Outdated, especially the later parts, but still such an interesting perspective. At the end Murch wonders about the digitization of cinema and the potential effects, even hypothesizing a “diabolical black box” that allows someone to simply think a film into existence—made digitally and featuring virtual actors. Seems like where we’re going with AI. Please Walter make an updated edition discussing AI and social media.

Also, this is the 40th book I’ve read this year. I have now read more books in 2024 than I did in the previous 4 years combined

I mean every editor just needs to read this at least once a year. Vital stuff and so well told (even if it does get a little repetitive near the end)

The main chunk of the book has been invaluable as I start editing my first film project in several years. However, the second half, Digital Film Editing, that has been added to the second edition has filled me with a surprising amount of optimism for the future of film as an art.

It’s hard for me not to worry about the death of cinema (as many have before). Some of this comes from audiences: will new generations really only watch short form? Some of this from executives: should we only cater to audiences that may only watch short form and even then likely on their phones? And lastly, and most applicably to the second half of Murch’s book, technology plays a role: now that computers can write, paint, and even conjure moving picture, what will happen to film as we know it?

And so, reading about the transition from analog to digital in the editing world and specifically mid-production for Murch on The English Patient, was incredibly heartening. As he describes, editing is a dance and to me reading this book: it’s alchemy. The tools may change, the options may increase, but it’s watching the distinctly human blink of an eye, feeling the rhythms of emotion in a scene that create great editing, and that’s fundamentally human.

My dad found this book stashed away from back when he had to read it in college and said I might find it interesting. I'm no professional but I do enjoy the subject of video editing. There were bits of editing techniques that I thought were interesting and I want to try sometime. The last few chapters about blinking (hence the title) were especially enthralling. It was a great look at how they edited back in the day. The best part was laughing at how much has changed in the industry since the 1980's. I found myself saying "little did he know..." when the author was trying to figure out how digital editing would play out.
This was a short, interesting read I'd recommend to anyone with any interest in the field of the movie industry.

A look at editing and also the development of art. What we lose with new technology and what we gain. Apart from the subtle sexism in Murch’s referral to directors with only male pronouns, I think his career and the lessons he’s learned will always be applicable to film editing.

The book is really good for beginner filmmakers. I'd like to state my review in pros and cons for this one.

Pros:

1. It really encourages us to look at editing as an emotional expression of storytelling and not just a tool to put your coverage together.
2. Obviously it also teaches us how to do it, explains the author's rule of six.
3. Also personal suggestions of editing set-up.
4. Small book, easy read.

Cons:

1. The discussions on the old school editing machinery will feel unnecessary after reading. Because most of us got nothing to do with learning about them as they are not in use in anymore.
2. Because of it's popularity you might think all your editing problems could be solved by reading this but no, rule of six, sound mixing and few stories is what you should except in a small book.

Religious practice of rule of six and then carving out your own methods is the key.

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.

Wonderful - Murch makes such exciting intellectual connections between film editing and the world around us, ranging from nature and evolution to classical music, painting, and sculpture. Even more, his extended thoughts about the transition from film to digital at the end of the 20th century are simultaneously energizing and melancholic to read, weighing as it does what we've gained and what we (by now, a few decades since he wrote it) have lost.

Most relevant are the final few pages, in which Murch wonders if the digital revolution in film will mean the end of collaboration, since one person could eventually create a movie in total isolation at a computer (something he finds troubling and against the spirit of movie-making). What follows is a paean to the cinema audience experience of gathering together in the dark, described as combining the permanency of literature and the spontaneity of theatre. In our fraught moment, full of loud voices dismissing the cinemagoing experience in favor of private at-home viewing, it is comforting to read Murch extol the values of the former over the latter -- the level of visual and sonic detail is not greater at a movie theatre, but we hear and see more anyway in that setting, because we've gone outside ourselves, relinquished the power of controlling the experience, and opened ourselves up to surprise.

A great insight into the process of editing films from a very well experienced artist.
A must read if you are, in any way related to the artist side of filmmaking. A fast and simple read.

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.

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

very good, but i don’t think the director is “inseminated” with the knowledge of production, actually…..it’s incredible that even in something that more practical this kind of film theory freud slop still sneaks in….