kjboldon's review
5.0
This book is full of so much wisdom and information. I recommend watching, Godfather, The Conversation, Godfather II, Apocalypse Now, and The Talented Mr. Ripley then read this book to find out why they're as amazing as they are.
ryan_lieske's review
5.0
Put this on the shelf right next to Lumet's "Making Movies"-- the two most essential books for anyone who is serious about filmmaking.
oldpondnewfrog's review
4.0
Murch: "[My father] would even stub his cigarettes out in paintings. You can see the fragments of tobacco covered over with oil paint. Or he'd put a painting down and set cans of paint on it, so you see the rings of the cans on the canvas. Or he would stand on a painting, and grid dirt into it. Before he ever started on a painting, the canvas would have to go through a period of abuse. We lived in an old apartment on Riverside Drive in New York, and the long hallway of the apartment was frequently carpeted in unpainted canvases for weeks at a time. The life of the apartment, with cats and people and kids, would just continue. People would be tramping back and forth on the canvases, accidents would happen, things would get spilled on them. Then he would go through them and find the most interesting section of —"
Ondaatje: "Distress."
Murch: "Distress, right! Then he'd put that up on the easel and on top of that he'd paint these realistic still lines. But somehow the ghosts of those random events would work their way into the objects. He called those distress marks "hooks." A canvas for him, without that distress, was a canvas that had no hooks on it and without them the image was in danger of simply sliding off the canvas."
Ondaatje: "Distress."
Murch: "Distress, right! Then he'd put that up on the easel and on top of that he'd paint these realistic still lines. But somehow the ghosts of those random events would work their way into the objects. He called those distress marks "hooks." A canvas for him, without that distress, was a canvas that had no hooks on it and without them the image was in danger of simply sliding off the canvas."
rachelkc's review
4.0
I'm not a film editor, but I learned so much by reading The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film. This is a book for film lovers, definitely, but also for writers, artists, and storytellers in general. Broken down into four separate conversations that the author (Michael Ondaatje, also the author of The English Patient) had with Walter Murch, this book touches on subjects directly relating to film editing (timing, sound effects, music, technology) and on subjects that any creative person will appreciate (the art and science of revision, the sound of an environment).
I've only seen several of the movies that Murch worked on, but his explanations of editing techniques still fascinated me. If he is known at all, it is most likely through his connection to Francis Ford Coppola and his work on The Godfather (and The Godfather, Part II and The Godfather, Part III), Apocalypse Now, and The English Patient (this last one directed by Anthony Minghella). These are now on my list to see.
As a writer, I appreciate Murch's love of the editing process. Many film editing techniques apply to writing as well--storytelling is storytelling. I also liked his discussion of translating a book to film: they are different mediums, so of course they are going to be different stories. Murch says a responsible director/screenwriter will find the essential theme of a novel and figure out how to represent that on screen.
I've only seen several of the movies that Murch worked on, but his explanations of editing techniques still fascinated me. If he is known at all, it is most likely through his connection to Francis Ford Coppola and his work on The Godfather (and The Godfather, Part II and The Godfather, Part III), Apocalypse Now, and The English Patient (this last one directed by Anthony Minghella). These are now on my list to see.
As a writer, I appreciate Murch's love of the editing process. Many film editing techniques apply to writing as well--storytelling is storytelling. I also liked his discussion of translating a book to film: they are different mediums, so of course they are going to be different stories. Murch says a responsible director/screenwriter will find the essential theme of a novel and figure out how to represent that on screen.
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