In the Blink of an Eye

A Perspective on Film Editing, 2nd Edition

By: Walter Murch, Francis Ford Coppola

Narrated by: Chris Brinkley

In the Blink of an Eye is celebrated film editor Walter Murch's vivid, multifaceted, thought -- provoking essay on film editing. Starting with what might be the most basic editing question -- Why do cuts work? -- Murch treats the listener to a wonderful ride through the aesthetics and practical concerns of cutting film. Along the way, he offers his unique insights on such subjects as continuity and discontinuity in editing, dreaming, and reality; criteria for a good cut; the blink of the eye as an emotional cue; digital editing; and much more. In this second edition, Murch reconsiders and completely revises his popular first edition's lengthy meditation on digital editing (which accounts for a third of the book's runtime) in light of the technological changes that have taken place in the six years since its publication.

This audiobook is expertly read by Chris Brinkley, and was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont. Audio engineering by Annabel Dryden.

Copyright (c) 1995, 2001 by Walter Murch. Cover design by Heidi Freider, cover photograph by Michael D. Brown. (P) (2024) Echo Point Books & Media, LLC.

©1995, 2001 Walter Murch (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

"you look into a smartphone but at a movie screen"

Blinking to wipe thoughts not tears! This man has grasped the guts and nuts and bolts of the unconscious mind!

Extremely outdated essay on editing

This is not really a book. It's extremely short kind of history of editing with some stories from editing the movies the author worked on. There is almost nothing that would actually lecture you on editing itself. Yes, there are a few tips, but for those half a page would probably be more than enough. The rest is just extra storytelling that is barely relevant to the film editing today. Narration is perfect, no problem there.

Doesn’t really get to the point of the book

The author spent a lot of time talking about history when he could’ve been answering the question that he set out to answer

A disappointment

Based on the description, I was thinking this would be more of a editing theory book. There is a little, and what there is, is very interesting, but I would say it only makes up about 10% of the book. The majority of this book is him reminiscing about editing on film, so if you're looking for a glimpse into the past of filmmaking then this might be an interesting book for you.