author: Walter Murch

name: Steev

average rating: 4.27

book published: 2001

rating: 5

read at: 2009/08/09

date added: 2009/08/15

shelves: filmmaking

review:
This book is really excellent if you're interested in editing films. It's not a nuts-and-bolts kind of how-to book about editing, but it is quite specific to the craft and assumes that the reader is already conversant with some of the fundamental mechanics of how film is edited. But Murch is really a wise, big-picture kind of guy (no pun intended), and he illustrates his points with very intelligent metaphors and analogies. For instance, he compares recent developments in film technology with the changes that painting underwent when pigments on frescos gave way to oil on canvas back in the 1400s or whatever. Murch is brilliant, not because he's some idiot-savant specialist but because he his conversant in so many other fields, from astronomy to baroque music, and he uses this knowledge to inform his understanding of filmmaking, and enrich his teachings that he imparts to the reader.



Some of what is in this book is repeated and redundant with what he talks about in 2 other books: The Conversations (which is a series of interviews with him) and Behind the Scene (which is a detailed description of how he used Final Cut Pro to edit "Cold Mountain," pretty much the first Hollywood feature film to use FCP). But, there's enough new information in all these books that it's worth reading all of them, especially if you're really into editing, or a big fan of the films he has worked on, like Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Godfather 2, The Talented Mister Ripley, etc etc.