Interviewing a Legendary Film Editor, Walter Murch

I met Walter Murch. A legendary film editor and sound designer. This is an exclusive interview with some amazing insights from the three-times Oscar-winning artist.
Recorded during the 30th EnergaCamerimage Film Festival.
We talked about music editing in Godfather, his approach to editing a scene, standing desks, the future of film editors, and more.
Hosted by your truly, Piotr Toczyński.
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0:00 - Intro & Context
0:33 - Why Editors Should Stand
5:23 - Editing During Film Production
7:52 - System of Editing a Scene
10:55 - Music Editing
14:27 - The Future of Editing
16:06 - On Editing Directors
17:57 - Common Misconception about Editing
22:24 - Writing a New Book
22:44 - His Directing Experience
24:09 - Improving Your Editing Sense
26:00 - How to Comfort Directors Depressed About the Assembly Edit
28:04 - Outro
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Made Possible by:
- Energa CAMERIMAGE - The International Film Festival
of the Art of Cinematography,
- NoFilmSchool.com,
- and my wife, Ania!
Special Thanks: Joey Alderson, Łukasz Rafiński, Łukasz Marcinkowski, Dariusz Kuźma, and Justyna Czarna.
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Let's connect!
/ piotrtoczynski
/ piotrtoczynski

[@cttp]

Thanks for sharing with your colleagues and upvoting the video! :)

[@annatoczynska2943]

Great interview 🔥👏 I am so proud of you my dear husband! ❤️ I know how important this interview was to you and how much it meant. Mr. Murch is a wonderfully inspiring person.

[@cttp]

Thank you, wife :D You made it possible ❤

[@VashiNedomansky]

Congrats to both of you for making this a reality. Walter was so engaging and open with his responses and his compliment to you at the end must be extremely rewarding! A wonderful interview indeed! Kudos!

[@schwarzemilch]

Aww. You both are so sweet. Thank you both for making this happen!

[@ReubenSingham]

I was sitting when I was watching this. Now I'm standing up. 😂 Thanks Piotr for this great interview!

[@cttp]

Haha :D good one, Reuben :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@ErwannKerroch84]

NO FREAKING WAY MAN !!!! Congrats !!

[@cttp]

Trust me - that was my reaction as well ;)

[@Taba]

Few years ago Piotr inspired me to buy a standing desk. Man this was a great health improvement 💪😎👍 I am glad you talked with Walter about this topic - we need to think about our bodies more often!

[@cttp]

I'm glad I could have a positive impact on you :D My journey with a standing desk started with Walter Murch so this question was important to ask :)

[@Taba]

@@cttp good to know it is spreading around 👍👍👍

[@robertroot9863]

Superb program and excellent interview with one of America's finest film editors and sound designers. Thank you so much for sharing this. You deserve exponentially more subscribers and I hope you continue to grow. Wishing you and your family the very best.

[@cttp]

Thank you, Robert! Btw, I have another interview with Mr. Murch as well. About his upcoming book. You might like it as well :)

[@gaurankmishra6502]

What a wonderful interview..

[@cttp]

I have a second interview with Mr. Murch you might like. And most recently I published an interview with Eddie Hamilton. It's a great one as well

[@gaurankmishra6502]

@@cttp surely will watch both... I am also a budding editor these insights are very helpful from the masters

[@stratospheric-tv]

Lovely interview. Thank you bringing these amazing guests to us! 🙏

[@cttp]

My pleasure!

[@KwasnikPictures]

Wow amazing interview!🎥🔥👌

[@cttp]

Thanks, Piotr! 😊

[@bijomaTV]

"So, Walter, tell me something about editing." "Yeah, sure. Blood is important on a second-by-second basis. The lymphatic system cleans in a matter of days, so the body did not dedicate a pump for the lymphatic system."

[@cttp]

:D that's why we love him, right?

[@BooneLovesVideo]

Whoooooaaaaaaa!! Congrats man.

[@cttp]

Thank you, Jason! It's Mr. Murch we should be thanking :D

[@tapaschakraborty9792]

Hi.... from India. Wonderful interview...❤

[@schwarzemilch]

Thank you so much, this was so inspiring for my own editing work. I could have listened way longer to you. A wonderful interview. Great questions and precious insights from a true editing genius.

[@cttp]

And I could have talked to him for much longer. Unfortunately I was under a time limit :)

[@Woodydelray]

Hey Piotr, thanks for this, so insightful. Walter Murch is such an inspiration, in the Blink of an Eye is a book every editor working at every level should read. I'm sure you could have chatted with him for hours 🙂

[@cttp]

Indeed! Unfortunately, I had time limit but I could go on for hours, as you said yourself :)

[@AlanBerry]

Legendary! Thanks for this.

