This week’s lecture was very fun as it was about filmmaking and editing which is what I take interests in. As a student who is majoring in cinema studies, I paid extra attention to this week’s lecture.
Liam introduced us the ‘Kuleshov Effect’ that was elaborated by Hitchcock in the video. The Kuleshov effect is a film editing effect (montage) demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a phenomenon of when the order of the sequences is changed, how the audience process the meaning is changed as well.
In the comparison of the two train robberies, the earlier one looked really dull and boring as the camera was set still the whole time. The second one, which is the more recent film, was well-edited as there was suspense and surprise and tension building up as the assassination happens.
We talked about the change in time and space using the film ‘500 days of Summer’, which is one of my favorite films. I have seen the film over ten times but never noticed how the editing was done at that part to demonstrate a change in space and a change in time.
We did a little exercise in groups later which as to put pieces of scripts together to make a whole story. It was very difficult for me to a point I could not go on after I got the series 03-02-04-18-15-16. I could not find a suitable piece for the next and realized that I was probably wrong since the beginning. It was such a struggle for me because I felt the series I made looked reasonable but it simply could not go on.
Anyways, I saw many people worked out the whole story in different ways and thought maybe I should gain more ability at editing using limited resources.