Rule of Six

notes

Murch winning for *The English Patient* on an Avid was a watershed moment. It wasn't just that a great film was cut on an NLE; it was that *Murch* did it. This gave digital editing the artistic legitimacy it needed to fully supplant film-based workflows in Hollywood's top tier.

criteria

• Emotion: Does the cut reflect what the audience should feel at this moment?
• Story: Does the cut advance the narrative?
• Rhythm: Does the cut occur at a rhythmically interesting and correct moment?
• Eye-trace: Does the cut respect the audience's focus of interest within the frame?
• Two-dimensional plane: Does the cut maintain proper screen geography?
• Three-dimensional space: Does the cut preserve the physical continuity of the scene?
• 1. Emotion
• 2. Story Advancement
• 3. Rhythm
• 4. Eye Trace
• 5. Planarity (the 180-degree rule)
• 6. Three-Dimensional Continuity

visual examples

• The English Patient (1996) — Murch's own editing demonstrates sacrificing spatial continuity to preserve the emotional arc of Hana reading to Almasy
• Apocalypse Now (1979) — The opening montage where emotional resonance overrides conventional continuity entirely
• The Godfather Part III (1990) — The opera sequence intercutting uses all six criteria in descending priority
• The English Patient (1996) — For which Walter Murch won an Academy Award, notably editing the film on an Avid Media Composer. This was a significant milestone in validating digital nonlinear editing for major, artistically-driven feature films.

aesthetic tags