Behind the Seen

by Charles Koppelman

  Working six-day weeks, Murch can complete two groups a week. The amount of film shot on Cold Mountain already surpasses 300,000 feet, or 55 hours. Having passed the halfway point in the shooting schedule, Murch is rethinking his note-taking system, pondering how best to keep up with the regular flood of footage, yet adequately annotate so he has a useful reference.

  October 19, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Finished group 14 sound and revisions and got 4,000 feet into notes on 16 (12,000 feet) so a third of the way. Also caught up on dailies looked at four reels from day 61. How can I speed up the note-taking process? I have tried doing selects only... “Be a star in three scenes and adequate in everything else,” as John Ford said. The trick is to define adequate.

  Back in the U.S., word that Murch is using Final Cut Pro to edit Cold Mountain begins to get around the filmmaking community. A technology reporter for The Hollywood Reporter, the entertainment industry trade paper, inquires about doing a story. Walter has an exchange of emails with Ramy at DigitalFilm Tree about whether it’s a good idea to be interviewed for the story while technical issues are still being worked out. How should he explain the “known unknowns”—especially the uncertainties of having reliable change lists and the audio export protocol needed for sound editing? He doesn’t want to come out with anything that might embarrass Apple.

  The two-column list from Murch’s logbook with some of the takes for scenes 93 and 94, including shot #459-Bi7.

  Murch’s second viewing notes for shot #459-Bi7.

  “I don’t want Apple to have a fit,” he writes to Ramy. “On the other hand I don’t want Miramax to have a fit either. The truth is, it will all work out, but it is a delicate political situation.”

  Ramy answers by encouraging Walter to go forward with the interview; DFT will be happy to supply The Hollywood Reporter with any background or technical information for the story. In this same email, perhaps of more immediate significance, Ramy also writes about new developments with change lists: “We are providing Apple with workflow notes for Loran Kary who is leading the creation of Cinema Tools’ change list functionality due out around April... it is public knowledge that Apple recently purchased EMagic, a large European audio software/hardware company. Clearly Apple is ‘going in the direction’ of professional software/hardware.” Since its inception, Apple has branded itself as making computers “for the rest of us”—suggesting that it focuses primarily on serving consumers. But as more highly regarded professionals like Murch pick up applications such as Final Cut Pro and run with them, Apple becomes an even stronger force in the creative community, where it has always been the favored platform.

  The news about positive developments with change lists for Final Cut Pro is soon confirmed when Ramy gets an eyewitness demonstration at Apple headquarters, which Walter notes in his journal:

  October 22, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Great email from Ramy: “I just saw a change list print out. It looks really good. In short, change lists will not be an issue. Loran did well, he surprised us. Just wanted to let you know. Please keep this sealed.” That is great, great news—another ogre waiting for us down the hall just disappeared. Inshallah.

  Murch decides to do the interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

  By this time, Murch’s assistants are going strong on their Final Cut Pro systems, cutting away on their scenes. In a follow-up email to The Hollywood Reporter writer, Sheigh Crabtree, Murch proudly explains how the apprentice editors are working: “G4 laptops (even an old clamshell iBook) can become satellite stations, not linked to FibreChannel.” Murch is saying that Final Cut can be configured to run more simply on laptops than when it is networked among several workstations and must use an external viewing monitor, as it is configured for his edit room. “You download the selected media to each laptop, which is equipped with just FCP (no Aurora card needed if no NTSC monitor).” The assistants can then export their edited scenes back to the main system—as sequence information only—“where it is relinked to the media on the FibreChannel. If you include these laptops, we have seven stations working on the film.”

  November 2, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Sean and Dei’s scenes are done, recut, and in the film. They turned out well and just needed a little “Murching.” We may catch up some time. Saw Walter’s scenes in progress. There is something very considerate and precise about his work and the way he is doing it. God bless. Ilinca and Susanna’s scenes yet to come: Wuthering Heights and “Cut my hair once.” Five assistants learning to edit by actually doing it, and then showing the material to me, getting notes, and revising. What other system would have made doing this so easy?

