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Walter Murch - 'Captain EO, your ship is about to take off' (147/320)

473 views · Published 8 September 2017 · 1:30 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Film & Animation

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To listen to more of Walter Murch’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzCodipONmNiROhYCUWyz_U

Walter Scott Murch (b. 1943) is widely recognised as one of the leading authorities in the field of film editing, as well as one of the few film editors equally active in both picture and sound. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2016]

TRANSCRIPT: I remember he had only one question to ask me as a director, which is, 'Where do I look?' It was a musical... We were shooting one of the big musical numbers. And he knew exactly what he was going to do, and there as nobody to gainsay what he was about to do, certainly not me. But his question to me as the director is, 'Where's my eye line?' And I gave him an eye line, and he took off.

Francis had told me, 'It's sometimes hard to get Michael out of his dressing room. And if that happens, here's what you do. You try the usual techniques, five minutes. When ultimately that doesn't work, you address him as Captain EO. You say: Captain EO, your ship is about to take off.' And that's what happened. He wouldn't come out of his dressing room. He was playing with trains or something, or making the deal to steal The Beatles' catalogue, which was going on at the same time, or outbidding Paul McCartney for The Beatles' catalogue. And so I said, 'Captain EO, your ship is about to take off.' And boom, he came out of the door dressed up in costume and ready to go.

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