How to make the PERFECT cut when making a film 🎥 🎞️ Film Editing

In his book, In the blink of an eye, Murch proposes the rule of 6 - 6 criteria that make a perfect cut, a guide to prioritise when to make a cut… And something to think about. That is if you ever think about film editing philosophically and theoretically 😅

A must read for those interested in filmmaking, editing and making something that resonates with the audiences - In the Blink of An Eye by Walter Murch

What I was more piqued by was less about the 6 points but the percentage assigned to each, where emotion carries 51% - more than the sum total of the rest of the 5 points! The second one - making a cut that advances the story (not the plot) - carries a whole 23%.

The 6 criteria as proposed by Walter Murch in the book “In the Blink of An Eye”

These 2 points along with the 3rd - the rhythm, are the biggest contributors and the least technical and most difficult to teach/learn. I’d rather call them intuitive because you cannot ‘learn’ emotion. The development of the film through editing is a mix of artistic, intuitive and technical choices.

For people who don’t think about editing like this, it can be an interesting side note - perhaps why some movies that we watch, we forget about immediately. They have the flair, the heroes but otherwise the scenes together just mimic what could be a movie.