Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does.
Walter MurchRead
You can always make a film somehow. You can beg, borrow, steal the equipment, use credit cards, use your friends' goodwill, wheedle your way into this or that situation. The real problem is, how do you get people to see it once it is made?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creating a film is possible through various means, but the challenge lies in getting an audience to watch it.
Walter Murch emphasizes that while the technical and logistical aspects of making a film can be navigated through creativity and resourcefulness, the greater challenge is ensuring that the film reaches viewers. It's a reminder that art creation is only part of the journey; sharing it with an audience is equally vital.
Themes
FilmAudienceCreativityArtVisibility
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire young filmmakers at a workshop about the importance of audience engagement.
More from Walter Murch
All quotes →The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics - the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room.
Walter MurchRead
I believe that one of the secret engines that allows cinema to work, and have the marvelous power over us that it does, is the fact that for thousands of years we have spent eight hours every night in a 'cinematic' dream-state, and so are familiar with this version of reality.
Walter MurchRead
There are many, many nouns for the act of looking - a glance, a glimpse, a peep - but there's no noun for the act of listening. In general, we don't think primarily about sound. So I have a different perspective on the world; I can construct soundscapes that have an effect on people, but they don't know why. It's a sort of subterfuge.
Walter MurchRead
Film is really the one art form that can effectively use silence. Music and theater can play with silence, but they can't sustain silence without losing energy, whereas film can go into a silent mode and stay there for minutes at a time.
Walter MurchRead
This applies to many film jobs, not just editing: half the job is doing the job, and the other half is finding ways to get along with people and tuning yourself in to the delicacy of the situation.
Walter MurchRead
Similar quotes
I love acting. Oh, God, I love it. But all this fame and all this bullshit attention. I'm not supernatural. I've done nothing extremely special to deserve the position. It happens every couple of years, and it's happened to hundreds of people before me.
Heath LedgerRead
You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.
Sherman AlexieRead
The Heavenly Spheres make music for us,_x000D_ The Holy Twelve dance with us,_x000D_ All things join in the dance!_x000D_ Ye who dance not, know not what we are knowing.
Gustav HolstRead
…I go through a story for lies. I might discover the lie of trying to show off. Sometimes they’re lies of character. Sometimes they are lies of writing the most beautiful sentence in the world that has nothing to do with the story.
Grace PaleyRead
I have wasted the greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox, which is a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie. It's about two percent moviemaking and ninety-eight percent hustling. It's no way to spend a life.
Orson WellesRead
Rather than a teaching tool, I think a novel is more of a witnessing entity. A witnessing entity? What is that? I just want the reader to step in and experience it as a story.
Lorrie MooreRead