In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing by Walter Murch

In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing Reviews

• 
  Emma Angeline

  I really enjoyed this, but I’m not sure how much I actually learnt. Murch is certainly amusing to read and I can imagine great to listen to. I’ve been editing since I was 12 so it has certainly affirmed and validated for me a lot of the things I knew about editing on certain levels, but never have had explicitly stated. This new edition is already 20 years old. I am DYING to know what Murch has to say on the evolution of editing within social video like goddammit how does he feel about tiktoks I GOTTA KNOW
• 
  Nate D

  While this is more geared towards the editing concerns for larger productions with multi-month editing cycle, Murch has many insights into the basic practicalities of editing. Even better are the bits where he delves further, into the theoretical underpinnings of what a cut is, and why they work at all given the unfamiliarity of jump cuts in day to day life (so one would think). Still, it's converted pretty directly from a lecture he delivered, which keeps the material a little close to the surface for my liking -- I should really keep reading this Peter Wollen film theory book I found at the Strand for the denser, deeper conceptual stuff, or more Ruiz perhaps. And, over half the length of the book is an Afterword, added in 2001, concerning the new advances in digital editing, of course now 13 years out of date, ie essentially a lifetime. Still, Murch is a great editor, and this forms a brisk overview of the subject.
• 
  Sherif Nagib

  بخلاف كون والتر ميرش واحد من أعظم مونتيرين السينما في التاريخ، فهو أيضاً كاتب ممتاز لديه القدرة على صياغة أفكاره على الورق. النصف الأول من الطبعة التي قرأتها يُركز على فن المونتاج، النصف الثاني هو مُلحق عن المونتاج الرقمي الذي كان جديداً نسبياً وقت كتابته في العام 2001 (وقت صدور الطبعة الثانية)، معظم هذا الجزء أصبح الآن معلومات تاريخية، قرأته سريعاً للمتعة فحسب ولكن بلا إفادة. أما النصف الأول الخاص بفن المونتاج فهو رائع ومُهم لكل سينمائي.
• 
  CM

  Divided into two parts, this book is essentially the sharing of a film editor from his career and the history of editing technology from his personal experience. While one can never doubt his credentials to teach (he edited Copolla's Apocalypse Now, in which production probably produced the most footages in film history for an editor to work on...), I am not sure what a reader can learn from this short book apart from a few truisms. The fact that only two editing examples are given photos also doesn't help.
  
  If you want to learn how to appreciate film editing , you will need to find another book.
• 
  Alexandra Markovic

  Murch has taken years of experience in the film industry and poured them into this work of theory and art. Deep enough for those well-versed in film arts yet still appealing to those outside that world. Well written and thoroughly engaging.
• 
  Neil

  Wish this existed on kindle, as I would've highlighted a ton instead of dog-ear-ing basically every single page. I thought it was fantastic, and not exclusively for those interested in filmmaking. The first half is about the art of editing itself (and more old-style/analog editing), distilling several days worth of raw footage into a final product lasting only few hours. Not all the ideas are his own, he credits John Huston with the titular theory that eye blinking is basically defining "clips" of footage in our brains, but it's laid out well (transcribed from a lecture), and there are many anecdotes that could apply to a wide range of other disciplines, e.g. collaboration/teamwork.
  
  The second half is about digital editing, and the first 10 pages or so of that are a little specific about technologies, and things I already knew about (e.g. Edit Decision Lists), but it gets really good again contemplating what we lose when we take an enormous leap forward with technology. To be clear: Murch is no luddite, he made the choice to switch for reasons he weighed very carefully. He's the optimal subject for any UX professional. It's a quick read, and I plan to come back and re-read in a few years, hopefully digitally.
• 
  Alia Yunis