[@cttp]

It's been my pleasure all the way through.

[@mrjonnymac]

Finally catching up - Loved the discussion about music, as a John Williams fan I love how music guides me, but the contrast example of the Godfather was great to help the visuals and acting of the scene guide your emotional reaction. The music validates the emotions created from the acting. Great way to think about the films.

[@cttp]

I loved that comparison as well :)

[@ray.watts.44]

Very interesting interview, thank you.

[@cttp]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mysterymobberly9627]

Whoa! You snagged the biggest editor interview possible it seems like! I remember reading "In the Blink of an Eye" in film school. Beautiful book. I love your videos too. Your passion for the craft is infectious. I currently work as a news editor--have you ever worked in news? On the one hand, I love having fresh new content to edit every day (or just anything at all haha), on the other hand, it just makes me want to embark on more creative endeavors. Just got to find a friend who has the time to shoot a feature film haha.

[@cttp]

Thanks so much! I have not worked in news. But I'm looking for that friend as well :D If I won't find it next year, I'll have to do it myself ;)

[@sanjayjayaprakash9550]

Whoa! Perfect answers are the gift for perfect questions! Appreciate the effort for this priceless interaction..

[@cttp]

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@ShadowCutFilms]

I named my film production company Shadow Cut Films in honour of Walter Murch and his incredible book 'In The Blink Of An Eye'. Can't wait to dig into this interview!

[@cttp]

Let me know how you like it! :)

[@nicolasfieldsoundservices]

Wow this is awesome! Thanks so much.

[@cttp]

My pleasure!

[@DerekLieu]

Great interview! What an honor 😮

[@cttp]

Yes, It was a huge honor!

[@voltairengaCF]

So underrated interview! Bet 80% of editors doesn’t know this guy.

[@cttp]

I'm afraid you might be right. But those who are serious about the craft, probably are. It's a great man!

[@TheFPSChannel]

JEALOUS!

[@joerivandenberghe7193]

Thanks for sharing! ❤

[@cttp]

You bet!

[@user-mr9iu1vc9u]

This was great

[@jean-yveschantoiseau3110]

Great questions. You did a good job. Thanks a lot

[@cttp]

Thank you very much :)

[@nithinsuku]

Great questions. Thank you for this interview.

[@mrdolo94]

Lovely. I personally think this is an eye opener for all film editors now and for the future

[@cttp]

100% :)

[@tommyvasilev5012]

Thank you, mate

[@cttp]

Thanks for watching 👍

[@tokeburns]

What a dream interview for any editor. Is Walter Murch in Europe now?

[@cttp]

He was in Poland for a couple of days in Nov 2022. I met him at a film festival - i could not believe my lack either :)

[@TrollMeister_]

Great interview. I wish I could ask him what he thought of the editing in the film Amadeus. Especially the cuts between Salieri, the priest and the flashback scenes. It's a shame the film didn't win an Oscar for editing.

[@cttp]

I agree!. That would be an excellent question :)

[@yuddhveersingh710]

Godly🔥 and i love classic cinema so much man. i think Ai will never be a problem because machines don't have that sense of emotion . we as humans know which moment connects us. Thank you for this interview

[@cttp]

Thank you! :)

[@pgardecki]

Keep up! Good work, pozdrawiam :)

[@cttp]

THX, Piotr! :)

Great and very interesting interview 🔥

[@cttp]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@idm125]

Hi from Israel... great interview,,, you aproached him as an film editor, but its too bad you did not elaborate on his main expertize which is sound design and editing... look up his name in IMDB, he is listed there in some films as Sound Montage....

[@cttp]

Hi! I know he is. He did sound for Godfather 2, after all. Trust me, I'd live to have another 5 hours to ask him everything I'd love to know :) but my time was limited. I had 25 minutes with him and I actually ended up stretching it by a few minutes. Hopefully I get to interview Mr. Murch again! :)

[@MMPHOTOANDVIDEO]

ખુબ ખુબ આભાર તમારી ચેનલ ના માધ્યમ થી આ અમૂલ્ય વાર્તાલાપ સાંભળવા મળ્યો

[@cttp]

You're welcome :) Thanks for watching

[@jtmorgan5284]

💪 P r o m o s m

[@mschocker77]

Those Rode mics are sooooo ugly and look out of place. At least put some black gaff on them or something.

[@cttp]

If I have to choose whether to focus on what questions I'm gonna ask or how the mics look like, I'm still gonna choose the first one :)

[@ProdByGhost]

24:36 why did you leave that in lol the cut is wierd