DNA Film Code Walter Murch

In “The Blink of an Eye” on page 13 Walter Murch compares editing film to DNA. I saw this in class with our Leverage cuts and Wedding footage because we were all given the same “DNA” to work with but each person created a unique final product. The story that was created in each cut varied because of cut selection, timing, and music selection. I also saw with the Leverage cuts how some cuts created what Walter Murch calls a Frankenstein monster. I created a “Frankenstein monster” with my own Leverage cut because my music selection was better suited for an action movie trailer when the scene that was being depicted was a slower paced dialogue scene. If I had some action sequences to match the intense fast tone of the music I would have had a better chance of creating something that did not look like a hybrid mix. I was trying to make a creature that I did not have the "DNA code" for. I should have stayed within the bounds of the footage I was given and chosen and more appropriate music selection. In digital video production we had control over the “DNA” because we were the ones filming and planning. The storyboard is the blueprint for what the final product should look like. We found ourselves editing and tweaking our storyboard as we went along to better fit the story we were trying to tell. As an editor you don’t always have control over what footage you are given and it is up to you to decided how the story should be told and what information to release to the audience and what time it should be released.