Both Film and Video production are often linked to magic tricks. In essence it is a trick; audiences believe that images are moving when they really are not. The images are just being played at 24 frames per second. However, video is so much more than just a trick. Besides special effects, video editing creates a mental level of trickery through its visual mode of storytelling.
Necessity of Images
When an editor picks which order to place the clips in, he or she does so by choosing the right information to tell the story. Any information that is not needed is left on the cutting room floor. For example, if the scene is ultimately about someone talking, any clip where they are not talking is edited out. Of course, this is different if the character’s silence is necessary information for the story.
Images can create emotion
However, an edit is not only chosen by the script’s organization of scenes. It is also made to elicit an emotional reaction out of the audience. For example, there is an effect that editing has on the mind called the Kuleshov effect. This effect, explained by soviet director Lev Kuleshov, is when you connect two images back to back in order to imply meaning. Alfred Hitchcock describes this effect in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNVf1N34-io
As Hitchcock describes, two different, unrelated shots can be made to look related. This works when they are placed back to back. In video production editing, the key is to always get the audience emotionally invested. This includes corporate videos, commercials, TV/Web shows, and film. And the only way people become invested is if the editor makes the images look both compelling and emotionally relatable. Sometimes this effect can be accomplished without any dialogue.
As you can see, there is a depth to how a story is told through the editing process. At ASL, our skilled artists and technicians are well versed in how to not only organize a proper video, but also in how to cut the material into a compelling edit. For further examples of our previous projects, see our work here.
Kuleshov Effect Source:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lev-Vladimirovich-Kuleshov#ref196100
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