In todays lectorial the importance and power of editing was discussed. The concept of editing being the process of giving meaning to things via the context of what comes before or after.

This is called the Kuleshov Effect, in which by placing two unrelated images or shots in sequence, meaning is derived by the audiance. The first example of this was shown by Lev Kuleshov (for whom the effect is named), where he showed audiances an image of a man looking at the camera followed an image of a bowl of soup. Then the same image of a man looking ahead followed instead by an image of a dead child. Then finally once again the image of the man this time followed by an image of a woman lying on a couch.

Audiences perceived different emotions from the man, even though it was identical images each time. Audiences felt that the man felt, hunger, sadness and lust all from the same image, where the only difference was what he was shown to be looking at. This shows the importance of editing, as something as simple as this can give powerful meaning to media.

Further more, the lectorer (who’s name I’ve forgotten) also different meaning can be achieved from simple sequences of photgrpaphs that can change based on the composition. The example given was to show a picture of the fictional Joffery Baratheon followed by a picture of Christopher Pyne. Immidetly the audiance reaction is that the two are being compared to each other and similarity is implied, even though if looked at from a purely litteral standpoint it is just 2 slides.

Another sequence showing the same image of Joffery, but this time followed by a different image of Christopher Pyne was not met with the same reaction, instead the implication is that Pyne is reacting to Joffery.

This is because of the placement of the people in the images, in the first sequence both Joffery and Pyne are in similar positons in the image, as well as having similar facial expressions. Whilst in the second there is contrast between Joffery looking towards the left and leaning forward to Pyne who is looking towards the right and leaning back into the screen. Once again meaning is derived from completely unrelated images of a fictional character and a politician.

This shows the power of editing in being able to add meaning and weight to media, and its upmost importance in creating narrative or a message to be conveyed.