The Conversations with Walter Murch

I finally finished reading The Conversations : Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje. The book was very readable and easy to digest as Mr. Murch conversed with Mr. Ondaatje who wrote English Patient. It's a great book for any filmmaker who's aspiring to tell a great story on screen. It's not too technical or not too philosophical about film editing, film making, and storytelling. After reading dense Avid manuals for hours, this book is welcome relief in my current reading list.

Apple Pro section got another great article on Walter Murch editing Jarhead.

"You’re watching people think in movies, which is the fascinating and completely unique experience of film versus other kinds of theater, where the thoughts have to be expressed in words. In film, of course you have words, but mostly you have thought and attitude, and that attitude is mostly expressed in the eyes of the characters."

"The thing that makes Final Cut Pro a pro app is its ability to interact with other departments. Tape isn’t dead, but I prefer to work random access with QuickTime and digital files. And with Final Cut, we were able to bypass that whole tape stage. We did a lot more updating, and we had a lot more current media going into the mix and into visual effects because we were using a tapeless system."

Technology marches on, but is storytelling leading it or following it?