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Walter Murch. By Holly Steadman Clary Fray Ricardo Hache. Walter Murch. Walter Murch was born in New York in 1943.
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Walter Murch By Holly Steadman Clary Fray Ricardo Hache
Walter Murch • Walter Murch was born in New York in 1943. • He went to the University of Southern California, where he was classmate of future filmmakers such as George Lucas (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) and film editors such as Robert Dalva (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III) and Hal Barwood (Close Encounters of the Third Kind). • His first major work as as sound editor was for Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People(1969).
Work in Films • After that he was the sound editor for American Graffiti (1973), directed by George Lucas. Although a low-budget film, years later it has been considered as one of the best films of the 70s. • In 1974 he mixed and edited sound for Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation and The Godfather Part II, receiving his first Academy Award for the former. • However, he had to wait until 1979 to win his first Academy Award for his sound editing in Apocalypse Now. • He would win two more Academy Awards for his film and audio editing in The English Patient (1996).
Style • Walter Murch acknowledges the prevalence of the image in films. Therefore, the sound has to adapt to the motion pictures.— 'Sound has a great power but it is a conditional power' • In films, the function of the sound is to place 'the image in a physical and emotional context'. • Music in films should be a 'collector and channeler of previously created emotion' instead of a 'device that creates emotions' .
Style • Use of silences: 'Even though it is not used that often, silence can be an useful tool'. • Murch considers audio and film editing to be moremechanical work than creative work.
Eccentricities • He works standing up.— 'Sound editing is similar to brain surgery. I need to stand to be fully engaged'. • A scene of Apocalypse Now (1979) required the sound of crickets in a field. Murch recorded the crickets individually and then overlapped them a thousand times.
Innovations and Achievements • Walter Murch is acknowledge as the first to coin the term 'Sound designer'. Apocalypse Now (1979) was the first multichannel film edited using a computerised mixing desk. • Up to now Murch is the only person that has received both Best Sound and Best Film Editing at the Academy Awards.
Quotes ‘When I'm actually assembling a scene, I assemble it as a silent movie. Even if it's a dialogue scene, I lip read what people are saying.’ ‘Film is 51% Sound’ ‘For anyone who works in Sound, it’s really something that we all love to do’ - On creating the ‘echo’ in Sound Design.
Facts • Murch has also Directed, co-written scripts and edited films. • Worked on all three films of ‘The Godfather’ but only worked on Sound in the first two. • ‘The English Patient’ was the first film to be edited electronically and win an Academy Award.
Sound isn’t considered until late in the production process, but Murch begins working on Sound very early on in order for it to be ‘great’. • He begins the process early with ‘scene cards’ and ‘picture boards’.
‘Rule of Six’ The ‘Emotion’ of the moment The sound advances the ‘Story’ The ‘Rhythm’ within a scene ‘Eye-Trace’ – The audience’s focus of interest ‘Two-dimensional plane of screen’ ‘Three-dimensional space of action’
Apocalypse Now • Apocalypse now is interesting to us because of it’s unique sound design which led Murch to win an Academy Award for it. • The longest film ever edited. • A new system of sounds using 5.1. Surround Mix
Murch explains the this scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’ is an example of the change that the military had passed through; from the horse cavalry to a helicopter cavalry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz3Cc7wlfkI