  Written by one of the great editors of one of the U.S.’s finest decades of cinema, the 1970s, Walter Murch is part psychologist philosopher and part editor in this short treatise on film editing. Written before the digital age, it talks to students about the aesthetics and psychology of editing, rather than which key on your keyboard to press, which seems to dominate so much of the education surrounding editing today, with the technology overtaking the storytelling aspect. As a teacher myself overwhelmed with the ever changing technology, I sometimes get so involved in explaining the technical aspects of Final Cut Pro that I don’t spend enough time with the real question of editing “Where do you make a cut—or do you even need to make a cut?” And how do you take 40 hours of film and distill it into 120 mind-blowing, compelling minute? How does an editor jump forward and backward in time and space to best tell a story? At its most simplest, Murch says it is with the blink of an eye. When the audience is ready to blink, it’s time for the editor to cut. But cut to what? There are nearly infinite possibilities to combine a series of shots. But he reminds us that the ideal cut should, in descending importance, take in the following: emotion, story, rhythm, eye trace, two dimensional plane of screen, and the three dimensional plane of screen. (The first three are obviously extremely connected). He also talks about the importance of letting go of the filming once we get into the editing room, so that our choices are not determined by how hard certain shots were to get but rather decide based on what shots best serve the story. He recommends working with stills taken from the film to make up the story first. The way the pictures collide together when mounted on the wall may lead to a new way of looking at things. Once you have your fist cut, he recommends looking again at the original footage—things have changed now and maybe there is something in the original footage that could really help you out now, time permitting. Test screenings are good for blind spots, but give the audience time to digest. Ask them to call the next day with any other thoughts they might have—and don’t operate on the elbow if they say that’s where they feel the pain. Examine everything connected to the elbow to see where the real problem is. The only part of the book that is unnecessary is the comparison of digital and film editing equipment, probably out of date even before the printing. However, Francis Ford Coppola is right in saying the Murch is full of “guidance and nourishment.” And at the end, Murch tells us the best thing an editor can remember is that we see films the way we see dreams, in cut up pieces that connect together in some magical way. So perhaps editors should consider themselves dream makers.
• 
  Clare O'Beara

  Well written and this is the second edition, although as the author knew would happen, film production has moved on fast.
  
  This tells how an editor makes choices and cuts film - originally a physical cut - and how machines used to be large, noisy and heavy but have moved to be computers.
  
  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.
  
  This is very interesting for those studying how the mechanics of film making have changed. Analogue to digital. Speed is important in a big budget film. Apparently a question asked when hiring an editor is 'how fast do they work?'
  
  However, some things won't change, such as an orderly process for film editing, backing up copies, choosing a good cut. The author points out that people watching something intently don't blink, but people changing their mind, submitting, or holding conflicting thoughts, blink rapidly. We can blink as we move our line of sight, seeing a different picture as the eye opens. He suggests that we accepted film right from the start because it was like blinking.
  
  I borrowed this book from the Dublin Business School Library. This is an unbiased review.
• 
  Levan Chkonia

  ადრე მინდოდა ამ წიგნის წაკითხვა და კარგია რომ To Read-ში არ ჩავაგდე, წასაკითხი წიგნების ლიმბოში.
  ხოშიანი იყო. "აპოკალიფსი ახლას" მემონტაჟის საბაზისო რჩევებია დამწყები კინოშნიკებისთვის, რეჟისორებისთვის, მემონტაჟეებისთვის. დაჟე უბრალოდ სინეფილი მაყურებლისთვისაც სასიამოვნო წასაკითხი იქნება.
  თუ ამ კუთხით შეფასებ ალბათ ხუთიანის ღირსია მაგრამ ზედმეტ დროს უთმობს ტექნიკურ ასპექტებზე საუბარს. კი, ამით ხაზს უსვამს რო ფირიდან ციფრზე გადასვლა არაა კინოს აღსასრული (2000-იანების დასაწყისშია მეორე გამოცემა, პირველი მგონი 1995-ში) და, პირიქით, გააუმჯობესებს შემოქმედებით პროცესს. ეს გასაგებია, მაგრამ არ მაინტერესებს ზედმეტი დეტალები, ძველი სამონტაჟოების აგებულება და ა.შ
  მონტაჟის თეორიის შესახებ უფრო მეტ საუბარს ველოდი ვიდრე ციფრისა და ფირის დაპირისპირებაზე მსჯელობას.
  შეიძლება ჩემი პრობლემაა, არასწორ რამეს ველოდი და მაგიტომ. მაგრამ თეორიის მხრივაც ხოშიანი რამეები წერია დასაწყებად. ხოდა, რავიცი, გირჩევთ ყველას ორივე ხელით და ათივე თითით.
• 
  Andrei Alupului

