Behind the Seen by Charles Koppelman

Author:Charles Koppelman
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 0735714266
Publisher: Pearson Education
Published: 2004-10-21T04:00:00+00:00

Film dailies being processed in the “bath” at Kodak Bucharest.

In addition to being a beehive of activity, Murch’s editing room has now become a preferred destination for anyone who visits Cold Mountain in Romania, according to producer Albert Berger. “Normally you’d just high-tail it to the set, but this was a must-stop, to go to his domain. He was like a mad scientist up there doing all these experiments.” Producers, movie executives, press, friends of the cast and crew—even Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier—all climb the stairs to the second floor of Kodak Cinelab. They know Murch’s credits and awards, of course, but are drawn because they hear that Murch is up to something special using the Final Cut Pro system.

“Normally you’d just high-tail it to the set, but this was a must-stop, to go to Walter’s domain.”

November 11, 2002, Murch’s Journal

Reviewed Sean’s new scene: very good, just one or two changes... and also Dei’s scene, same thing—the scene at the door with Sally and the girls he did very well. Charles Frazier and wife Katherine came to visit—very nice, spent an hour or so with them, talking about the film and the process.

Gave Ilinca her scene.

Having assistants able to cut scenes is one aspect of Final Cut Pro’s potential for egalitarianism. Ilinca Nanoveanu, the Romanian apprentice editor, cuts the scene of Ada reading Wuthering Heights to Ruby, and she later mentions this to Anthony at a crew and cast party.

“I heard you liked my scene,” she says.

“What?” Anthony says, astonished.

As young Walter later tells the story: “Dad sat us down at breakfast. No one was supposed to know that we were working on scenes. Ilinca came into our edit room later and cried her eyes out because she thought she had done something terrible. I told her to go in and tell Dad. ‘You’ll feel better,’ I said. She came back in tears.”

Later Murch explains to Minghella that he is giving the assistants rare editing experience, something Final Cut alone makes possible. He makes it clear that he reviews and re-edits those scenes as necessary. Minghella supports the experiment—another testament to his faith in Murch.

December 10, 2002, Murch’s Journal

Ilinca upset that she told Anthony that she cut the Heathcliff scene. Tears and self-recrimination. I console her, but tell her to take the lesson to heart. But not so much to heart that it becomes a black hole.

Despite the contretemps, Murch later looks back on it proudly. “Seeing Ilinca cut that scene makes Final Cut Pro worth the price of admission,” he says. “It’s the first time the assistants had access to the editing experience on a film like this, where they can work with professionally shot material and be able to bounce their work off me. Something like that just hasn’t been economically or logistically possible before FCP.”

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