Editing is something that if done well should barely be noticed by the untrained eye. It should be as subtle as a blink, and as Walter Murch suggests, with the same function as a blink. Cuts should be made to separate thoughts and to organize material in a way that allows us to intake material and to understand it accordingly. Editing has a vast impact on how audiences perceive a story, and how they understand visuals and audio presented. Murch’s idea of blinks being a concept of separation of thought and processing of ideas and emotions is something that I have never even considered before, and makes the idea of editing not necessarily easier, but definitely helps clear up the definition and purpose of editing. Walter Murch, midway through his book, In the Blink ofan Eye, describes the process of editing as follows: “We chop up the poor film in a miniature guillotine and then stick the dismembered pieces together like Dr, Frankenstein‘s monster.
The difference (the miraculous difference) is that out of this apparent butchery our creation can sometimes gain not only a life but a soul as well”. He compares the act of editing to in a sense putting together body parts, mere components of life that in themselves are dead and lifeless, and creating something that is a live and has emotion and meaning behind it as well, It doesn’t always work well, sometimes the editing of a film can end up being disjointed and disconnected. But with the right techniques and use of tools available, the cutting together of different visuals can be powerful. The transition of film to digital format is not something to go unnoticed. A large portion of Murch’s writing in The Blink ofan Eye is dedicated to discussing the benefits and the downfall of both formats, film and digital. What is interesting to me is the fact that even though they are similar for the end user, they are drastically different in the process of creation.
For example, now with digital video, it is much more accessible for people to use video as a means of recording things and editing them, DSLRs are now easily accessible and take fair quality video, and editing programs no longer cost tens of thousands, but rather mere hundreds, some even being free. This revolution of accessibility does much to expand the medium of cinema and films But might it also degrade it in a sense? Take photography, for example, now that everyone with a smartphone or a DSLR can “be a photographer”, does it degrade the actual art of photography? I would say not In a way, it makes actual photographers with a passion for storytelling and trained artistic skill even more valuable, but also more difficult for the common person to identify. Thus, the art form of the motion picture still prevails to be an art form. While nearly everyone can take video, it still takes a large amount of talent a collaboration with other artists to create a story in the form of a film.
The digital age continues to develop though, and with the development of technology, we see the development of concepts as well, and as we advance into this conceptual age, I think that in terms of consumer entertainment, it will continue to be largely the special effects, wild action, and hilarity of films that will largely draw crowds and the masses to the movie theatres and encourage them to watch films. At the core, however, it will be the heart of the film that will be what sets it apart from anything else, not an increased resolution, not better FX, but rather true film will be set apart by the concepts presented and the meaning behind the story itself, rather than the actual materials Murch muses of the technological possibility in the year 2099 to create a film by merely thinking it into existence. He questions whether or not that this would be a positive or a negative thing, and he supports the former.
Murch believes that as making films becomes more accessible and more reasonable for a large amount of people to do, it will continue to develop as an art form I‘m not sure if I can agree with him completely, but I do believe that as film becomes a more accessible medium, a large amount of talent will be discovered It is much the same as writing We see that as more people over the centuries have learned to read and write, a vast amount of talent has been discovered. There is such a large amount of written works that are created each year that it becomes very difficult to sift Again, I would stress that an important part of film is the collaboration between a wide variety of artists, each individuals with different ideas and talents, coming together to create a single product or story. Walter Murch’s book, even though focusing on one main aspect of filmmaking, gives a valuable perspective on the entirety of the work and talent it takes to transform a mere idea into motion picture form. Though the techniques of getting the end product can be vastly different, the end goal is still the same. Storytelling remains the true heart of film.
