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Walter Scott Murch (b. 1943) is widely recognised as one of the leading authorities in the field of film editing, as well as one of the few film editors equally active in both picture and sound. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2016]
TRANSCRIPT: The practical aspect of this rule of six, is that frequently, you can't do all of these six things at the same time and many times you don't want to do all six. So, these six were in some kind of ideal world that doesn't always reflect the reality of the world we live in. But because of this or because of that, we can't do these things. We can't do all six. So what do you as a film editor do? And my suggestion is that you look at these six things and start jettisoning things overboard. It's like you're on a balloon and you're potentially going to crash, so what do you do, you start throwing stuff overboard to give you more lift. Throw things off from the bottom up. So the first thing to throw overboard is three-dimensional continuity. Don't worry about it. Just get rid of it. If the other five things are taken care of, nobody... not only will nobody care, they will be happy that you didn't burden the film by making somebody walk up the path to the door. Just open the door to the car and cut to the inside door as the door opens and we all understand that he, whoever it was, went from the car into the house. We don't need to see him walking 15 steps, so that's gone.
Next thing is two-dimensional space. If you have to sacrifice it, it will be momentarily awkward perhaps, but better that than something else. And then up to focus of attention, and then what's sometimes called eye trace – where is the eye looking? – and then rhythm. Cut at a slightly awkward place rhythmically, but if the emotion is right and the story is right and that's the only way you can get these two things is by jettisoning those four other things, do it. And finally, if you have to, if the only way to get the right emotion and get it powerfully is to make the audience momentarily confused about the story, then do that. It's dangerous to stay in that zone for a while, it's like diving underwater: you can do it if you have to do it, but you can't stay there for very long, because then after a while the confusion starts to eat away at your basic premise. But it is frequently, as it is in swimming, we often have to go below the surface, so if the only way to get the audience to feel this emotion is to make them momentarily confused then, do that.
