Thinking about chance and fortuitous discovery—precious and invaluable to Murch—he lights up just imagining that day in London, acting out its spirit: “If this, then that! We have to have falling petals in the story? Oh, I have an idea! Yeah, let’s do that! Where? I know a place in the park! These things crystallize very quickly, like a snowflake—faster than the water molecules can keep up with the crystallization—that’s what makes a snowflake beautiful, unlike the ice cube, which freezes slowly and predictably. Snowflakes are endlessly fascinating because they freeze super-fast. You get beautiful randomness with an underlying pattern, the six-pointed star of the H2O molecule, and that’s a great thing.”
Walter’s son has since been in email contact with my own 20-year-old son, Walker, who is a college student and budding filmmaker. Walker plans to participate in an upcoming “Film-in-a-Day” event in New York where he goes to school, also sponsored by CinemaSports. He will use Final Cut Pro and at the end of the day, exchange films with Walter’s London group over the Internet.
There is a midpoint, Murch says, between the Snowflake and the Black Box: an alternative direction represented by Coppola, Minghella, and other directors who savor communitarian moviemaking that favors chance and risk but relies on underlying structure. This path can be just as digitally oriented as the “Black Box”—enhanced, in fact, by systems like Final Cut Pro which made it possible for Murch’s assistants to edit scenes of Cold Mountain on their laptops—but without aiming for total control of every aspect of the finished image, nor abandoning fine control of certain key elements of the film.
I ask Walter about Apple, and what they’d been through together on Cold Mountain.
“In retrospect, I’m happy that Apple wasn’t holding our hand through the project,” Murch says. “As frightening as it was to be in Romania and to get Will Stein’s letter—‘almost no chance’—it meant we had to rely on ourselves and the support team we had at DigitalFilm Tree and Aurora, along with a certain amount of luck and our gut instinct that somehow this was going to work. In hindsight, that was a good thing because if Apple had been guiding our every move, volunteering: ‘Oh, give us a moment to write a subroutine for your problem,’ we wouldn’t have been forced to come up with our own solutions, which are almost always better, more tailored to the individual project, than the fixes someone else comes up with.”
“And the public perception of what we accomplished is much better because we did it ourselves—the Little Red Hen story—which means other people can do it too, without Apple’s help. Otherwise someone could say, with justification: ‘Yeah, Murch’s team succeeded, but only because Apple was there behind them 24/7. I’m not going to get that kind of support, so why should I risk it?’”
“Apple did do one crucial thing for us,” Murch continues, “and that was to give us the beta version of Final Cut Pro 4 in March of ’03, which allowed us to make change lists. But they were releasing it to all the other beta sites as well. Other than that, they were watching from the sidelines with a lot of good wishes and crossed fingers. The fact that we were able to get all the way through Cold Mountain without Apple’s support solidified the achievement.”
Does Murch still plan to use Final Cut on his next project? “Absolutely. I’m in negotiations, so I can’t say what the film is, but Sean and I are right now discussing how best to arrange things. Hopefully, DigitalFilm Tree will be involved in some capacity. One possibility is to edit the first assembly here in the barn, like I did on The English Patient, and then do the rest of the post production in New York. Ultimately, it’s a decision that’s up to the producers. Sean and I are meeting with Brian Meaney and the FCP team down at Apple very soon. I’m looking forward to using version 4.5, which is a deep rewriting of version 3, and there have been some recent developments regarding Shared Area Networks and OS X. We have to find out about all that from Brian, and in return he gets to hear what we have been thinking.”
“I love what I do!” Murch volunteers excitedly. “I just love it and always have. The old editing technology was prohibitively expensive for everyone except professionals and the most dedicated amateur filmmakers. Now the lid’s off. The technology of digital video, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, and I-movie—basically, it’s fun. There it is! Go! That’s exactly what CinemaSports is exploring—film as a way of expressing yourself—not as a means of delivering entertainment someone else wants to give you, but you doing it yourself. Feature films require a lot of work—years of dedication—and certain aspects of that won’t change, at least in the short run. But there are lots of other kinds of filmmaking possibilities opening up in the wide spectrum between home movies and feature films.”
