What really stood out to me from this week’s Media One lecture was the idea of approaching editing from more of an abstract (rather than mechanical) perspective in striving to create new meaning. This tactic can lend itself to benefit a text in limitless ways, from granting it greater creative and artistic currency to constructing an engineered version of reality, according to the creator’s agenda.
According to the filmmaker, Sergie Eisenstein, a film must be an argumentative and juxtaposed composition of footage to manipulate an audience and steer them in a particular way. Thus, with editing, you can provide any footage with an enhanced sense of purpose or intention. Of course, this tactic is highly applicable to operating with video and audio video content. As someone who is particularly interested in the production and execution of documentaries, I can identify with editing as a means to manipulate footage in such a way that you can move the audience in your “desired direction”, again, as according to your own motives.
Another highlight from the lecture for me was the emphasis placed on simplicity and not overcomplicating content via elaborate editing and manipulation of footage. This also forces us to consider the place of alternative editing techniques (such as the use of music and sound rather than pure dialogue) in helping to communicate emotion and character development an the effects that different techniques can have. For instance, ‘diegetic’ sound is that which the character is aware of and is mostly used to compliment what is already taking place within that scene. However, adding another dimension is the use of ‘non-diegetic’ music, which can compliment or juxtapose what is already occurring and potentially have a far greater impact on the audience than simple dialogue itself.
