#235 - Cut It Down: 3 Lessons from Walter Murch

How do you make a long film shorter?

Cut bits out.

But how do you know which bits to cut out?

Listen to Walter.

In this issue of Cut daily we're going to learn three different tried and tested methods of how to shorten a long film from legendary editor Walter Murch:

• Diet and Exercise
• The Spaghtetti Sauce method
• The Procrustean method

Walter should know quite a bit about this as he's edited many long films!

• The Godfather Part III (2 hours 42 min)
• The English Patient (2 hours 42 min)
• Cold Mountain (2 hours 34 min)
• Apocalypse Now (2 hours 27 min)
• Talented Mr. Ripley (2 hours 19 min)
• K-19: The Widowmaker (2 hours 18 min)

One of the enjoyable things about listening to Walter talk about editing is that he's so articulate in expressing his ideas and has formulated theories about them, through decades of reflection and experience, that make them easy to understand and apply.