Blog 4- Final Thoughts

This class, as a biology student, really broadened  my outlook on learning and the way the human mind thinks. I found it profoundly interesting to see how the class could cut the same material in 13 different ways. The human mind (I can't stress the word 'mind' enough) and not the brain truly has no limits. I'd have to say my favorite and most intriguing part of the course had to be the classes that we spent on lectures and discussing great minds like Vertov, and Eisenstein, however, I especially loved the Kuleshov effect.
 With a concentration in physiology and human behavior, speaking about and analyzing minds that changed 'visual' history was not only eye opening but made me wonder: if those men took one general subject and literally changed the way the world views it today, then what could they have done in another field. What would PET, CT, or MRI's reveal about these men's physiology. If a psychologist were to study them, could they figure out the way their brains functioned and how they were able to innovate, how they were able to see beyond what people already saw.
On an editing stand point, I really learned a lot about how important every detail is. From eye movement from one frame to next could completely throw off a cut and it's response. How framing, sound, editing, the editor, all play the role of creator in a digital universe.
I can honestly say this was one of my more enjoyable classes and it has truly changed the way I watch anything on screen, from here on out.

In the Blink of an Eye

        Walter Murch’s theories and thoughts in his novel, In the Blink of an Eye perfectly encapsulates what it means to be and the importance of the editor.  As a notable and celebrated editor, Murch presents an enjoyable and educational read.  For starters, even a person who is not an editor can appreciate the amount of work and effort the editor puts into the film making process.  The fact that the editor has to sift through over 230 hours of film and cut it down to about 2 hours is remarkable as is the point Murch raises that for every minute in the finished product there are ninety-five unseen minutes. 

            Murch’s theories for why cuts work are also very interesting because in actuality the thought of manipulating time and space the way we do in modern day film making is somewhat absurd.  As Murch brings up, 100 years ago early filmmakers would never imagine all we do in film today let alone how we cut.  It seems like it should not be able to work but it does and now, we could not have it any other way. 

            Murch brings up in his rule of six that emotion is the most important aspect in the editing process that has to be preserved at all costs.  Behind the director, the editor is the ultimate storyteller and has the ability to completely retell the story all through the emotions they choose with the cuts.  I agree with Murch as emotion being the most important aspect because how you make a cut can greatly affect how the audience perceives the scene and ultimately the entire movie.  The editor has a lot of power but also a lot of responsibility in the film making process.  They have to be somewhat objective and as Murch puts it, “seeing around the edge of the frame.”  They cannot think about how the film was made but how the audience will see it, and they are ultimately the whole point. 

            As Murch brings up, it is truly amazing how far film has come since its inception and it will be interesting to see how far it will go even in the next 50.  Murch theorized what new innovations will come to film in the future but since writing the novel, already so many changes have come.  From the DVD and digital revolution to 3D and motion capture, film making has come so far even within the last decade so who knows what the next will bring.  It is an interesting thing to think about but no matter where the film industry goes, the editor will still remain.  In all, Murch’s novel makes one appreciate the editor even more but editors still remain entirely underappreciated.  Everyone can name at least five directors but virtually no one can name five editors.  I hope in the future this will change and editors finally get the credit they deserve for all of the work they put in to making films.  

In the Blink of an Eye

In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch thoroughly explained  many different aspects of editing. The most fascinating of these were the six goals of the editor.  These goals were achieving the desire emotion, advancing the story, continuing a proper rhythm, acknowledging the "eye trace" from the audience's focus of interest as to location and movement, being able to have two-dimensional plurality and respecting three-dimensional continuity.  Of these aspects, I personally like to focus on the art of achieving the desired emotion.  Being able to make people feel a certain reaction to a scene or an attachment to a character is absolutely fascinating to me.  Delving deeper into the emotional effects that can be placed on a viewer, the people that watch videos can have different levels of connections to the movie or production.

