Walter Murch
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“Walter Murch: From The Godfather to the God Particle”
Legendary film editor, sound designer, writer, translator, amateur astronomer and director Walter Murch needs no introduction. (Oh, what the hell, his credits include The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tetro and more.) In addition to being a great filmmaker, he’s also a great teacher and talker about film. Here, at the 2013 Sheffield Doc Fest, where he accompanied the doc, Particle Fever, he gives an inspiring speech on film editing, technology, audience expectation, how film grammar is changing with digital technologies, and physics. Don’t miss this.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 23, 2014 -
Walter Murch on Editing and His Translations of Curzio Malaparte
While editing The Unbearable Lightness of Being in France, Academy Award-winning film editor and sound designer Walter Murch came across a reference to Italian writer Curzio Malaparte’s description of horses being suddenly flash frozen in Lake Ladoga during the siege of Leningrad. He became intrigued by the startling image, and tracked down Malaparte’s 1944 novel Kaputt, the book the image came from. Over time Murch, best known for his work on films such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, read all of the obscure Italian writer’s translated writings, then brushed up on his Italian to read untranslated work. He eventually […]
by David Barker on Jun 3, 2013 -
WALTER: A NEW WAY TO EDIT
NYU student Elena Parker has created an intriguing device called Walter (named for the legendary Walter Murch) which tackles editing in an innovative new way. Here’s the description from the university website’s about her “eye-ware kinetoscope”: Walter watches your eyes as you watch a film, and every time that you blink, it edits the video. Based on the theories of Walter Murch in In the Blink of An Eye, I’ve transformed the subliminal action of blinking into a method of interaction with the film. By cutting every time that you blink, Walter creates a customized narrative for you, without interrupting […]
by Nick Dawson on May 17, 2012 -
Data Will Be the Death of Us
The death of film, the evolution of technology, and the days of shrinking budgets have put into question the existence of the 2nd AC. Who needs someone to load and manage film when there is no film? Ironically, the position may be more critical than ever. Whether you’re a sole cameraman, or working on a large production, managing the data coming from the camera remains critical, and is becoming more difficult. Increasing resolution and higher data rates mean that more disk space and more time is being taken up wrangling the data. And if your capture media needs to be […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 4, 2011 -
Walter Murch on FCPX: “Where is the ‘Pro’ Part of It?”
Here’s editor Walter Murch on his first encounter with Apple’s new Final Cut Pro X, his correspondence with Apple, and the Kremlinology of Cupertino. This was recorded at this past week’s Boston Supermeet. For a detailed report on his appearance, visit Chris Portal’s blog. (Hat tip: Notes on Video.)
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2011
