Read between the lines!
In week two, the set reading was Scott McCloud’s comic, ‘Blood in the Gutter’. It explored the importance and use of ‘gaps’, or the gutter as it is called by comic book artists, in the art of storytelling through images. Audiences subconsciously participate in the stories of comics when they read them, as we make assumptions and inferences as to what happens and how outside of the images within the boxes. The audience fill these ‘silences’ with their own noise and voice, as they interpret and aim to understand the implicit happenings taking place between the images to form the whole story. This process going on in a reader’s head, the ability to see fragments and from them perceive an entire story or image, is called closure. Closure is such a vital element to storytelling, as any form of intentional ‘gap’ or omission made in any medium of storytelling, whether that be film, television, written or graphic novels, the list goes on. The reading overall provided an interesting link to the week’s lectorial topic of ‘editing’
Our discussion of editing this week stressed the importance of selecting the perfect time to cut from one shot to the other. Editing was described as being about the holes, gaps and spaces between and where these need to be to advance a story. The cuts, much like the ‘gutters’ are just as important as the actual substance in a film. They can create a sense of time and rhythm, establish relationships, set a mood or tone and keep the story engaging for the audience, as new information or visuals overtake from old information. Studies have shown that modern day audiences can process images faster than audiences 60 or 70 years ago – characteristic of our fast paced society that calls for immediacy in all things – and as such, editing has become faster paced. The time between shots is now terribly short, but yet we as modern day viewers are still able to process these lightning speed images, and what the cuts mean and add to the whole picture – through closure – just as easily as an audience of the past.
The example given in the lectorial of masterful editing being used to create an entire scene and its meaning – with subconscious audience participation and interpretation going on all the while – was Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino, in the scene where Sam meets Ginger for the first time. Although there is very little dialogue and in fact no dialogue between Sam and Ginger, their characters and their budding relationship is still communicated quite clearly to the audience through the juxtaposition – another important facet of editing- of the chaotic scene involving Ginger and the stillness of Sam, and the alternating shots of their eye contact, followed by a freeze frame that suggests a mutual interest between the two characters. The music, timed to the cutting of the shots further aided the advancement of their blossoming relationship and set the rhythm of the story. Though neither character spoke, flirted or uttered anything in the ballpark of hinting at an interest, we were able to interpret via closure what the scene really meant in regards to their connection.
Perhaps one of the key pieces of advice I took from this week’s lectorial was by the late director Edward Dmytryck; substance first, then form. While labouring on the aesthetics and other aspects of a film or any media creation is vital to its success artistically, the substance, the story and what you as a creator are truly trying to get across is much more important and must always take precedence. For without the substance – that includes all those holes, gaps, omissions – there is nothing with which to labour over the visual aspects of. A very interesting insight from a very interesting man.