As an editor, it is the job to have each person in the audience feel some sort of sadness when the lead character loses his love interest, or anger when the antagonist is gloating about his plan.  Through having the scenes cut faster would give the viewer a sense of urgency or stress, whereas a slower cut scene would make a feeling of suspense or maybe even dread.  In addition to the cutting of the scenes, sometimes the editor can place a filter on the footage itself. In doing so, a scene that was originally more colorful could be tinted more towards a grey-scale for a hint of nostalgia or older times.

These things being said, I have always found it fascinating from a psychological standpoint.  For instance, my sister and I have always had different levels of reactions to certain moments in movies.  Where she would be crying over the death of a character, I would feel sorrow but not as much.  However, we both felt the same emotion without knowing how the other one was reacting.  In conclusion, the six goals of the editor are definitely something for production students to focus on as they work in future editing classes.

Blog 4: In A Blink Of an Eye

In the book In the Blink of An Eye by Walter Murch, Murch talks about one of the most basic editing questions, why do cuts work? Well it’s more than why do they work it’s more of what works within that single cut. There are many factors in editing that the viewer doesn’t take into perspective as much as an editor does. Editing is structure, color, manipulation of time and other thing. Murch in his book try’s to let others understand this.

When I read this book I felt as it was a great way to look at editing differently than I was originally looking at it.  Although I don’t think I would ever use any of his thoughts and ideas later on in my career, this is defiantly a good read for anyone in this field because of how he explain everything of how cuts work. 

Blog 3 Make-Up: Soviet Editiing

In this blog I will be explaining my views on what we learned about on Soviet Editing. I found most of the information to be very useful because this is evolved editing into what it is today. Most of these worked through famine and poverty throughout world war one. One editor Lev Kuleshov was the founder of the Moscow Film School created the Kuleshov Effect, this was a result of an experiment conducted with his student VI Pudovkin. What the Kuleshov effect is, is a series of cut images that are presented to 3 separate audiences. In each image series a medium shot of an expressionless man is intercut with another image 1): man is hungry 2): man is sad 3): the man is happy despite the fact that the shot of the man was identical in each case. Each of these brought emotional responses that was caused by the manipulation of one certain shot being placed after showing the same man.

This is just one important technique that was created from the soviet editors. But I believe this is the best and most important. I think it is the most important because it shows (and proves) that you really can take any sort of shot and change how it is seen to the viewer. You can make it sad moment or you can turn it into the most enjoyable moment you have ever seen. And because of that I think the Kuleshov Effect is the most important technique that can be used in editing. 

Blog4: Final thoughts

My time in this class, I feel, has been well spent. I feel like I really learned how to better my editing skills. My family has always been a windows family and so learning on a Mac really expanded my horizons. I had never worked on any of the programs used on a Mac. But now that I have I actually prefer the programs to windows counterpart: Sony Vegas.

The films, as we watched them in a different perspective than regular audience, also showed me new ways of filming and cutting. It allowed me to think differently about how I cut shots. Cuts and edits don't only help progress the story they help tell the story in a way that may not have been thought of in the past. Editing brings light to little aspects of story that shed light on secrets and new information that give the audience clues as to what is going on.

Being in this class really helped me grow as an editor and Im more comfortable editing now because of it. I look forward to editing more and being part of more classes based on editing. 

Blog3: Man with a camera

The film A man with a Camera was exactly what I expected it to be at first. At first it seemed, simply, a man video taping anything and everything around him and then testing the features he could think of. However, as the movie progressed, I started to see that it wasn't just an editor messing with effects, every effect used helped tell what was happening the silent scenes. 

I started to notice this most when we entered the office of marriage and divorce. The parallels between the two begging and ending circumstances was interesting. And that's when the rest of the film got more interesting to me. I started to find parallels in every clip. Not only with the clips but with the film and real life. And every effect and cut helped show these similarities. 

One scene that I found very interesting was the back and forth between the cameras while they were filming the women in the carriage. I thought it was cool because it was not only showing the usual life of regular but the unusual life of the camera man as he took the shots of the women. 

The other scene I found really interesting was the birth and the funeral scene. Especially the funeral scene because he slowed down the shot, making it feel as though you were actually there to feel the sadness and unhappiness of the people around them.

