Sunday, March 11, 2012

"No problem"

The Kuleshov Effect in Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein)
http://www.kellimarshall.net/film/you-tube/

I don't know why, but I have watched this short music video a bunch of times.  I find it so haunting.  It kind of reminds me of studying Eisenstein and Kuleshov.  Kuleshov could show a single shot of a single expression (the lion statue above, a man's face) and, depending on the context (music, buildup), the audience would assume it was expressing something specific.  The trick was, he could apply the exact same image to any number of filmic moments and it would be read as wherever it was placed (happy, confused, tragic).  It is known as the Kuleshov Effect.  I think it's at work in this video, and that is one of the things that makes it so brilliant.



The Kuleshov Effect (badly demonstrated by me) - but it's a fun exercise to try!


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