Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542296
34 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E [played by Hackman]. Since you know this person inside out, you're also the perfect person to edit the film [with Richard Chew as associate editor].' At that time, I had picture-edited some documentaries, com- mercials, and educational films, but not a feature film, although I'd seen it happen on 'Godfather' and George Lucas' 'THX 1138' (1971)." The film's core is the protracted Union Square scene, with a gradual reveal of the recorded conversations and what they real- ly mean. "He'd kill us if he got the chance," we eventually hear, but without knowing the emphasis. The new book states that Murch had seven-and-a-half hours of ma- terial shot over five days: seven 10-minute complete takes from different cameras, maybe 40,000 feet of film comprising 10% of the shot film. He took eight weeks to put it all together and achieve a 4½-hour first assembly. But there were also many miss- ing scenes; Murch didn't have everything to tell the story. They were never shot, we learn, because Coppola had to move on to directing "The Godfather Part II." So Murch had a Tetris-like patchwork that he had to fit together by taking scenes from other sections. Planning that process took a long while. What was the editor's overall strategy? "Francis didn't completely disappear," Murch said. "Over the summer of 1973, while doing pre-production on 'Godfather II,' he would come back to San Francisco [from New York locations] roughly every three weeks. We'd screen the film in what- ever state it was at that time, talk about it, and generate a series of notes. Then he'd be off again; his parting words would be: 'Surprise me when I come back!' In other words, 'Do what's on that list, but if some- thing occurs to you, follow your instincts.' Those were our marching orders. The main challenge was how to take a 4½-hour assembly and shorten it to a release length of around two hours. And how to cope with the fact that roughly a fifth of the screen- play was never shot. It was an intense and nerve-racking time. Fortunately, Francis gave us the freedom and enough time." DISASTERS ON SET, AND OFF Murch likens a screenplay to an archi- tectural drawing. "It must be capable of surviving multiple disasters during the shoot — the death of the actor, for example, or a typhoon that destroys the sets. Or because we couldn't shoot a fifth of the screenplay! Screenwriters also treat each word as sacrosanct; don't change a word. It's a paradox," Murch conceded. "In creat- ing a first assembly, you absolutely have to respect the screenplay because you don't know how it's all going to go together. So you may have certain feelings during the first assembly of the film, which is happen- ing at the same time as shooting. And you think: 'I don't know that the scene is going to work.' But you have to give it everything that you can because, frequently, something that you think in the middle of the chaos of shooting might not work turns out to be the essential thing that makes every- thing work." The director also had Gene Hackman wear the same costume almost the entire time while shooting "The Conversation." "So now we could move scenes without clanging up against the fact that, 'Wait a minute, where did that shirt come from?' Costume designers want to look good, so they will take any opportunity to change an actor's clothing to add variety. And if they're good designers, each costume will reveal something about the internal state of that character. Francis wanted the same, planned character — the blandness of Harry Caul's character. Also, the film takes place over several days and was only supposed to be two hours long; somebody doesn't change clothes in two hours. It's a weird intersection of real life and the fantasy of film. In this particular case, it allowed us to do these transpositions of scenes without hesitation" and no continuity clashes. The book's two chapters provide more details of how that challenge was overcome with great success. " U n l i k e a t h e a t r i c a l p l a y, w h i c h i s locked, 'The Conversation' had a flexible screenplay," Murch explained. "You need something that has a tensile strength but has creative redundancy in it; that redun- dancy can be maneuvered and manipulated, as you need to do. Yet the director is ulti- mately responsible. My intuitions guide me when I'm making a first assembly. But I'm ready and willing to be proven wrong about these things. The very nature of filmmaking is that we're always trying to compress things. It's like Formula One racing, where you try to reduce weight without sacrificing structural integrity. We're always poking the film to find out if we can remove a scene without weakening it." While beholden to the director's vision and the screenplay, "an editor is not in com- mand of these things. You have an influence, but you cannot second-guess the assembly until you have seen the whole thing put together. It's only at that moment when you can step back from the entirety of the film that is now perhaps three hours long, and you have to get it to two hours. That's where you can start to have editorial opinions about where a scene should be in the film. Or removed." In terms of sound design, for Murch, the primary aspect of re-recording and preparation of the film's spine is dialogue. "You have to put all your guns into making the spoken word as understandable and as electric as possible. That's the golden rule for me. For overall film balance, clarity in the interaction of sound effects, dialogue, and music — what I would call density or impact — remains key. If a scene is clear but lacks impact, I will try to find a sound that gives it more 'heft' than it seems to have. On the other hand, some scenes are so full of heft that they're not clear. What can I shift out that will render it clearer?" Out of curiosity: Which film that he nei- ther edited nor sound-designed is the one he admires most? "Milos Forman's 'Amadeus' (1984)," he quickly replied. "I love the film [about the life and work of classical composer Wolf- gang Amadeus Mozart]. It gives me great pleasure every time I see it, on all levels." ■ Mel Lambert is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at mel.lambert@content- creators.com.