Hello Friends,
This blog is my response to the assignment assigned to us by our Prof. Dr.DilipSir for MA Semester 3 in Paper Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies and my topic is of Kuleshov Effect in Film Studies. So, read, understand and enjoy. Happy Learning!
Kuleshov Effect: Everything You Need to Know
The Kuleshov effect is the idea that two shots in a sequence are more impactful than a single shot by itself. This effect is a cognitive event that allows viewers to derive meaning from the interaction of two shots in sequence. Kuleshov believed that the interaction of shots in filmmaking was what differentiated cinema from photography, as photographs are single shots in isolation that don’t allow viewers to derive the same meaning.
To borrow a line from Martin Scorsese, “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.”
Viewers make split-second deductions about a film’s meaning based on how the visual and auditory elements marry together during post-production. From minute visual details to musical accompaniments, an audience’s interpretation of a film is guided by the filmmaker.
When producing your next project, you might work with an incredible Foley team and enter into post-production with quality shot and stock footage. But if you don’t take time to consider how to best edit this material together, the emotional depth of the narrative may fall flat.
For this reason, every shot accounted for in the final edit must be intentional.
Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov not only recognized this fact, but put it to the test. His fascination with experimental editing techniques led to the discovery of what is now known as the Kuleshov effect.
Kuleshov’s work as a film theorist and filmmaker re-shaped the way creators approached post-production, then and now.
The Man Behind the Technique
Lev Kuleshov devoted his professional career to the filmmaking process. As a professor at the Moscow Film School, Kuleshov worked with students to identify innovative ways to edit footage together.
During this time, Kuleshov developed the Soviet Montage Theory, which sparked one of the most memorable film movements in the history of film. This theory, and subsequent film movement, directly transpired from his discovery of the Kuleshov effect.
This effect is closely associated with shot arrangement.
In three experimental short films, Kuleshov juxtaposed two unrelated shots and used footage of the actor Ivan Mosjoukine as the control in his editing experiment.
Though the actor had a seemingly neutral expression, Kuleshov recognized that the audience would ascribe new meaning to his expression based on which shot he included alongside the control.
To test this theory, Kuleshov paired the shot of Mosjoukine with a shot of either a bowl of soup, a girl in a coffin, or a woman lying on a couch.
As you can see from the image below, shot selection and arrangement had a significant impact on how viewers perceived the film.
The Kuleshov Effect: Meaning in Every Shot
Kuleshov’s film demonstrates the pivotal role that shot arrangement plays on-screen. Viewers derive meaning from what they see and, for the sake of continuity, make their own connections based on the visual cues that the filmmaker provides.
The Kuleshov effect affirmed that post-production was a transformative stage in the production process — and it showed filmmakers that a single change could shift the entire narrative.
Modern Takes From Famous Filmmakers
Kuleshov’s experimentation with shot arrangement continues to inform the way filmmakers approach shot lists, storyboards, and post-production.
Modern filmmakers adapt the Kuleshov effect in their short and long-form projects to strengthen the emotional impact of a story and anticipate how the audience might interpret each edit.
Steven Spielberg: Raise Stakes with Shot Reverse Shot
Shot reverse shot is a common editing technique that derives from the Kuleshov effect.
In this scene from Jaws (1975), Steven Spielberg masterfully utilizes this type of shot to build suspense and provide the visual context needed to piece together what is happening on-screen.
Throughout this scene, Spielberg strategically directs the viewers’ attention back and forth between Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and his surroundings.
Within the first twenty seconds, the suspense builds as the camera follows Brody’s line of sight to the woman in the ocean — but this suspense momentarily subsides when it’s revealed that the woman isn’t in danger.
At the moment when the shark attack happens, the focus transitions from what Brody sees to his response.
In the final moments of the scene, the camera follows the woman who calls for “Alex.” Spielberg captures a close-up shot of her eyes scanning the beach, and in the next shot, the viewers watch as the torn yellow floating device returns to shore
With these two shots alone, Spielberg is able to communicate what just happened to Alex without having to expressly include it in dialogue.