  Having passed the two-thirds point in the shooting schedule, Murch begins to share a common concern among crew, cast, and producers: Will Minghella finish filming on time, which is scheduled for December 7? Going overtime on a motion picture can cause all sorts of problems. Just being permitted to film for extra days can be a major struggle between director and studio. It may even be forbidden by contract or by the completion guaranty company that issues the insurance bond against just such a contingency.

  November 6, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  In any ten-day period Ant has shot 20 scenes, sometimes 19, once 18. EXCEPT for the first ten days, when he shot seven, and days 61-70, when he shot 11 (Chain gang escaping from Brown and killed). Otherwise it is 20, 18, 19, 20, 20, 19. If he can keep up that rate, he needs 35 more shooting days, and he has 28. So seven is the magic number.

  Film production can be exhausting.

  NOVEMBER 11, 2003—BUCHAREST

  Murch determines from Dianne Dreyer’s reports that Minghella begins picking up the pace: He writes in he journal: “In the last ten days: Ant has shot 23 scenes, including all of the Sara stuff, or 2.3 scenes a day. He has 60 scenes to shoot in 26 days, which is 2.3 scenes a day. So maintaining the current pace, he can finish on time. Congratulations!”

  Later in November Murch has dinner with Steve Andrews, the first assistant director. (Andrews, Murch, and Minghella all worked together in their same capacities on The Talented Mr. Ripley and The English Patient.) As first assistant director, Andrews is primarily responsible for keeping director and crew on schedule, and for getting each day’s designated script pages shot in the time allotted—“making the day.” Murch and Andrews discuss what this takes, and what can drag it down.

  “Will we finish on time?” Andrews asks.

  Murch tells him they will if the rate of 2.3 scenes a day established over the last ten days continues.

  “Do you have enough time to cut the film?” Andrews asks.

  “It is about the same as Ripley,” Murch responds, “with a little more wiggle room because of intercutting the two stories. The weak spot will probably be from the end of the battle until Inman gets on the road and Ruby appears.” There will be tremendous pressure to resolve this as soon as possible, he says.

  Film dailies being processed in the “bath” at Kodak Bucharest.

  In addition to being a beehive of activity, Murch’s editing room has now become a preferred destination for anyone who visits Cold Mountain in Romania, according to producer Albert Berger. “Normally you’d just high-tail it to the set, but this was a must-stop, to go to his domain. He was like a mad scientist up there doing all these experiments.” Producers, movie executives, press, friends of the cast and crew—even Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier—all climb the stairs to the second floor of Kodak Cinelab. They know Murch’s credits and awards, of course, but are drawn because they hear that Murch is up to something special using the Final Cut Pro system.

  “Normally you’d just high-tail it to the set, but this was a must-stop, to go to Walter’s domain.”

  November 11, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Reviewed Sean’s new scene: very good, just one or two changes... and also Dei’s scene, same thing—the scene at the door with Sally and the girls he did very well. Charles Frazier and wife Katherine came to visit
—very nice, spent an hour or so with them, talking about the film and the process.

  Gave Ilinca her scene.

  Having assistants able to cut scenes is one aspect of Final Cut Pro’s potential for egalitarianism. Ilinca Nanoveanu, the Romanian apprentice editor, cuts the scene of Ada reading Wuthering Heights to Ruby, and she later mentions this to Anthony at a crew and cast party.

  “I heard you liked my scene,” she says.

  “What?” Anthony says, astonished.

  As young Walter later tells the story: “Dad sat us down at breakfast. No one was supposed to know that we were working on scenes. Ilinca came into our edit room later and cried her eyes out because she thought she had done something terrible. I told her to go in and tell Dad. ‘You’ll feel better,’ I said. She came back in tears.”