All in all, I felt the film was masterfully done and had a lot of thought put into its creation.

Blog 1 Make-Up: The Cutting Edge

The film, The Cutting Edge, provided a great insight of the importance and skill that comes along with film editing.  The Cutting Edge interviewed many famous actors and directors about the significance of the film editor’s job and how he is in control of how the audience will react to the shots the director filmed.  The editor and director of the film have a very close relationship.  These two members spend the most time together more then any other two crew members working for the film.  Ridley Scott says, “finding the relationship with the editor is like trying to decide whether or not get married.  Because if the marriage isn’t a good one it’s going to be a sticky divorce.”  This statement proves that the editor’s job is so vital in making a film and that his work has a monumental impact on the films outcome and success.  If a  director and an editor don’t see eye to eye for the most part, the film simply won’t work.  Tarantino states that for his first film, Reservoir Dogs, he knew that he wanted a female editor.  He felt that a female editor would be more “nurturing” to the movie and to him through the process of making the movie.  The editor for that movie was Sally Menke.  Tarantino went on to say that the film was originally extremely long and that Sally had to slowly convince Tarantino to cut certain bits and pieces of the movie.  This was a very long and intense process because it can be hard for a director to see certain shots or takes excluded from their film since they want to be very precise and explicit with their movie.  Like Sally did, it is the editor’s job to guide the director into being okay with cutting certain scenes and takes in order to create a successful movie that isn’t painstakingly long. 

While watching The Cutting Edge, I was fascinated by the relationship that the directors and the editors,  I figured that they would have somewhat of a close relationship, but hearing critically acclaimed directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Alexander Payne talk about just how close they were with their editors really gave ma great sense respect for just how powerful an editor in making a movie.  The Cutting Edge really made me excited to start this editing class and made me realize just how impactful I could be to a movie if I were to become a film editor.

Blog 3

The Soviet Editing Theory was impacted by the influences of four main people, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Vertov, and Eisentein.  These men used a different approach than what most other editors were doing like those in America.  Americans at the time geared their editing toward more of a narrative way of telling a storyline. These four major editors understood that through cutting a film a certain way it completely impacted the viewer’s perception.  This theory focused on new ideas and began in the 1920s.

                The most influential of the four most believe was Kuleshov.  He was the person who founded the Moscow Film School during 1919.  His biggest impact was named after him, the Kuleshov Effects.  He was assisted by V.I. Pudovkin, Pudovkin studied under Kuleshov and was actually his student.  The basics of this affect is there are 3 separate images that are juxtaposed to create an emotional story.  Most believed this could only be told through films with narratives were you told and explained the emotions that were occurring.  Kuleshov and Pudovkin used three images, each shown to different audiences. The first was shown o image of a woman in a bikini, than a bowl of soup, and the last a crying baby.  Between each of these images they edited in shots of a man staring.  This showed how editing the same image of a man with different things he was reacting to create a completely different emotion and story. Finally there was Vertov and Eisenstien, Verov was mostly know for Man with a Movie Camera.  Unlike the emotional aspect we already talked about, he focused more on the actual cuts themselves.  He believes the better the cut the emotion will come on its own. Finally there is Sergi Eisenstein was also a student of Kuleshov.  Eisenstien expanded on his teachers editing theory, by comparing it to other editing theory’s, like Japanese hieroglyphics.

Blog 3 Make-up: Soviet Editing Theory

While learning about Soviet Perspectives on editing, I found a lot of the information to be very interesting.  For example, the Kuleshove Effect.  This was the experiment V.I Pudovkin and his student in which three series’ of cut images was presented to three different audiences.  These images included a medium shot of a man that then either cut to a bowl of soup, a mourning widow, or a child playing.  Each of these images gained different emotional responses from the audiences according to what image was cut to after the man was shown.  The bowl of soup brought hungriness, the widow brought sadness, and the child brought happiness.  Each of these emotional responses was caused by the manipulation of one certain shot being placed after showing the same man.  This experiment really proved to me that a lot about editing has to do with manipulating the audience.  As the editor, you are in control of how the audience is going to react to certain images.  You are in charge of this emotional response by placing the images in order in which you are going to gain the response you are looking for.  Manipulation of shots is key in becoming a successful and innovative editor.

