Walter Murch and Editing

Walter Murch is one of the greatest editors in the modern time of editing. With his vast knowledge in the field, Murch created the 6 rules for editing a film. Those rules that he created are Emotion, story, rhythm, eye-trace, two dimensional plane of screen, and three dimensional space of action. Murch says that the list of rules goes down in order of importance, emotion being the most important rule to remember when making a cut. If the emotion doesn't flow with the cut, a whole emotional scene can be ruined. The next rule is story, meaning that if the cut breaks the story, the audience will be left confused on what comes next. The last important rule is the sense of rhythm. Much like music, if the rhythmic sense us broken, its jarring to the viewers experience. The last three rules are less important, but if they are broken, it can still lead to disorientation.