  Not quite on par with "The Conversations," the book of interviews between Murch and Michael Ondaatje, but an absolutely stellar and essential read for anyone interested in film on a more than superficial level. It's a quick read, probably only a few hours from front to back, so there's really no reason at all not to pick it up and read it. What I like about Murch's thinking, as highlighted both in this and "The Conversations," is that he's as much a philosopher as he is a theoretician and many of the principles and ideas that he discusses are equally applicable in any other art form. It's really an absolute joy to read his thoughts.
• 
  Koray Sevindi

  Kitabın hedef kitlesi sinema öğrencileri ve sinemaya teknik anlamda ilgi duyan kişiler. Bu kitle için eşsiz bir eser. Yazarın kurguya felsefik yaklaşımları gerçekten ufuk açıcı. Kurguyla ilk kez temas edecek kişileri belli yanlış ezberleri henüz oluşmadan çok doğru şekilde yönlendirebilir. Bu nedenle sinema öğrencilerinin henüz birinci sınıfta okumasını öneririm. Sayısal kurgu bölümünü ise bir tarih kitabı okur gibi okudum. 20 yıl önceki ön görüler şu an gerçek oldu ve aynen yazarın aklındaki soru işaretleri günümüzde de oluştu. Bu açıdan bile ne kadar kıymetli olduğunu çıkarabilirsiniz.
• 
  Miguel

  tostón
• 
  Nathan Pilgrim

  If you are looking for techniques and tricks to edit film, you are looking in the wrong place. I bought this book expecting exactly that, but even when none of it came, it was a great experience, and I learned a LOT.
  Mr. Murch approach is more of the zen type, teaching that editing is more like a dance, and an art, than a science, and how you can learn from that. The last part of the book is a bit obsolete, since is a overview of the then emerging digital editing process, but it only shows the accurated of Mr. Murch views, I guess I'll revisit this book again when I'm starting to apply his view in my work in a couple months.
• 
  Helen

  Helped to know that being an editing nerd/theorist could also end up prolific. Personally just lovely.
• 
  Jackie

  This book is certainly a useful tool for considering how to conceptualize the editing process. I only gave it two stars because it is short on information and reads like a children's book.
• 
  Jason

  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.
  
  My first instincts about the book were correct: this is about the theory of editing: what a cut is, what it does, how it works, why it works. I have the 2nd edition, which came out in 2001, revised to include an updated section on the movement of cinema from film to digital media. When the book was first published in 1995, that transition had only just begun. In 2001, it was much more underway, though still far from where we are now in 2021. The first part of book, mostly unchanged from the original printing, is 70-some pages adapted from a lecture series Walter Murch had given on film. The last part of the book is called an afterward, but it is about equal in length to the first part. The afterward looks at the move from film to digital media, looking at advantages and drawbacks, and detailing Murch’s own personal experience with the shift, a shift he had eagerly anticipated and partook in. From 2021, it is impressive how accurate his analysis and predictions were.
  
  Murch is the exact kind of professional I love to read. He’s not only terribly knowledgeable about his subject and field, but he’s an excellent writer and he engages with the art at an intellectual and spiritual level. As someone who edits videos, even of a much lower caliber than the material Murch works on, I found myself nodding along in recognition of what he revealed. His handling of the topic is simultaneously familiar and original, and always it is full of insight. The work managed to give me a new appreciation for what we do, and that is a gift from Murch to all of us. What Ansel Adams did for me in terms of photography, what Vincent Baker did for me in terms of game design, what Barry Hampe did for me in approaching documentary work, and what Robert McKee did for me in thinking about western stories, Walter Murch has done for m in film and editing.
  
  I’m glad I didn’t read the book at the start of my journey. While I may have gotten a few glimpses of insight, I would have been asking the book to be something other than it is rather than hearing what it has to say.
  
