#446 – Inside Walter Murch's New Book

33 years after every editor's favourite book, In The Blink of an Eye, was published, legendary editor, sound designer, and polymath Walter Murch has a new book out.

What's it about and is it any good?

Lucky for us, I've got an advance copy to share with you.

Blink was first published in 1991, when I was in the middle of my career. Now I am near the end of it, at the age of eighty-one.

The two volumes of Clicked reflect that thirty-four-year difference: they cover more topics than Blink and are longer, more eclectic and speculative, looking back at the last six decades of my love affair with cinema and wondering about the future of the medium.

— Suddenly Something Clicked, p.8

Caveat: I've not read the whole thing yet. It's a bit of a tome, so these are some initial early thoughts from what I've read so far.

Essential Stats

Walter has been working on this book in note form for about 12 years and then spent three and a half years writing it.

That process created the two volumes of Suddenly Something Clicked, with the first focusing on film editing and sound design, while the second installment (already written) will focus on ‘writing, casting, direction, production, cinema aesthetics and philosophy...’

• Volume 1 Publication date UK: 8th May | US: July 15th
• Price: £30/$45 (Hardback) | £14.99 (ebook)
• Page count: 358
• Volume 2 - Expected end of 2025/early 2026?

Fortunes, Breadcrumbs and the Curious Mind of Walter Murch

The hardback edition of Suddenly Something Clicked is a big beautiful book.

It feels weighty in the hand (both literally and figuratively).

I say this because many books on editing published these days have that floppy print-on-demand kind of feel. Which I usually find pretty disappointing. Although I understand the benefits from a ‘cost of accessibility’* perspective.

‘Clicked’ however, will make for a solid coffee table/conversation-starter book for your edit suite.

The subtitle to the book is ‘The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design’ and Vol.1 is split into two roughly equal parts focusing on each of these crafts, reflecting Walter's expansive career in both fields.

Walter's original pitch for the book shapes what you're going to read pretty accurately:

A three-braided rope – theory, practice and history – intertwined to give each of them greater strength and flexibility.

Some of the history will be short oddities from the coalface: strange cinematic predicaments where I found myself wondering if I would be able to Houdini myself out of a suddenly desperate situation.

And there will be some unexpected discoveries.

— Suddenly Something Clicked, p.5

*It's an expensive risk to do a big print run up front when you don't know if the book will sell. Print-on-demand means more books stand a shot at being published. Which is good for readers, writers and publishers.