Walter Murch is best known as the Sound Designer and Picture Editor of The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, Julia and The English Patient. He has had a career in movies that stretches across fifty years, including his involvement in setting up Zeotrope studios with Francis Coppola and George Lucas in San Francisco in the late '60s. He lives between California and London.

"This is an enormous book, a vast treasury of ideas, observations and innovation stretching from Physics to aesthetics. Only a mind like Walter Murch's could be capable of such a discourse. There is so much in it, it cannot really be described, only admired or kept as an Encyclopedia of Cinema-Everything." -Francis Ford Coppola

"Walter Murch, the philosopher-king/professor of all things cinematic and author of In the Blink of an Eye, has delivered a masterful, encyclopedic take on 'the only art whose birthday is known to us.' A must-read for students of the medium and anyone with more than just a passing interest in film." - Paul Hirsch

"A profound yet playful meditation on how editing is the engine of movies and what altered our way of thinking. Suddenly we were more than we had been before. Or was it less? Settle for DIFFERENT." - David Thomson

"This enthralling book is an instant classic of writing about film, as well as an indispensable primer for anyone taking up editing or sound design." - Peter Cowie

"An excellent primer on the art of film and sound editing from one of the experts." -Kirkus

"The entertaining stories offer an intimate look at a master at work, illuminating the painstaking craft that went into making numerous classics. Cinephiles will want to add this to their shelves." -Publisher's Weekly

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Pub date: 2025-07-15

Length: 368 pages