In the blink of an eye
by Walter Murch · first published 1992
18mentions
11recommended by
18HN commenters
2008–2026first – last mentioned
61% recommend39% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, to-the-point book on film editing by a working sound and picture editor, covering how editors make cut decisions and how viewers absorb information. Recommended for film students and the curious.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…It was a feat of engineering and lighting at the time, and not at all a paradigm shift as much as notch on the linear progression of film engineering. Murch really did write the book on film editing. In The Blink Of An Eye is a short and to-the-point text book on film editing, an offers a simple theory as to why it works, which can be figured by the title. The theory seemed too simple to me the way he explained it, but…
on “Why 3D doesn't work and never will (2011)” ↗I am a filmmaker. I went to film school. Maybe that has something to do with it? I cannot recommend enough a book called In The Blink Of An Eye by Walter Murch.
on “Overview of the 555-XXXX phone number” ↗…the notes. There have bee times where that absolutely makes sense, but I'm at a loss on your time between frames. Haha, fair enough. If you ever feel like diving in yourself, I passionately recommend In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Blink_of_an_Eye_(Murc...
on “Can Dell’s 6K monitor beat their 8K monitor?” ↗Also, this is a good place to mention that his book, In the Blink of an Eye is an essential book for anyone who is interested in film editing, and an enjoyable book for anyone who is interested in watching movies. Fascinating stuff. Brilliant guy. Note: He's not my father-in-law.…
on “Why 3D doesn't work and never will.” ↗Hey, nice. This was one my favorite books in film school! Also, 'In The Blink of An Eye' by Walter Murch.
on “The Illusion of Life: Disney's principles of animation” ↗…study film editing a bit deeper. Here are two classic reads that I highly recommend: On Film Editing Kindle Edition by Edward Dmytryk (http://www.amazon.com/Film-Editing-Edward-Dmytryk-ebook/dp/B...) In the Blink of an Eye Revised 2nd Edition by Walter Murch (http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Eye-Revised-2nd/dp/1879505622) (sadly no Kindle version exists for this one yet)
on “Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing” ↗"In the Blink of an Eye" by Walter Murch (sound and editing on Apocalypse Now, Godfather, the Conversation, and so many more). The book is about film editing but actually about how humans absorb information.
on “Ask HN: Books on specific topics that have applied to many areas of your life?” ↗…as he not only designed the sound for The Godather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, but he also edited the picture. Anyway, Murch put a lot of his thoughts about both editing and sound into a book called 'In the Blink of an Eye', which is still read by film students today. One passage that always stuck with me is an informal rule that Murch gave himself after he discovered something odd about the interplay between sound and…
on “The brain processes speech in parallel with other sounds” ↗The best book on video editing, bar none, is Walter Murch's "In the Blink of an Eye" so, get that and read it like 20 times. Then get yourself a copy of FCP and use export for web. To shoot good video, the choice of camera (at least, prosumer) is not as important as lighting technique,…
on “Ask HN: Best Practices on creating video for a startup?” ↗…editing decision. But again, the script could easily say "He band-aids his hand in rhythm with the cymbals." If you want to read more about some actual decisions an editor goes through, I highly recomment In The Blink Of An Eye, written by sound and film editor Walter Murch. Tony Zhou's Vimeo series Every Frame A Painting is great too, although it focuses more on directing and cinematography.
on “Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing” ↗…teaching you how to use editing software, experienced filmmakers who write books are often better at expressing how they built an intuition for when to use a particular edit at a particular time. Murch's "In the Blink of an Eye" (2005) recommended by the author is definitely a great read. I thought it was a great insight that cuts are best when you would naturally want to blink. For a short video, I used the advice once to place…
on “Thoughts on Video Editing (2022)” ↗…TV (which we perceive as smooth and life-like) is 60 half-resolution frames per second—standard film is 24fps, 2.5 times less temporal information. Walter Murch makes a pretty strong case in his book In the Blink of an Eye that your brain actively works to fill in the difference, effectively imagining the rest in the same way it does while listening to a storyteller. This is what makes 24fps such a compelling frame rate…
on “Why 3D Doesn't Work and Never Will (2011)” ↗In the book _In the Blink of an Eye_ by Walter Murch (which is generally about film editing), there's a section that speculates that 24 frames per second somehow resonates with some innate constant of how human vision works, which is wild…
on “Netflix’s Media Production Suite” ↗Reminds me of this quote from Walter Murch, from In the Blink of an Eye I think: "Most of us are searching-consciously or unconsciously- for a degree of internal balance and harmony between ourselves and the outside world, and if we happen to become aware-like Stravinsky-…
on “The appropriate amount of effort is zero” ↗…Films are more like dreams than like real life. Yes! The other happy accident of movies that contribute to the dream-like quality, besides the lower frame rate, is the edit. As Walter Murch says in "In the Blink of an Eye", we don't object to jumps in time or location when we watch a film. As humans we understand what has happened, despite such a thing being impossible in reality. The only time we ever experience jumps…
on “Stranger Things Creator Says Turn Off "Garbage" Settings” ↗