15 Walter Murch Quotes for You to Enjoy

Walter Murch

American Editor

Born: Jul 12, 1943

Editing Every People Time Work You

Related authors: Adam Lashinsky Bari Weiss George Horace Lorimer George Jean Nathan George Matthew Adams Herbert Bayard Swope Horace Greeley William Allen White

Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does. Walter Murch

Every film is hard work, and a few lucky people do get Oscars for what they do, and it's recognition for all that hard work on a certain level. If you didn't do the hard work, you wouldn't be standing there. On the other hand, people do a lot of hard work and don't get Oscars, so it's a mixture of glory and injustice at the same time. Walter Murch

Work Hard Work Time You Injustice People Few Every Other Recognition Glory Mixture Hand Lot Get Same Same Time Certain Certain Level Hard Standing Lucky Film Level Oscars

My job as an editor is to gently prod the attention of the audience to look at various parts of the frame. And that - I do that by manipulating how and where I cut and what succession of images I work with. Walter Murch

Work Job Frame Various Various Parts Attention Look Parts Gently Audience Editor How Where Manipulating Cut Prod Succession Images

There are many, many nouns for the act of looking - a glance, a glimpse, a peep - but there's no noun for the act of listening. In general, we don't think primarily about sound. So I have a different perspective on the world; I can construct soundscapes that have an effect on people, but they don't know why. It's a sort of subterfuge. Walter Murch

One of the rules of the road is that if you want to create the sense of silence, it frequently has more pungency if you include the tiniest of sounds. By manipulating what you hear and how you hear it and what other things you don't hear, you can not only help tell the story, you can help the audience get into the mind of the character. Walter Murch

Character Silence You Mind Sense Other Rules Tell More Only Road Frequently Audience How Sounds Hear Get Tiniest Want Story Manipulating Create Help Include Things

I re-mastered 'The Conversation' a few years ago for DVD. 'The Conversation' was the first film I edited on a flatbed machine - a KEM editing machine. I've been using Final Cut or the AVID for 12 years now, so I was interested in looking at this film and seeing if I could tell if it had been edited the old way. Truth be told, I couldn't. Walter Murch

Truth Conversation Editing Old First Looking Few Final Final Cut Way Machine Tell Seeing Could Had Edited Been Years Years Ago Interested Cut If I Could Avid Using Film Now

This applies to many film jobs, not just editing: half the job is doing the job, and the other half is finding ways to get along with people and tuning yourself in to the delicacy of the situation. Walter Murch

Yourself People Editing Job Half Situation Other Ways Jobs Finding Delicacy Along Doing Get Just Tuning Many Film

'The Conversation' was the first film I edited on a flatbed machine - a KEM editing machine. I've been using Final Cut or the AVID for 12 years now, so I was interested in looking at this film and seeing if I could tell if it had been edited the old way. Walter Murch

Sound is a huge influence on peoples' attention. Walter Murch

People Attention Sound Huge Huge Influence Influence

Blinking is some way of tabulating - a kind of carriage return, click, or save to disk - that helps the process of 'Okay, now change the subject.' Every time you move your eyes, there's an interruption in the visual field - you go momentarily blind when your eyeballs are moving. Walter Murch

Time You Change Eyes Field Every Every Time Way Okay Carriage Kind Eyeballs Visual Some Blind Return Click Go Subject Move Process Moving Disk Your Momentarily Helps Now Interruption Save

If you want to freak your cat out, stare at your cat. If you want to reassure your cat, stare at your cat, then very deliberately and very slowly blink. Like that. The cat will also deliberately, slowly blink back at you, and I almost guarantee that she will start to purr. That's a feline reassurance. Walter Murch

Film is really the one art form that can effectively use silence. Music and theater can play with silence, but they can't sustain silence without losing energy, whereas film can go into a silent mode and stay there for minutes at a time. Walter Murch

Take any writer you want in the 19th century: they wrote with quill pens, dipping a piece of goose feather in ink and writing. And yet we read those novels today, and if we're sensitive to them, we respond to them with an immediacy that is stronger than anything written today on a word processor. Walter Murch

Today You Writing Word Stronger Immediacy Those Respond Pens Dipping Feather Writer Take Written Piece Goose Wrote Read Than Quill Any Want Anything Sensitive Them Century Novels Ink

I believe every editor should stand to edit. That's just my particular soapbox. Some things are so delicate and depend on such fine, delicate work. One frame in one direction or another can make such a difference and it is, in that, like brain surgery. Walter Murch

Work Depend Believe Every Frame Fine Some Some Things Direction Delicate Particular Like Make Another Edit Editor Surgery Brain Brain Surgery Just Difference Soapbox Should Stand Things

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