            I also found Kuleshov’s theories on editing to be quite interesting.  Kuleshov states that “The shot is a sign, like a letter in a word, but a complex letter, like a Chinese character.”  To me, what Kuleshov is saying makes perfect sense.  Each shot in itself is nothing more then just one letter.  But, putting them together creates words.  The putting together of these words is what creates a film and each shot plays its own significant part in telling the story that the film is portraying.  Without each particular shot being used in the right order, the film can’t and won’t feel complete.

            I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Soviet’s perspective on editing.  The thoughts and theories of Kuleshov and the Kuleshov Effect were riveting and enthralling.  These ideas were important in my growth and maturation as an editor in this class.

Blog2: Night and Fog

I've seen many videos about the holocaust and what happened behind the walls of the camps. However, I have never seen anything quite like Night and Fog. 

They begin by taking us to the sites of what used to be the hell on earth for the prisoners of the time. Using simple cuts and a mix of current video and past film, they create a powerful time travel effect to make the audience feel as though they were at the camps during that time.

Watching the intensity of the videos added to the effect, giving the audience a sympathetic, fearful emotion throughout the video. 

One of the most intense sections of the video, I thought, were the quick cuts between the videos and images of officers throwing malnourished corpses into ditches. It created an intense feeling of humanity in the audience to watch clip after clip of their fellow humans being treated like trash in a land fill. 

The way the editor cut from video to video was simple, yes, but masterfully done. It created all of these emotions without adding special effects or fancy cuts.

There is power in a simple cut. 

Blog 4

After reading “In The Blink of an Eye” by Walter Murch it is clear to see how incredibly passionate and dedicated he is about editing. This isn’t necessarily a how to edit book it’s more of Murch’s techniques and perspectives on editing. To back up his point’s Walter used personal experiences as well as examples of films.

One of my favorite things that he says is how he responds to someone saying editing is just about taking out the bad bits. “It is much more than that. Editing is structure, color, dynamics, manipulation of time, all of these other things, etc.” (10) This is true because outsiders aren’t really aware of how hard editors actually work. Editors are the ones that make the actors and actresses look good after all.

Regarding the rule of six he says “Emotion, at the top of the list, is the thing that you should try to preserve at all costs. If you find you have to sacrifice certain of those six things to make a cut, sacrifice your way up, item by item, from the bottom.”  He explains that emotion is more important that spatial continuity.  In the rule of six he says emotion, story, and rhythm are the most tightly connected. The other three eye-trace, two dimensional plane of screen, and three-dimensional space of action. Always try to have all six but if you have to give up one then don’t let it be emotion. The book continues on saying that as an editor you must put yourself in the audience. You must be like a magician and create wonder in the cut.  I very much enjoyed the chapter called “Team Work: Multiple Editors” because while I’d rather work alone sometimes collaborating with other editors is a good way to work.

So overall cuts overall work and are very important to film. This book is a great book for anyone who is interested in the world of editing. I thought it was a very helpful especially because I’m majoring in production. Aside from the book I really enjoyed the class and I wish there were more editing classes. 

Final Thoughts/“In the Blink of an Eye,” by Walter Murch

Final Thoughts/“In the Blink of an Eye,” by Walter Murch

From a young age, I’ve always been intrigued by film. I always found myself sifting through VHS tapes and cassettes trying to figure out which movies to watch. I can even remember my first drive-in movie experience at the age of five and the first time I watched a film in an old fashioned movie theater, The Pitt in Bedford, Pa., which was built in 1939. As I sat down in the old fashioned theater for the first time, my eyes widened and filled with awe as the projector turned on and the red velvet curtains cleared from the movie screen. The feeling was like being a kid in a candy shop. I still get that same feeling after I see a great film, but that would not be possible if it weren’t for people like Walter Murch.

