Walter McBoing Boing

Walter Murch is a legendary film editor that has worked on some of Hollywood’s biggest films. His roots are the same as that of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. I’m currently reading, “The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film,” written by author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, one of the films Murch edited. The book is a compilation of conversations (as the title suggests) that Michael had with Murch over the course of their professional relationship. I very much enjoy reading about film and animation in this fashion because it makes you feel like you’re part of the conversation. This is a big reason why I got involved with the Walt’s People series by Didier Ghez.

In his first conversation in the book, Michael asks Murch when he first became interested in sound, to which Murch replied:

It was with me from as early as I can remember. Maybe I heard things differently because my ears stuck out, or maybe because my ears stuck out people thought I would hear things differently, so I obliged them. It’s hard to say. What’s true is that if words failed me I would switch to sound effects, I would imitate the sound of something if I didn’t know its name. Back then there was an animated cartoon character, a boy named Gerald McBoing Boing, who spoke in sound effects instead of words, and he was able to communicate with his parents this way. That was my nickname: Walter McBoing Boing.

This is a great book. I also recommend, In The Blink Of An Eye, Murch’s theory on film editing. Both are easy reads, and full of essential knowledge.