Shot/Reverse Shot | Screen Direction | Rule of Change | Murch's Rules
Click Here
Murch's Rules
According to Walter Murch, when it comes to film and film editing, there are six main criteria for evaluating a cut or deciding where to cut.
1. Emotion - How will this cut affect the audience emotionally at this particular moment in the film?
2. Story - Does the edit move the story forward in a meaningful way?
3. Rhythm - Is the cut at a point that makes rhythmic sense?
4. Eye Trace - How does the cut affect the location and movement of the audience's focus in that particular film?
5. Two Dimensional Place of Screen - Is the axis followed properly?
6. Three Dimensional Space - Is the cut true to established physical and spacial relationships?
Murch made emotion the most important of all of categories in the list.
That should say something to you. The audience is always first in an editor's mind.
