I've written a bit about Walter Murch—editor, sound-designer, writer, author, philosopher—specifically in the area of sound design (or "audio montage" as Murch coined it), where his work was industry-changing, moving away from recycled sound libraries (for example, that "ubiquitous" jangling "Universal" telephone ring!), and creating specific sound-scapes for the picture and tailoring them for the environment, be it physical or emotional. When it works, it becomes a singular emotional experience, wrapping an audience member into a cocoon of individual reactions and interpretations, getting under their skin and firing neurons in quite unexpected ways—making what McLuhan called a hot medium and cooling it off. When it's done wrong, the experience is that of a wall of sound and creating an expectation that every little detail in a scene must be given its aural due.
Analog Murch super-imposed over digital Murch |
He had me at The Star-Child: Lefkovitz begins with an image from 2001 |
"Should I be doing this?": Murch edits a scene in Jarhead featuring a sequence he edited in Apocalypse Now. |
One could go on...but there are links and you can look up past posts. The film itself is a fast view, probably 80 minutes as the credits are vast. And it's a nice little tutorial the power and potential of the film medium, and nice skimming of Murch's career.
"Sometimes you have to kill the chicken to save the monkey..." |
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