This week we were asked to read a comic called “Blood in the Gutter”, i did not feel particularly attracted to this name, however the lecturers of media one seemed to have a fun time continuously bringing it up. Effectively the comic is about the structure of Comics and the assumption that people place in the “gutter” of the space in-between two frames. The reason this was relevant to me is because I do lots of video editing, and i rely on the assumption that the audience makes in between cuts. This also relates to the Kuleshov effect, named after Lev Kuleshov, the effect is that of how an edit relates two objects together. Famously Kuleshov edited the same footage of a mans face into different spaces by using the preceding shot to establish the setting. For example cutting from a bowl of soup to the mans face made him appear hungry etc. This gave me something to think about.

Often when I edit my own films, i give little thought to how the setting is being constructed or what the audience perceives. This is due to the fact that my films are very short, and often done in a vlog setting. However, when i start working on longer productions i would definitely have to take these effects into account.

However, what i am doing at the current time can be explored in this way. I often cut from the shot of me vlogging to a scene which i then act out. Due to the fact that i have made many of these videos and stay consistent to a style popular on youtube the audience is quite familiar with it. Thus i believe it is effective, the audience understands that a cut away is portraying something from another time, which is relevant to the main vlog.

 

“Scott McCloud, 1993, ‘Blood in the Gutter’, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Northampton, MA : Tundra Pub)”