  Later Murch explains to Minghella that he is giving the assistants rare editing experience, something Final Cut alone makes possible. He makes it clear that he reviews and re-edits those scenes as necessary. Minghella supports the experiment—another testament to his faith in Murch.

  December 10, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Ilinca upset that she told Anthony that she cut the Heathcliff scene. Tears and self-recrimination. I console her, but tell her to take the lesson to heart. But not so much to heart that it becomes a black hole.

  Despite the contretemps, Murch later looks back on it proudly. “Seeing Ilinca cut that scene makes Final Cut Pro worth the price of admission,” he says. “It’s the first time the assistants had access to the editing experience on a film like this, where they can work with professionally shot material and be able to bounce their work off me. Something like that just hasn’t been economically or logistically possible before FCP.”

  Ruby reads Wuthering Heights after Ada falls asleep—”Ilinca’s scene.”

  The time is soon approaching when production will end, the editing crew will move to London to finish the film, and the sound conversion issue becomes more urgent. An email from Ramy gives Murch hope for a new solution. Ramy proposes a working relationship between Murch and Mark Gilbert, an audio software developer with the London firm, Gallery. “There is the potential of him playing a part in addressing ‘unknown sound post’ issues facing us,” Ramy writes to Walter on November 19, 2002.

  Like DFT’s friend, Brooks Harris, Mark Gilbert develops software solutions for difficult audio-transfer problems. As it happens, Gilbert has worked for George Lucas on Star Wars Episode I and met Murch, who was visiting a dialogue recording session for Episode I at Abbey Road Studios in London. Gallery has a pioneering OMF technology called MetaFlow, which takes 24-bit film sound recorded on location, converts it into 16-bit files readable by an Avid, and then exports these edited soundtracks into ProTools for refined sound editing. Movies such as Die Another Day, The Matrix, and Jersey Girl all used MetaFlow. Gilbert tells Ramy he’s “really keen” to see if he can adapt MetaFlow to help Walter with Final Cut.

  Once again the question of Apple’s operating systems arises. Ramy engages Murch in an email dialogue about upgrading all of Murch’s Final Cut Pro systems from Mac OS 9.2 to Mac OS X (aka “System 10”). By making this change Murch could step onto Apple’s chosen playing field, and be in a better position to receive official support. Two companies whose gear Murch uses are already preparing for the new OS. Aurora, which makes his Igniter video digitizing card, is coming out with a beta version for OS X. Rorke, which makes his shared area network (SAN) media storage system, is also unveiling an OS X beta test version of its networking software for the 1.2 terabyte hard drive array. Murch is game for converting to OS X when he moves to London. Two days later Ramy shares this information with Bill Hudson at Apple: “There are some important issues that need to be addressed now, including their [Cold Mountain] migration to OS X. I am assuming this is something everyone will want. In my last communication with Walter, he was open to migrating to OS X if done properly and safely. So let’s strategize our next step here as they will be going to London and start post soon. Call me at the next opportunity as we want to be on the ball.”

  Two weeks later Hudson replies in an email to Ramy that converting Cold Mountain to Mac OS X, “scares the hell out of me—especially since they are working so well now with what they have.” Separately, Brian Meaney concurs: “I think moving them to OS X will be very hard right now without a known SAN solution.” Apple is once again caught in a dilemma. Getting Murch on Mac OS X would allow the company to be more on-the-record helpful with software solutions and general troubleshooting. But changing operating systems in the middle of a film does not seem wise. It could put the film at risk. Apple advises to stand pat. Cautious as that may sound, Apple has Murch and Cold Mountain’s best interests at heart.

  * * *

  If John Cage was a Film Editor

  When Aggie goes to a party, she’s very social. Walter can be—yes or no. He sometimes gets a cocktail stick and a paper plate and draws an arrow on the paper plate, puts it on top of the stick, spins it, and goes as far in the direction of the arrow as he can. When he stops, he spins it again, and goes as far in that direction as he can. And he spins it again.