“The particular open-access, non-proprietary architecture of Final Cut Pro,” Murch adds, “is poised to take over larger chunks of post production, such as sound editing and color timing. There’s nothing to limit its growth—to the point that someday we will be able to truly finish a film in its highest resolution right there in the edit room. Out the door into the theaters!”
Murch expects the application to begin attracting more third-party developers who will write special plug-ins to fill niche needs for the film industry. “Once that really gets going, there will be an overwhelming landslide effect. And that is all due to Apple’s courageous decision to make FCP’s code accessible to anyone who wants to develop a new plug-in for it.”
Murch sees the long-term effect of digital films as no less earth-shattering than the invention of money. “In the middle ages you either owned land or you didn’t, and that was it: you were either a duke or a serf. Money came along and emulsified everything, creating a fluid middle class. Digital is a media currency that’s going to create a kind of ‘middle class’ that’s neither filmmaker nor consumer, neither duke nor serf, but something in between—and we don’t know what it is yet.”
By this time it’s afternoon. “My tape has run out,” Murch admits.
But there’s always energy for Bode and the planets.
“Want to hear some music of the spheres?” he asks.
Murch walks into the dining room and sits down at an old brown upright piano.
“This is the musical equivalent of the ratios that Bode predicts for planets. The cycles per second at which this note vibrates [he plays middle C] divided into the number of times this note vibrates [he plays B flat], is exactly the same ratio Bode predicts between the distances of Mercury and Venus.”
“So these first five notes are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, asteroid belt.”
One at a time, like bells, five clear notes chime in succession.
“The next five planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.” Murch plays an arpeggio—five different notes that connect imperceptibly with the previous group.
“If you play them altogether, it’s...”
Ten tones grow into one harmonic whole, filling the room. They linger until Murch lifts his foot from the sustain pedal.
“Kind of a jazzy, seventh chord variation,” he says, smiling.
Appendix: Murch’s Editorial Equipment List
From Walter Murch’s June 20, 2002 email to director Anthony Minghella and producers William Horberg and Ian Smith. “I have arranged the items by ‘puzzle piece’ and followed each item, where I could, with the approximate total retail purchase price in US dollars for all units itemized, and an explanation of the function of the item.”
Piece #1—FCP stations:
4-Apple G4 2x1GHz $11980—computers
2-Radeon 7000 graphics $258—graphics card to second computer monitor
4-Final Cut Pro $3996—editing software
4-Apple Cinema Tools $3996—software to keep track of 24fps in computer
4-Aurora Igniter Studio $31996—hardware/software to digitize image converting from 30fps (beta tape) to 24fps (3/2 pulldown) and playback
4-Stealth Serial port $228—9 pin machine control to control beta deck
8-Memory 512MB $1200—1 meg extra memor
y for RAM in each station
4-FCP key caps $480—Final Cut Pro custom keyboards
4-RS422 cables $140—cables for machine control
6-Mitsubishi 22" CRT $5094—computer monitors. Two stations (mine and Sean’s) will have two screens, and the other two stations will have one screen each.
1-Gigabit switch $1000 –to allow accelerated communication between FCP stations without going thru storage (hard drives). Important for backups.
Piece #2—Hard Drive for Media storage:
4-FibreChannel cards $6780—hardware for linking computers to data bank
1-Rorke FC 1.2TB $24000—data bank
1-Rorke FC warranty $1025—warranty
4-StudioNET VMS $3580—software for FibreChannel sharing
1-StudioNET Workgroup $1095—software for FibreChannel sharing
1-Vixel FC switch $12570—main switcher (hardware) to control media flow between four machines
6-FC SFP’s $1,110—connectors for cables
2-5 meter FC cable $260—FibreChannel cable
4-50 meter FC cable $1200—FibreChannel cable
Piece #3—Outrigger equipment:
2-32" NTSC Monitors, one for me and one for Sean
2-20" NTSC Monitor—one for each of two other stations
4-16 channel audio mixers
2-Genelec reference speaker pairs 1029A $2000
2-pairs other good but not pro speakers
1-A/V cables $2,000
4 blackburst generators
4-UPS for edit stations $800 = battery backup universal power supply to maintain power in case of blackout
1-UPS Rorke stuff $649 = battery backup for the terabyte of hard drives.
