Walter Murch

I've been reading Michael Ondaatje's The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film and I've been surprised at how much I've learned so far.

I didn't know anything about Murch before opening the book and, based on the title, figured that it was simply about editing film. How wrong I was.

Walter Murch is a sound designer as well as editor, and this book has given me the chance to understand, at least more than I had, the art of sound editing and design.

Murch was the sound editor in the film The Conversation. The Conversation is the story of a private surveillance expert who is following and recording everything said by a young couple. And the way Murch manipulated sound in the film was extraordinary. I don't know if I was more aware of it because I had just finished reading about it, but the entire movie was filmed from the main character's point of view, including sound. The audience hears nothing Harry Caul can't hear.

Had the film been set up any other way, the outcome would have been so completely different. Caul spends much of the film mulling over the conversation he recorded at the opening. Whenever there was interference with the recording, all we heard was the distorted version of the couple's voices. We were kept in the dark not due to visuals, but due to sound. Sound was everything in this picture. And the way it manipulated our thoughts about the actions was fascinating. Sound led the film, whereas in many other films I feel the picture leads it. Sound had an obvious impact on the audience, it wasn't as subtle as I normally feel it to be. But it worked perfectly because we, the audience, were yearning to uncover the secret of the couple just as much as Caul was and we knew just how to get there, we just needed the right sound.