Walter Murch

Just found this on a website.

Walter Murch, editor of great films like The Godfather III, and Apocalypse Now, wrote a wonderful and very informative text called The Blink of an Eye.  He discusses his experience in editing, and gives great advice for aspiring editors. My favorite chapter out of the text, “The Rule of Six,” lays out a set of criteria that Murch believes should be at the top of an editors list when working.

His list is as follows (in descending order by importance):

1) Emotion
2) Story
3) Rhythm
4) Eye-trace
5) Two-dimensional plane of Screen
6) Three-dimensional space of action

I found this interesting that he places emotion higher than anything else. I'd have always thought that continuity and developing the story would have been the most important factors, but I'm certainly not going to argue with Walter Murch.

Having thought about it, although it is a job and half to be able to have a seamless film, surely editing it down to emotion is better? Surely it is better to feel a connection whilst editing, in for that emotion to come across on other people?