Never make a cut without a positive reason

I am positive that this footage is awful.

 

This week’s lectorial was split into two sections – the first being editing. Editing was also the subject of this week’s reading – Scott McCloud’s “Blood in the Gutter”.

My first impressions of the reading were… not good. I was so confused as to how the presentation and layout of a comic book had any relevance to ‘editing’ – particularly the film type that is the first thing that comes to mind. Admittedly between all the excitement of week one and the craziness of the weekend, I completely the reading late Sunday night with a sense of urgency – wanting to just get it over and get to bed. However, my later musings – particularly coupled with today’s lectorial presentation by Jeremy Bowtell – have allowed me to realise the purpose of this reading.

Effectively, one’s brain does the same thing when digesting a television show as it does when reading a comic.

In a comic book, we are presented with pictures on paper. It is up to our brain to make sense of these, and bring these 2d images to life. Our brain digests the information given – images, dialogue, and onomatopoeia – and processes this into a form where we understand the heroes, the villains, and the action unfolding.

Editing in film occurs much the same way – only this time the frames are in motion and the sound, both diegetic and non-diegetic, is already present. However, the film is still cut into a way to convey the idea that heroes, villains and action exists. This understanding is in line with the theory of Sergei Eisenstein (a well-acknowledged Soviet director and film theorist), who suggested that editing influences the audience in desired directions.

 

 

The second part of today’s lectorial focused on Media as an entity. We discussed the idea of what media meant to us. A recurring idea was that of media’s impact on us; which is something I see media as – a tool to potentially influence our actions and beliefs.

We also discussed the idea of media being ever-present, and I can understand – and agree with – this notion. Even as I write this, I have my facebook account open on a separate tab, and I am listening to Taxiride’s “Creepin’ Up Slowly” on a Spotify playlist.

(Saturday & Sunday morning Video Hits throwbacks!)

 

We were then sent out into the city to document media we came across. My group traveled down to the State Library of Victoria, and were faced with a unique challenge – finding forms of media in such an open, green space. It was almost like being dropped into the deep end of the pool, there was so much to document one became skeptical (“Is a small handout flyer media?”).

Most of the media I documented were various advertisements on trams passing by and billboard advertisements visible from the library. As my group headed down to tuck into some Mad Mex for lunch at QV, we noticed an advertisement on the ground.

 

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I found it interesting that QV were advertising in this manner, and began wondering – in an era where we spent more and more time looking down at smartphones in our hands – is this the future of advertising? We so rarely seem to look up that perhaps a bright advertisement on the ground would be enough to peel our attention away from Candy Crush. This is a question that can only be answered in time.