1.1. Editing: Connecting the Shots Together
As established earlier, both mise-en-scene and cinematography determines the look of a shot. They are therefore an integral part to a film’s visual narrative. However, a shot is merely the smallest unit of a film which guides the audience’s attention (Smith, quoted in Cutting et al. 2010) and it does not represent the complete narrative. What will ultimately decide a film’s narrative structure and in the process, the context of each shot in relation to each other, is the editing.
In filmmaking, editing refers to the process of assembling together shots to create a coherent sequence through which the film’s narrative is told. Through editing, filmmakers are able to juxtapose unrelated shots together and suggest a link between them (Bordwell and Thompson 2013: 227). The Kuleshov effect, named after an experiment in the early twentieth century by Russian filmmaker and theorist, Lev Kuleshov, …show more content…
The difference in reaction shows how providing a context between two unrelated shots through editing could impact, or even alter, the audience’s perception towards these shots.
In another experiment, Kuleshov has also shown how editing could be used to create an ‘artificial landscape’ in a film (Goodwin 1993). This time, shots of actors from various locales is spliced together with shots of two locations that is thousands of miles apart: landmarks in Moscow and the White House in Washington D.C. The resulting scene creates an impression of the aforementioned ‘artificial landscape’ to the audience: a fictional environment that exist only within that scene, constructed from the shots which become the components of the
As established earlier, both mise-en-scene and cinematography determines the look of a shot. They are therefore an integral part to a film’s visual narrative. However, a shot is merely the smallest unit of a film which guides the audience’s attention (Smith, quoted in Cutting et al. 2010) and it does not represent the complete narrative. What will ultimately decide a film’s narrative structure and in the process, the context of each shot in relation to each other, is the editing.
In filmmaking, editing refers to the process of assembling together shots to create a coherent sequence through which the film’s narrative is told. Through editing, filmmakers are able to juxtapose unrelated shots together and suggest a link between them (Bordwell and Thompson 2013: 227). The Kuleshov effect, named after an experiment in the early twentieth century by Russian filmmaker and theorist, Lev Kuleshov, …show more content…
The difference in reaction shows how providing a context between two unrelated shots through editing could impact, or even alter, the audience’s perception towards these shots.
In another experiment, Kuleshov has also shown how editing could be used to create an ‘artificial landscape’ in a film (Goodwin 1993). This time, shots of actors from various locales is spliced together with shots of two locations that is thousands of miles apart: landmarks in Moscow and the White House in Washington D.C. The resulting scene creates an impression of the aforementioned ‘artificial landscape’ to the audience: a fictional environment that exist only within that scene, constructed from the shots which become the components of the