Walter Murch, Academy Award Winner, editor and sound mixer, basically the father of modern editing, wrote a book called, “In the Blink of an Eye” (Revised 2^nd Edition, 2001). Since he is basically the father of the modern editing world, everyone in the editing/film world looks up to him. If Walter Murch is doing it, than everyone is doing it. Per se, when he started editing on Avid, nearly everyone was using Avid, and when he started using Final Cut Pro, nearly everyone made their way to using Final Cut Pro. Now Murch is back to using Avid, his preferred digital editing source.  So, people are using which editing source is more comfortable for them.  

When I started reading “In the Blink of an Eye,” by Walter Murch, I didn’t know what to expect.  The deeper I got in to the book, the more I didn’t want to put it down. Everything Murch was talking about made sense, and deepened my understanding of all the editing techniques and theories we were taught in class.  

In the first portion of the book, Walter Murch tells us about the time he travelled to England for his first anniversary with his wife. When he got there, one of his wife’s friends asked him, “Well, what is it that you do?” Murch replied that he was studying film editing, and his wife’s friend responded, “That’s where you cut out the bad bits.” But editing is much more than that. “Editing is structure, color, dynamics, manipulation of time, all of these other things, etc., etc.” (10) This is definitely true. Sure you are editing out the “bad bits,” the actors performance, off-lighting, etc., but you are also crafting the entire story and developing characters during the process.

On page 13, Murch discusses, if different editors were given the same dailies, there would be different ways each editors cut would be structured. Once again, Murch is correct. For our final project, we all had to edit our crew members’ footage and come up with how we pictured the scene. Not a single one had the same interpretation. A good example could be found with Mike’s cut of Joe’s dailies. The way he structured his cut created a different focus on a different character, making it seem if that he was the main character rather than the original main character.

I could write a whole dissertation on Murch and editing and its plethora of theories, like; why cuts work, the blinking theory, sound mixing, digital editing, etc., but I don’t think anyone would want to read a 10 page paper about all that on a blog. I leave my final part of my blog entry with this. Emotion. You sacrifice certain cuts to preserve the emotion. When you are editing, you consider everything in the following order;  1) Emotion – 51%, 2) Story – 23%, 3) Rhythm – 10%, 4) Eye-trace – 7%, 5) Two-dimensional plane of screen – 5%, and 6) Three-dimensional space of action – 4%. When watching film now, I analyze EVERYTHING, thanks Alex. But, what gets me to un-focus from the minuet details that are not right in the film is the emotion. Emotion can make or break a film. If you make cuts just to obey one of the rules of editing and the acting is bad and there is no emotion, then that takes away from the sentiment of the scene/film and you, as an audience, cannot connect to it. But, a good editor can preserve both emotion and the rules of editing. That's what makes them so great, as well as their films. 

Final Blog

Walter Murch is a renowned film editor and in this book he goes through what he believes editing is all about. He starts this book from a basic level which I liked since I don't have much experience with editing. I liked how he starts of with the most simple questions, "Why do we edit" and "Why do cuts work".  While covering the basic rules we as editors must follow he also covers what he believes will work as a good cut.  I believe this book was overall helpful and insightful. Although I believe since technology is changing so fast this book may soon not apply to what's going on in the present editing world. But I believe this book is a great book for beggings as it is easy to read and starts from the most basic level. Begging a producing major I enjoyed this book and class. Even though it shows you how hard editing can be, I still love finishing a project and watching ever aspect, most of what Murch talks about, come together. Editing is hard but I believe the most important part of making a film because the editor is actually creating the story.

Blog #4

Blog #4 

"In the Blink of An Eye"and Sound in Film Editing

To make a excellent film one has to take into consideration the different components in its entirety on what make a film great. In the past there were silent films that did not need sound work. Thanks to people like Fritz Lang, who first directed a sound film, now we can hear what is being said or even background noise. This film landmark of making sound films or "talkies" as they use to call it brought about major changes in the film industry. Initially, the sound in a film was designed or mix by the film editors. However, in the change of time the emergence of audio engineers and technicians became a critical factor in film making or rather, successful film making. With the work of these individuals, the movies we watch became more fascinating with the range of fast paste sound that may be found in a action scene or a lingering sound of suspense in a horror scene. The sound in a film helps to create the mood of a scene. In a more complex sense the sound may help to trigger a emotional response that the editor is trying to achieve in a scene.  As contemporary viewers we would be quick to file a film without sound under the most boring films to watch. However, with the technological advancements within the film and audio industry there are now sound components to film making that may give an edge to a film being successful. 