• 
  Fran RiVi

  A pesar del enfoque técnico y profesional que tiene el libro, Walter Murch sabe entretener al lector en todas sus explicaciones. Aparte de su conocimiento del montaje y de un sentido artístico audiovisual que podíamos dar por hecho, Murch tiene una sensibilidad literaria y una prosa envidiables. En el contenido original del libro, escrito a comienzos de los 90, el lector descubre el oficio del montaje, su historia y su razón de ser ¿por qué el corte de un plano a otro funciona para el espectador, en vez de simplemente provocar confusión? Murch ofrece explicaciones sencillas a problemas complejos que le hacen a uno replantearse la forma de entender una película, además de apreciar el enorme trabajo artístico de los montadores. La edición de 2021 cuenta con capítulos adicionales sobre el sonido de una película y su edición y montaje, así como unas reflexiones sobre el cambio del celuloide al digital en la industria en los últimos años.
  
  A cualquiera que disfrute del cine le encantará esta aproximación a la que es, como señala en el libro, la única disciplina exclusivamente cinematográfica.
• 
  Paweł P

  Chyba już trochę zdezaktualizowany (przez opisywanie montażu analogowego), ale mimo to ciekawy wykład o sztuce montażu. Pierwszą część czyta się błyskawicznie, bo rozdziały mają po 2-3 strony, czcionka jest duża, podobnie jak odstępy między akapitami.
  
  W drugiej części (pisanej w roku 2006, mającej aktualizować cały wywód) jest już więcej treści, ale paradoksalnie mniej z tego wyniosłem, bo nadal jest to jednak wywód historyczny, o konflikcie między światem analogowym (taśma i maszyny do montażu) a cyfrowym (nośniki cyfrowe i komputery). Mniej w niej uwag, które mogą się przydać aspirującym montażystom, ale jest to interesujący wywód pod kątem sprawdzalności zawartych w nim prognoz.
• 
  Alex Goldberger

  A book I will be rereading until memorized
  
  The first half of this book is an indispensable treatise on WHY cuts in film/video work and WHAT separates good cuts from bad cuts. The way he encourages us to think both philosophically and physiologically about the process of editing felt like a kind of “Eureka!” moment for me (and countless other aspiring editors who have read it). While Murch makes pains to clarify that these are just his opinions rather than objective truth, the intellectual perspective those opinions provide is tremendously valuable. I will be rereading this section many, many times in the future.
  
  The second half is made up of Murch’s musings (circa 1999) about the advent of digital editing and what larger implications may exist for editors (and cinema as a whole) in a dominantly-digital landscape. While its talk of digital editing’s technological limitations is obviously quite dated, his points about the fundamental differences between workflows for digital and analog editing were still relatable to me and are definitely good food for thought.
• 
  Steve

  I was scheduled to teach Introduction to Digital Video Editing during our Summer semester here at Texas Southern University. Suggested my students read this book as a way to understand not only the history of film editing but how it has evolved into the current non-linear mode of post-production. Since my career has taken the same path as Mr. Murch I feel it is necessary to explain the process of editing in film, video and audio.
• 
  Louis Day

  5/5 when it’s the original text, gets really tedious once it discusses the transition from analog to digital editing during the addendum. It was probably too early to really dig into that, and I’d recommend skipping it if you aren’t invested in that very specific time period of editing between 1990 and 2000. The actual core of the book is filled with great philosophy around editing, and honestly even lends its ideas to other facets of life and thought.
• 
  Patrick Flannery

  Short! Very easy to read! Very easy to digest. A very interesting retrospective on editing and the collaborative process!
  
  It's not a book on how to edit as in what quick keys you should use or how to diagram a scene to keep continuity. It is more a guide to finding your purpose as an editor a reflection about what Walter Murch thinks has been important
• 
  Chris

  Recommended by Jodie Foster and it does not disappoint. Solid insight into the art & craft of editing from a master. Truly engaging with insight into editorial philosophy and the why, not just the how, of editing. I recommend to any serious editor or filmmaker.
• 
  #Bookw0rm$_Xx

  I am now a black belt in editing come at me
• 
  yeoknow

  Finally.
• 
  Nick Guerin

  I learned
• 
  Brian Hart

  This book is legendary in the editing world, and for a good reason. But you only need to read the first half. The Second half just talks about his predictions about how digital film will affect cinema. It’s outdated, and I wish I just read the first half twice instead. Still worth five stars.