale Talent Campus, Michael Ondaatje