In the Blink of an Eye - Cuts and Shadow Cuts

In this chapter, Walter Murch discusses his editing process in the film Apocalypse Now and how he had to cut down 1,250,000 feet worth of footage to create the final film. "... the amount of film that had been printed: 1,250,000 feet, which works out to be just over 230 hours." He then goes on to explain why there was so much footage, "... the camera positions were changed and the whole thing was repeated. Then repeated again, and then again. They kept on going until, I guess, they felt that they had enough material..." The reason he talks about this is to show not only the issues that dealing with a great deal of raw footage can create as an editor, but also why it can be a good thing to allow them to create a clear and interesting film with more options available to them. "The more film there is to work with, of course, the greater the number of pathways that can be considered, and the possibilities compound upon each other and consequently demand more time for evaluation."

The points he raises here are very relevant to the documentary, The Movement, that we are editing at the moment as we have a very large amount of footage at our disposal, although admittedly on a much smaller scale than that of Apocalypse Now, and instead of dismissing most of it and only using a small amount, we should branch out and attempt to make these connections between shots to see if they work effectively and potentially improve the narrative of the film as a whole.

Finally, he ends the chapter describing what shadow cuts are and gives the context about why as editors we should understand their relevance. "..."shadow" splices-splices made, considered, and then undone or lifted from the film." This also links into the editing processes of assembly and rough cut's as this is done frequently in both of them, and has been done in our edit of The Movement. "A vast amount of preparation, really, to arrive at the innocuously brief moment of decisive action: the cut... something that, appropriately enough, should look almost self-evidently simple and effortless, if it is even noticed at all."

(All quotes are taken from: Murch, Walter - In the Blink of an Eye -1988 Viking Press, Pages 1-4)