2-Beta SP decks
3-VHS decks
3-8x8 Video switchers
2-Timecode/Code number burners (from to output of Beta deck to monitor-like Avid’s but better)
2-Video Titlers
2-Video Maskers
2-DA88s—eight track digital recorders
3-Audio patch panels
Audio patch cables
3-CD players
Racks for Video and Sound Equipment
2-road cases for dubbers
Piece #4—35mm and Office supply equipment:
2-Laserjet Printers
1-Fax machine
1-”Avid table” (like Sean’s on K-19)
1-Rolling cart for digitizing station
4-desks, chairs, and lamps
Office supplies:
2-folding tables
4-full height bookcases
Film:
3-English-style benches
Racks, splits, leader, synchronizers, bins, & other standard supplies
Power rewind
Coding machine
Film Boxes—500
(WSM is shipping over splicers, Rivas and Guillotine)
Other:
Insurance for all equipment (personal items too)
Biphase Encoder for Steenbeck (for magless dailies)
Biphase Encoder for Location Projector (for magless dailies)
Items to Purchase:
Software-Media Cleaner, After Effects, Toast
4-70GB FireWire drives for transporting media files
Blank Media:
300 Beta tapes
300 VHS tapes
100 DVDs or 600 CD-R for Media backup
500 sheets of paper for color printer
500 sheets of crack&peel labels for Daily Roll boxes
1000 labels for Beta & VHS tapes
Illustration and Photography
All the illustrations in this book are protected by the conventions of international copyright law and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the respective copyright holders. We thank the many contributors for permission to use their work.
American Zoetrope Photographs courtesy of American Zoetrope, pp. 29, 29, 35, 36 top left, 39, 40, 42, 43, 52, 62 top and bottom left, 78.
Art Rogers/Point Reyes Photograph © Art Rogers/Point Reyes, p. 232.
Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau Photograph courtesy of Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, p. 246.
Associated Press Photographs courtesy of Associated Press (AP), pp. 22 bottom right, 23 (Jennifer Graylock).
Berkman, Stephen Photograph by Stephen Berkman, p. 122 bottom left.
Bison Film Archives Photograph courtesy of Bison Film Archives/Marc Wannamaker, p. 49.
Blanschard, Richard Photograph by Richard Blanschard, p. 17 (Courtesy of Murch Family Collection).
Bos, Fernand Photograph courtesy of Fernand Bos, p. 310.
Brown, Michael D. Photograph by Michael D. Brown, p. 75.
Bullock, Torbin Photograph courtesy of Torbin Bullock, p. 88.
Chew, Richard Photograph courtesy of Richard Chew, p. 37 top.
Cinecitta Studios Photograph courtesy of Cinecitta Studios, p. 32.
Cruickshank, Douglas Photographs by Douglas Cruickshank, pp. 24, 33 bottom, 37 bottom.
Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park Artwork courtesy of Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park. Painting copyright Walter Murch, p. 5.
DigitalFilm Tree Photographs courtesy of DigitalFilm Tree, pp. 63 bottom left, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 74, 77, 100, 129, 130, 131, 157, 160.
Double, Steve Cover photograph by Steve Double/RETNA.
Eismann, Katrin Photographs by Katrin Eismann, pp. 6 bottom, 258.
Framestore CFC Photographs courtesy of Framestore CFC, pp. 254, 303.
Hodes, Chuck Photographs by Chuck Hodes, p. 22 top right and left.
Hodgetts, Philip Photograph courtesy of Philip Hodgetts, p. 323.
Humboldt-University Berlin Photograph courtesy of Humboldt-University Berlin, p. 135 top right.
Ichioka, David Photograph by David Ichioka, p. 255.
James, David Photograph by David James, p. 22 bottom left.
Jenkins, Allan Photograph courtesy of Allan Jenkins, p. 311.
Joseph, Eddy Photograph courtesy of Eddy Joseph, p. 194.
Kennedy Galleries Artwork courtesy of Kennedy Galleries. Painting copyright Walter Murch, top p. 6.
Koppelman, Charles Photographs by Charles Koppelman, pp. 82, 105, 107, 176 top, 197, 243, 284.
Koppelman-Brown, Walker Photograph courtesy of Walker Koppelman-Brown, p. 58.
