Lights, Cameras, Action: Genius.

Eavesdropping on conversations between highly intelligent people interests me in the way the conversations reveal the way the speakers think. Reading The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film fascinated me in much the same way. Michael Ondaatje writes literary novels. Walter Murch edits film and also is a sound mixer/editor. Seeing how they talked their way through interesting questions to find common ground in editing -- manuscript or movie -- energized my imagination.

Murch edited some important films in the last century and continues to work in the film business. Reading about his approach, how music and sound play such an important role in his editing process, has made me want to see again all the movies he's edited. As I read, I found myself thinking about my own process -- how I approach the first draft of a manuscript. Ondaatje functioned as a stand-in for me, asking questions that a writer might ask, commenting as a writer might comment.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and learned a great deal I didn't know about filmmaking and just how difficult it is. Murch talked about being a solitary person, enjoying working alone, and yet he described the filmmaking process as a collaborative one among all the people involved, and there are a LOT of people involved depending on the size of the project. He talked about directors he'd worked with and their different approaches to their craft. How they must be inspiring leaders, herders, and visionaries all in one person. Murch talked about what influenced his approach to each scene he edited, how the director influenced that approach or the camera operator, the actors, and everyone else. He talked about the way he decides when to start a scene and when to cut out of one, something that any writer would find useful.

The movies Murch edited that I especially want to see again: The Conversation, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley.

I highly recommend this book to writers who love movies, screenwriters, readers who love movies, and anyone curious about what exactly a film editor or sound mixer does. Loved this book!

Very thought provoking discussions on the craft of film and art more broadly. Murch preaches the importance of a diverse knowledge outside of cinema.

This a non- fiction book interviews the movie editor Walter Murch, it talks about how important does editing means in a movie, and what kind of effects will shows by different editing. He talks about the experiences he been through his career and it gives the readers an idea of a revolution of editing. In a different era and time periods, editors invent different style and ways to edit video clips. It gives different effects to the audience, from a single cut and putting all the clips together, to putting sound effects, combine different clips. Walter Murch has been through a lot of big events for editing videos, and he demonstrates a positive and good attitude by sharing his experiences and encourage any editors to try new things. He gives an idea of the difference between director, mixer, editor, and screenwriter. They all have different jobs and difficult parts, and they are how a film begins. Reading the conversation with Walter Murch, the lovers of film and students who want to learn editing learns a lot of information on the timeline of how film forms and change.

A beautiful clever book about film editing and so much more.

This book feels like reading a transcript of a longform podcast...and it's as thrilling as you can imagine that to be. There no doubt gold in here, but there's bound to be better ways to spend your time mining it elsewhere. Didn't bother finishing.

This book is such a treat. So many random things come up in the course of conversation, and this is what that is.

A series of conversations with a true film genius. March's wisdom is not exclusive to cinema and as such, the connections he makes from science, art and history into his filmmaking are profound, revelatory and wholly unlike anything you've ever studied in relation to the art. The specific, behind the scenes anecdotes from films like the Godfather, Apocalypse Now and English Patient are in themselves, very interesting and full of great lessons to be learned. A must read for any filmmaker.

Two disclaimers: First, I'm recommending this book as a writer and not as a film editor or screenwriter. Second: I thoroughly resonated to this book because it mirrors the way I write and revise.

Having made these disclaimers, this is a book that I am recommeding to all my students. If you aren't a writer who works in a linear manner (and even if you are) this book, in which a film editor explains the way he works, is like listening in on the silent conversations writers often have with themselves when they work. The only thing that's different is that Murch is excited and exuberant. Many writers think they should have organized things from the beginning and berate themselves for having to wade through chaos.

Writers are a little like weavers, working on the wrong side of the cloth. They have to look on the other side to see what the reader will see. Walter Murch, a film editor, has the advantage of looking at the "other" side of the cloth for the first time. But at the stage he sees the film, the "other" side is chaotic without obvious highlights--full of jewels in the midst of a lot of detritus. As you read this, you realize that it's Murch who has created the final version because he assembles the jewels into a coherent necklace. He even makes things into jewels that aren't obvious and discards some that are. (Just as you discard the sentences you're in love with.)

He is generous when talking about his techniques and so is Ondaatje. Hence it really is an audible rendition of writers' silent conversations.

Without question this is a book that will be fascinating to many people--whether they are in the arts or not. It's really a visible discussion of a creative process that is usually hidden and silent, whether you compose, sculpt, paint, write, invent, or find a spin on Goeddel's theorem.

Without being a polemic, it debunks the notion that a creative work has to start as a coherent whole. (At times, of course, the whol does come all at one. But so much of the time the creative process is a switchback trail.)

Murch talks about many films, ranging from The English Patient to Rear Window to Apocalypse Now. It's fascinating to see the journey from the first shoot to the final film. Ondaatje often compares his own process to Murch's, weaving in a writer's perspective. Nonetheless, this should appeal to everyone interested in films, conversations, and the alchemy of the creative process.

You probably get a lot more out of this book if you’ve seen The English Patient

"The structure in a book allows the reader a more meditative participation than film. Because we are not bound by time" (Ondaatje 46).

"In film, there's a dance between the words and images and the sounds...with a film, you have to consume it in one go" (Murch 46).

If you love books, and film- read this immediately!

If you love Michael Ondaatje as much as I do, read this immediately!

This is a serious, thoughtful engaging book of two artists at the peak of their craft lovingly talking about their experiences in the art of creating. Michael Ondaatje's conversations with film editor and director Walter Murch reveals how editing a film is a meticulous process that can be quite solitary and solemn. One has to know the director's vision, and then has to study actors' movements to finally select which images would be cut and printed as the final product.

Mr. Murch, a three time Academy Award winner has edited some of filmdom's most indelible pictures such as "Apocalypse Now", "The English Patient" (Ondaatje's novel), "The Return to Oz" (Murch's stab at both directing and editing); "The Godfather Trilogy" “Julia” “Ghost” and helped restore Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil”.

Through conversation and memory, Ondaatje somehow makes Murch's ideas on film just like his novels: his language becomes quite languid and hazy, taking its time to build, and always ending poetically.

I found this to be quite an artistic achievement- it seemed Walter Murch somehow because a character that Mr. Ondaatje has created simply of the way these interviews were written.

I had no idea that Mr. Murch edited so many iconic films, and that the process of splicing and cutting scenes was as tedious, but as rewarding. If there's anyone who asks me if they need a book about filmmaking, this is the one I will wholeheartedly suggest.

I don't have enough words for how great this book is. Imagine sitting down and chatting with a man who has helped shape everything you know and love about film, who is not a well-known name outside film circles, who helped shape some of your favorite cinematic works, and learn how he thinks and acts as he shapes things. Along the way hear his insights on how everything he worked on has come together. Most of the time you're nodding as you realize someone is putting into words what you always knew but couldn't verbalize adequately. The rest of the time you're shaking your head in amazement at things you never realized you had to know about process.

Eye-opening, relentlessly readable and an invaluable reference if you love the art of film, and not just the judgment of it.