In the Blink of an Eye, 2nd Edition: A PerspectIve on Film Editing

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It’s just one of those books that touches on timeless topics that will never grow old. It’s a series of short essays, and it’s a fun read even for people who prefer audiobooks. p. 55 So, instead of fixing the scene itself, you might clarify some exposition that happens five minutes earlier. Don’t necessarily operate on the elbow: instead, discover if nerves are being pinched somewhere else. But the audience will never tell you that directly. They will simply tell you where the pain is, not the source of the pain. Though it’s hard to imagine now, when movies were first made at the beginning of the 20th century, cuts had not yet been ‘discovered’ as a part of the filmmaker’s toolkit. When people realised they could splice together two separate images discontinuously and the audience could still comprehend what was happening, ‘films were no longer earthbound’ as Murch puts it. While he was editing directly on film, Murch took notice of the crude splicing used for the daily rough-cuts. In response, he invented a modification which concealed the splice by using extremely narrow but strongly adhesive strips of special polyester-silicone tape. He called his invention "N-vis-o". Impactful Storytelling: Ultimately, the goal is to tell a story that is impactful and engaging. By being economical, writers can create a narrative that maintains the audience's interest and delivers a powerful message or experience in a concise manner.

If an actor is successful at projecting himself into the emotions and thoughts of a character, his/her blinks will naturally and spontaneously occur at the point that the character’s blinks would have occurred in real life. Thereby, the editor can align the cut points with the blink points. Does the cut, transition, or edit, move the story in a meaningful way? Whatever decisions you make as an editor, do you keep the story in mind? All of us can use it now, and it’s really the best feature for making sure that a specific cut works well.

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Due to this, their opinion is powerful and useful as for examples, the director, will often remember it differently. They ‘see’ what they saw on the day. The mountain vista. The sunset in the distance. But in reality this wasn’t all captured. This gives the editor freedom as they are don’t feel that certain shots must go into due to the difficulty or cost of the image, merely what is creatively useful and interesting. 🔮 Scenes Create Themselves

A scene made up of only twenty-five shots can be edited in approximately 39,999,999,999,999,999,999, 999,999 different ways. In miles [of film], this is twenty five times the circumference of the observable universe’ In the Blink of an Eye first came out about the time I was teaching myself to shoot and edit video, and I was looking for all kinds of books to help me along with that education. I remember looking at the book in my local bookstore and passing on it because it seemed less instructional than theoretical. Now, 20 years on in my profession, and well past the instructional stuff, someone on one of my social media groups quoted from the book, and it piqued my interest. So I got myself a copy. Shelton, Robert (July 29, 1961). "Folk Music Heard on 12-Hour Show". The New York Times . Retrieved 2017-04-03.

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urn:oclc:474901106 Republisher_operator [email protected] Scandate 20120111010731 Scanner scribe1.shenzhen.archive.org Scanningcenter shenzhen Worldcat (source edition) Balancing Detail and Brevity: While brevity is key, it's also important to provide enough detail to create a rich, immersive world. Economy in storytelling is about finding that balance. We are told to bear in mind that seeing a film on a big screen is more immersive than seeing it on a two foot wide screen, and more detail will be seen in a big picture; at the same time, readily available screen time means that people can watch a film over and again, seeing new nuances and character aspects. In 2012, Murch's translations of short stories by the Italian writer Curzio Malaparte were published as The Bird That Swallowed Its Cage. [23] Innovations and awards [ edit ] In any conversation, as your navigate different thoughts in your head, you blink naturally at the appropriate places in the discussion. Film editors should imagine each scene as a conversation where every cut mimics ‘the blink of an eye’, forming natural pauses in the interaction. A great film editor understands each movie’s unique conversational rhythm and uses it as a road map for their editing approach. 🤔 Who Should Read It?

Whatever you and your crew think of the movie, ultimately it’s fate will be decided by the people. Too often editors and filmmakers in general (writers I’m looking at you) have a tendency to over explain what’s happening to the audience, not leaving enough room to work it out for themselves. To avoid this in your edit, Murch advocates being the right kind of guide: ’An overactive editor, who changes shots too frequently, is like a tour guide who can’t stop pointing things out: “And up there we have the Sistine Ceiling, and over here we have the Mona Lisa, and, by the way, look at these floor tiles . . .’’. If you are on a tour, you do want the guide to point things out for you, of course, but some of the time you just want to walk around and see what you see. If the guide—that is to say, the editor—doesn’t have the confidence to let people themselves occasionally choose what they want to look at, or to leave things to their imagination, then he is pursuing a goal (complete control) that in the end is self-defeating’ Murch talks about what films have in common with dreams. He discusses questions editors should ask themselves when shaping the narrative. Generally, he goes deep into his approach to film editing. In essence, economy in storytelling is about making every word, scene, and character count. It's a skill that involves careful planning, editing, and a deep understanding of what is essential to the story's core message and emotional impact. For example, in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the plot is Joel decides to get his memory erased because his ex-girlfriend had him erased first.In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. [31] Murch, Walter (2001). In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing (Silman-James Press). ISBN 1879505231.

Glenn Farr, Lisa Fruchtman, Stephen A. Rotter, Douglas Stewart, and Tom Rolf - The Right Stuff (1983) The first edition was published in 1995. The second edition, which accommodates for developments in digital editing, was published in 2001. i4586259x |b1170003077549 |dwsst |g- |m |h4 |x0 |t0 |i4 |j18 |k051114 |n02-12-2022 16:05 |o- |aTR899.M87 2001 Removing Redundancy: Cutting out repetitive scenes, dialogue, or descriptions that don't add to the story. Redundancies can slow down the pace and bore the audience. A beehive can apparently be moved two inches each night without disorienting the bees the next morning. Surprisingly, if it is moved two miles, the bees also have no problem: They are forced by the total displacement of their environment to re-orient their sense of direction, which they can do easily enough. But if the hive is moved two yards, the bees will become fatally confused. The environment does not seem different to them, so they do not re-orient themselves, and as a result, they will not recognise their own hive when they return from foraging, hovering instead in the empty space where the hive used to be, while the hive itself sits just two yards away.”But also, for most of the film, we travel with Joel through his memories as they are being erased. We go from his latest memories, to his first moments with Clementine. Ondaatje, Michael (2004). The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Film Editing (New York: Random House). As more full versions are cut and screened you slowly start to see the film for what it is, removing yourself from the work. Ultimately, Murch believes you get to a point where ‘the shots themselves seem to create each other’. Each shot leads into the next fluidly and you are the invisible string puller. ’This process reaches the point where I can look at the scene and say, I didn’t have anything to do with that—it just created itself’ 🗒️ Always Have A Plan While this post doesn’t dive too deep into sound editing, it is a vital element when editing with emotional tone in mind. You can then apply this to your edit. Perhaps in that moment they should be feeling angry but it’s not working…but a cut to a close up could fix that! 🖼️ Seeing Around The Frame