In the perspective of technological development, Walter Murch's book, "In the Blink of an Eye,"was partially dedicated to the progress of editing machines. In the latest version of the book Murch added a section that is geared towards the shift from mechanical editing machines such as Moviola to the now digital editing such as Avid. Though Murch worked with the machines of the pre-mechanical age, he was very pleased with the development of digital editing system. He believes that the creation of digital editing was rather more efficient for film editing. The demand of production companies for films to be finish at a quicker time played a critical role to this development. However, digital editing was not what it is today. Murch mentioned how the digitalization of film had bad quality due to the expensive cost of memory or data storage space on a hard drive. In essence, as a editor, Murch sees the change as a positive effect to film but believes that better systems such Apples Final Cut Pro software will give Avid a run for its money. 

In the same book Murch also gives his professional perspective on film editing. In particular I found the segment, "The Rule of Six," to be most beneficial to a young editor like me. As a editors we always want to get and emotional response from the audience while maintaining the story rhythmically. However personally I never knew to what degree is one component more important than the next. Through Murch and his logical reasoning about what makes a good cut I now believe that I will become a better editor. In conclusion, I must say that this class and its readings has benefited me tremendously. CUT.

Please take a look at my final scene with sound  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho2fkKbfzxU

In the Blink of an Eye, and final thoughts

Walter Murch can easily be described as an organized and detailed editor. He created a very thought provoking essay on film editing called, “In The Blink Of An Eye”. He asks in the beginning of the book a very interesting question, why do cuts work? He explains that, “from the moment we get up in the morning until we close our eyes at night, the visual reality we perceive is a continuous stream of linked images.” (pg. 6) I found this quote very interesting because it made me imagine that daily life, through our eyes is nothing but cuts. Every time we blink could be one cut, and we are the editors of our own lives He explained how different movie and television cuts can be different from music video cuts. I think this is true and interesting because when cutting a movie or television, you not only have to make sure the audio sounds correct but more importantly that the images in the video are correct, for example, the eye-line rule. Yet, in a music video one should cut it more to the beat of music that is provided and still have to somehow provide somewhat of a smooth transition so it makes sense to the viewer/listener. I feel like in this class we were able to try that out with the SeaWorld video. I noticed by editing that I really paid more attention to both the sound and the image to match the motions. I really enjoyed the reading of Walter Murch but I’ve noticed I’ve learned so much more by editing in final cut ect in the labs.

This class overall, has made me really appreciate what the editor in films really has to go through. It is not by any means an easy job, but it can be rewarding. Since I’m not a production major, I had no idea what to expect going into this class. The Cinemas themselves have been a huge part in my life growing up. Ever since I was a young boy I’ve been going to the movies with my dad once every Tuesday. After taking this class, now I don’t see the movies as I’ve always seen them. I see them as works of art, and I now notice every shot. I pay attention to the eye line of the characters and the pacing of the cuts. It’s fun to notice those things and because of that it’s made me more organized all around; I’m starting to notice the fine details.

Chuck Remake - Final Cut - With Sound (ADR)

This is a remake of the wedding vow rehearsal/hospital scene from
Chuck: Season 4, Episode 24
"Chuck Versus the Cliffhanger" (16 May. 2011)

Director/ Camerawoman: Breanna Scott (Myself)
Editor: Breanna Scott (Myself)
Actors:
Chuck Bartowski - Joe Certa
Sarah Walker - Alex Cimieri
Ellie Bartowski - Christina Cerutti
Mary Bartowski - Erika Brooks
Alexei Volkoff - Alex Bordino
John Casey - Mike Cardamone
Morgan Grimes - Breanna Scott (Myself)

Song: "Each Coming Night," by Iron and Wine

Mount Saint Mary College
Non-Linear Editing - Spring 14'

Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL__qEu0_Os&feature=youtu.be

Blog on Murch's "In the Blink of an Eye"

It’s an honest opening: “the overwhelming majority of an editor’s time is not spent” making cuts; it’s “a vast amount of time” in “plain deliberative thought”—only to arrive at something that (if done well) shouldn’t “even [be] noticed at all” (4).