Lea, De Lane Photograph courtesy of De Lane Lea, p. 237.
Levinson, Mark Photographs by Mark Levinson, pp. 240, 241, 321.
Library of Congress Photograph courtesy of Library Congress, p. 279.
LucasFilms Ltd. Photograph courtesy of LucasFilms Ltd., p. 53.
Maruta, Steve Photographs by Steve Maruta, pp. 4, 10, 44, 51, 55, 86, 87, 91, 96 top left (The Saul Zaentz Company. All Rights Reserved), 98 top left, 98 top right (The Saul Zaentz Company. All Rights Reserved), 135 bottom right, 144, 176 bottom.
Meaney, Brian Illustration courtesy of Brian Meaney, p. 107.
Miramax Films Photographs Courtesy of Miramax Films, pp. 47 all, 57, 123, 127 147, 149, 170, 183, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 219, 227, 247, 252, 257, 260, 263, 265, 278, 286, 301, 305, 308, 317.
Mix Magazine Photograph Courtesy of Mix Magazine, p. 94.
Moviola Photograph courtesy of Moviola, p. 50.
Murch Family Collection Photographs courtesy of Murch Family Collection, pp. 17, 26 bottom, 32 bottom, 62 bottom left, 89, 326.
Murch, Walter Scott Photographs by Walter Scott Murch, pp. 11, 28, 55, 112, 116, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122 bottom right, 128, 134, 137, 138, 141, 142, 145, 151, 153, 158, 159, 161, 162, 163, 171, 172, 175, 178, 180, 181, 186, 202, 204 bottom left, 273, 293, 302.
Murch, Walter Slater Photographs by Walter Slater Murch, pp. 12, 14, 276.
Oliver, Barret Photograph by Oliver Barret, p. 122 bottom left.
Paramount/Kobal Picture Desk Photograph courtesy of Paramount/Kobal Picture Desk, p. 36 top right.
Piljay, Kristin Photographs by Kristin Piljay, pp. 28, 63 right, 187.
Rosenfeld, Peter Photograph by Peter Rosen
feld, p. 28 bottom left.
Shepard, Thomas H. Original drawing by Thomas H. Shepard as published in James Elmes’ Metropolitan Improvements, London: 1827. p. 67, p. 291.
The Press Office Photograph courtesy of The Press Office, p. 299.
The Saul Zaentz Company Photographs courtesy of The Saul Zaentz Company, All Rights Reserved. p. 26 top, © 1987 The Saul Zaentz Company. p. 27, © 1987 The Saul Zaentz Company. p. 93, © 1987 The Saul Zaentz Company. p. 96 top right, © 1991 The Saul Zaentz Company. p. 97 bottom left, Maury Dann (Rip Torn) © 1975 The Saul Zaentz Company. p. 97 bottom right. R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) © 1975 The Saul Zaentz Company.
Tibor de Nagy Gallery Artwork courtesy of Tibor de Nagy Gallery. Painting copyright Walter Murch, p. 20.
Tolbert, Jeff Illustrations © Jeff Tolbert, pp. 18, 19.
Williams, Greg Photographs © Greg Williams, pp. 2, 60, 156, 189, 190, 192, 199, 201, 204 top left, 205, 207, 282, 290.
Yared, Gabriel Photograph courtesy of Gabriel Yared, p. 225.
Index
2K scanning, 253
“5.1” sound format, 60
“30 percent factor,” 146, 165, 215, 261
35mm film, 7–8, 50, 328
A
Abbey Road Studios, 225, 298
Absence of Malice, 21
Acmade numbering machine, 71
Ada Monroe. See also Kidman, Nicole
and Captain Teague, 213–214, 215–216
and Cold Mountain story structure, 44, 210
and Inman death scene, 316, 318
Inman’s efforts to return to, 267–268
letters to Inman, 210–211, 213, 296
maturing of, 262
and piano scene, 226–228
and rabbit scene, 215–216, 296
reunion with Inman, 268
and rooster scene, 260
adaptable release prints, 331
Adobe Systems, 54
ADR, 194, 236, 238, 241–243, 286
ADR supervisors, 241, 242
Akai dubbers, 133, 148
All the King’s Men, 271
Behind the Seen Page 39