  It’s a Walter thing. And that’s how he edits—the paper plate on the stick—sometimes. He goes with a belief until it stops and then he hooks up with another idea. I think that’s part of the mindset. It’s a “created randomness” that leads you to discover how you want to put everything together.

  —Edie Ichioka, Murch’s assistant editor on The English Patient

  * * *

  On Thanksgiving Day Ramy receives bad, but not quite terminal, news from Mark Gilbert in London about his MetaFlow program for sound export: Gilbert may not be able to solve Murch’s audio export problem after all. “FCP can only do embedded OMF,” Gilbert tells Ramy, “rather than compositions only. This seems to be what Walter is asking for. In fact, that’s not something we will be able to assist with, I am afraid. I will look into other ways of getting the events list out of FCP. I know there is a hack to do this which might be exploitable.” Should Murch and Cullen fail to get a solution from either Mark Gilbert or Brooks Harris to overcome Final Cut Pro’s sound export limitations, they will be forced to create their own multi-step workaround—an extra task they hoped to avoid but are ready to do if necessary.

  November 23, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Party for “Thanksgiving” here in Brashov—thrown by Nicole, Jude, Renée. Jack White and the White Stripes performed (he plays the character, Georgia). Very loud but good—but I couldn’t take too much of it. I sat and talked to Ilinca at the coffee bar and Jude came over, and Ilinca was very happy to meet and be introduced to him. He talked about his work on this film, and how meeting this character has been a revelation to him, has forced him to be a better person.

  There is one month left until production wraps in Romania. Having cut together more and more film, Murch begins to find Cold Mountain’s rhythms and patterns. He senses how some separate scenes might work better intermingled.

  November 16, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Finished Swanger killing and torture, group 20, turned out well, I think—interesting sounds (breathing and squeaks)—and good surprising intercuts of Ada and Ruby after the shotgun blast goes off. I thought it would be one intercut, but it turned out to be three: “what’s that” :: then return to Esco killing and Sally collapse :: back to Ruby running off leaving Ada :: move in on Teague looking and listening to the struggle :: back to Ada running off.

  Four months later, when he edits this scene again in London, Murch will write in his journal, “Now it is just, ‘what’s that?’ without either of them running off.”

  The dogs of time keep nipping at his heels. On Sunday, November 17, Murch writes about his progress putting the first assembly together: “Today I have been cutting for three and a half months and am just coming up to three hours, which is not quite fifteen minutes a week. How to improve, move faster, keep the work at a high level?”

  * * *


  December 6, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  22,000 feet of film came in last night. Nine lab rolls. A new record. So we have well and truly crossed the 500,000 equator—probably at 520,000 feet including today’s dailies.

  * * *

  A makeshift sound stage has been constructed in an abandoned helicopter factory up in the mountains. This is where the first camera unit will film crucial scenes between Inman and Ada by the campfire, their subsequent lovemaking, and the forest scene where Teague and his gang find deserters Pangle and Stobrod and shoot them.

  Weather permitting, a day must also be found to film the exterior scene of Inman’s death—the final scene in the film except for the coda, which was shot months ago at the height of summer.

  At this point there are often more than three hours of dailies to be screened and logged each day, which eats up time that would otherwise be spent assembling material. Aggie flies in from London the afternoon of December 6 and hangs out in the editing rooms until Murch finishes screening selects at 10 p.m. This week 56,000 feet of film dailies are printed, more than double the average week’s volume.

  Any equipment not immediately necessary to the task at hand is boxed up to be shipped in advance to London. The edit rooms begin to have a transient look to them.

  The plan is now to extend the shooting an extra six days past the original wrap, with Saturday, December 14, being the final cutoff. Anything not done by that date will not be shot.

  Ilinca marks sync on the last Cold Mountain daily roll using “the electro-muscular-mechanical process,” as Murch calls it.