Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple’s Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema

Chapter 8. The Hemidemisemiquaver

The Old Chapel Studio in north London, offices of Mirage Enterprises, where Cold Mountain was edited.

MARCH 31, 2003—LONDON, ENGLAND

Walter Murch walks to work over Primrose Hill and notices that the morning shadows seem longer; daylight savings time is in effect. The trees are bare, but buds are visible, about to burst. The war in Iraq is ten days old and anti-war signs flutter along the iron fence of Primrose Hill Park.

Twenty minutes later Murch reaches the end of Parkhill Road where it meets Fleet Road. Here, set back from the gently curving corner, is the Old Chapel Studio. He lets himself into the stone ...