Closure: The phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole. This is a fascinating concept and was discussed through the world of editing by lecturer Liam Ward in the Media 1 lecture this week, as well as in the reading assigned to us(Blood in the Gutter, Scott McCloud). The idea that editing itself creates meaning rather than the footage is an interesting one, with the example that camera surveillance footage does not create meaning unless broken up demonstrating this.

It is what happens between shots that creates meaning, the gaps between shots encourage the viewer to interpret that something is happening or has happened in them. A number of images were shown in Liam’s presentation, including an image of Joffrey from Game of Thrones, before Christopher Pine was shown with the exact same pose. This ordering of images implied that they share similar traits. Another pairing was made with the same picture of Joffrey but with a different image of Christopher Pine further to the right looking funnily in the direction where Joffrey was in the previous picture. This infers a whole number of different things, such as that they are now possibly engaging in conversation. Pine may even be judging Joffrey and therefore implying that they are not similar but opposed. This simple use of editing has created so much meaning here and the importance of it and the effect of ‘closure’ in filling in the gaps is also shown.

In addition, I was introduced to the Kuleshov effect, a film editing effect demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation. A short film was made in which a man’s face was shown followed by a different picture, whether it be a bowl of food, a girl in a coffin, or a women. The audiences that view this sometimes believe his expression is different depending on which other image is shown. Thus, the sequencing and editing of footage has an effect on how the audience uses interpretation and closure to create meaning in footage.