“You can look at the human and the chimp as different films edited from the same set of dailies” (13); I like this comparison—particularly in association with our final project; for it is exactly the lesson learned: two (or more) editors with the same set of dailies “would make different films out of the same material”—with different sequencing and manipulation that thus results in a different story (13).

Murch is actually a good writer in so far as using figurative language to aid in the understanding of the craft of film editing: “an overactive editor, who changes shots too frequently, is like a tour guide who can’t stop pointing things out” (16); you should only make a cut when you have to, which then leads into the ‘Rule of Six’ as discussed in class.

“If the emotion is right and the story is advanced […] the audience will tend to be unaware of editorial problems” (19); this is definitely accurate. A few months ago—before I had the slightest editorial knowledge, conceptually—I was completely oblivious to the existence of eye-trace, stage-line, spatial continuity, etc. Point being, it’s fitting that Murch values emotion to the extent he does; for the only thing the audience will remember is “how they felt” (18).

The editor’s “virginity” on Page 24 is an interesting concept; “don’t impregnate” yourself with the emotional conditions of shooting. It does make sense; and I guess this is why you don’t go on set anymore, Alex.

The measures of continuity are pain-staking: hairlines, collar flips (33), and the keeping of awareness is important to note; even with the extremely short videos I’ve edited thus far, I’ve experienced this “mental glaze” of letting dailies “roll over” me (41).

“Editing is a kind of surgery—and have you ever seen a surgeon sitting to perform an operation?” (44)—just a great quote.

This is a good cardinal tenet: “there comes a point where [the editor] becomes invisible” and the characters, shots, emotions take over (50). It seems often times, that editing comes down to feeling out cuts, not making them based upon any list of rules—“you can only have faith” (56).

Given the blink theory, should we be conscious of actors blinking while cutting dialogue scenes—and cut them to their “understanding”? Never mind—he discusses it on 65; also on 65, it seems that he always marks an out-point on the fly—that’s interesting.

The subconscious power of film is incredible—to have the audience “thinking together”—suppressing coughs and blinks; I guess that’s why propagandist films were able to have the psychological impact they did.

“This lack of screen resolution […] would encourage the editor to make more use of close-ups than was necessary” (93)—I definitely found that this was the case while editing Joe’s footage; I relied heavily on the close-up, given that the image quality was so much better.

He reiterates marking on the fly for the last frame, and also, notes that he always made the first assembly of a scene without sound—and I’m not sure why he’d so this; isn’t the editing process somewhat dictated by the script and its sound? And it’s amazing to meditate on how far technology has advanced—“pedals,” “flywheel” (105).

“I expect the material itself to tell me what to do”—the drawback of digital editing is that the machine “gives me only what I ask for” (109). I think there is something to be said about the digitization taking away some of the palpability of  film—and the ability to interact with the medium in a reciprocal relationship—especially given the importance of the “decisive moment”—“having your whole body engaged […] like a gunslinger” (118).

I think it’s important to note his discussion on the “different aesthetics” involved in cutting cinema, as compared to music videos and commercials. I remember discussing this in class briefly—the rate of cuts in commercials, the rapid pace. For music videos, I’d assume the cuts are entirely dictated by the rhythm of the music.

I think his question on Page 130 has been answered: it seems that one editor cannot [entirely] handle vertical and horizontal editing (i.e. the need for an FX team on certain productions)—though there are an increasing number of effects becoming available within NLE systems.

I loved the closing passages, the magnification of the experience of cinema within a theatre—“the true cinematic experience can’t be had at home” (144). 

Final Project (w/ ADR)