The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics - the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room.
Interpretation
Directing is often overemphasized, while the true artistry of film lies in editing.
Walter Murch's quote emphasizes that the essence of filmmaking is not just in directing but primarily emerges during the editing process. He suggests that critics often give undue credit to directors, overlooking how editing crafts the narrative and emotional impact of a film. This reflects the collaborative nature of cinema, showcasing how various roles contribute to the storytelling experience.
In practice
In a film studies class discussing the importance of editing.
You can always make a film somehow. You can beg, borrow, steal the equipment, use credit cards, use your friends' goodwill, wheedle your way into this or that situation. The real problem is, how do you get people to see it once it is made?
Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does.
I believe that one of the secret engines that allows cinema to work, and have the marvelous power over us that it does, is the fact that for thousands of years we have spent eight hours every night in a 'cinematic' dream-state, and so are familiar with this version of reality.
There are many, many nouns for the act of looking - a glance, a glimpse, a peep - but there's no noun for the act of listening. In general, we don't think primarily about sound. So I have a different perspective on the world; I can construct soundscapes that have an effect on people, but they don't know why. It's a sort of subterfuge.
Film is really the one art form that can effectively use silence. Music and theater can play with silence, but they can't sustain silence without losing energy, whereas film can go into a silent mode and stay there for minutes at a time.
This applies to many film jobs, not just editing: half the job is doing the job, and the other half is finding ways to get along with people and tuning yourself in to the delicacy of the situation.
The power of story and the power of a well-crafted film or television show is really all you need to speak to people. I think Hollywood is sort of catching up to that.
There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.
To enter a theatre for a performance is to be inducted into a magical space, to be ushered into the sacred arena of the imagination.
I have watched independent record stores evaporate all over America and Europe. That's why I go into as many as I can and buy records whenever possible. If we lose the independent record store, we lose big. Every time you buy your records at one of these places, it's a blow to the empire.
When I was a child, I used to paint intently. The older I become, and the closer death approaches, the brighter my life gets day by day.
Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.
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