The Kuleshov Effect for Modern Creators
Storytelling is a multifaceted process. Depending on the scale of the production, filmmakers work alongside teams of creators who specialize in different areas of visual and audio production to create captivating films.
While the time spent during planning and filming is crucial, a film is intentionally and strategically pieced together during post-production.
As you cultivate your filmmaking style, it’s important to acknowledge — and not overlook — the contributions of the filmmakers who helped shape the industry.
Lev Kuleshov emphasized the significance of the final edit in shaping and re-shaping meaning. In many ways, he legitimized the editing process by demonstrating how an editor’s innovative techniques could transform RAW or LOG footage into something entirely new.
To simplify the post-production process, Soundstripe gives creators like you the freedom to take creative liberties — without running into copyright complications.
With an ever-growing stock library, you can find the right music, video, and sound effects for any project, anytime.
Examples Of The Kuleshov Effect
You can see other examples of the Kuleshov effect in films from the last hundred years, as well as use this theory to inspire your own filmmaking process.
“Se7en”
A scene in “Se7en” cuts between what is inside a box to the reactions of each character in the scene, each of which is drastically different from the others. In order to understand the scene and what will come next, the audience needs to see the reaction to what is in the box.
What Is the Kuleshov Effect? Learn the Importance of Video Editing
When filmmakers first started making movies in the late 1800s and early 1900s, film editing was a strictly utilitarian part of the process. The introduction of the Kuleshov Effect transformed film editing into a well-respected art form with endless possibilities for creativity.
What Is the Kuleshov Effect?
The Kuleshov Effect was a film experiment conducted by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. It explored how audiences ascribed meaning to and understood shots depending on the order in which they were assembled. The experiment signaled to directors and film editors that shot length, movement, cuts, and juxtaposition are filmmaking techniques that can emotionally affect audiences.
How to Use the Kuleshov Effect in Film?
The Kuleshov Effect informs the way modern filmmakers make movies:
Pen big reactions into scripts. If you’re writing a script, give your characters the chance to react to every important piece of dialogue, reinforcing their emotions, beliefs, and world views. These reactions will be invaluable in the edit.
Use close-ups for reaction shots. Directors use close-ups to focus on a single character’s face to emphasize their emotional reaction, which in turn tells the audience how to feel about the on-screen action.
Emphasize emotions in postproduction. Having an abundance of strong close ups and reaction shots in the can will give editors the freedom to cut together scenes in a way that guides the viewer towards a specific feeling. Learn more about the postproduction process here.
Why the Kuleshov Effect Still Matters?
The Kuleshov experiment was revolutionary for its time, as the first to demonstrate the importance of the juxtaposition of shots. While a cinematographer can light a scene perfectly and an actor can deliver a flawless performance, without proper juxtaposition of the shots, the scene still may not successfully convey emotion.
Today, the Kuleshov Effect reminds filmmakers, particularly editors, that the context in which an actor’s face appears affects how that face is perceived. Editing is more than compiling shots to tell a story; it’s carefully selecting the shots and angles that manipulate the audience’s perception of the story. Something as simple as a reaction shot or a close-up can make a big difference in how an audience perceives the action and message of a film.
Research
The Kuleshov effect has only been studied by psychologists in recent years. Prince and Hensley (1992) recreated the original study design but did not find the alleged effect. The study had 137 participants but was a single-trial between-subject experiment, which is prone to noise in the data. Mobbs et al. (2006) did a within-subject fMRI study and found an effect for negative, positive, or neutral valence. When a neutral face was shown behind a sad scene, it seemed sad; when it was shown behind a happy scene, it seemed happy. More recently, Barratt, Rédei, Innes-Ker, and van de Weijer (2016) tested 36 participants using 24 film sequences across five emotional conditions (happiness, sadness, hunger, fear, and desire) and a neutral control condition. Again, they were able to show that neutral faces were rated in accordance with the stimuli material, confirming Mobbs et al. (2006) findings.
Thus, despite the initial problems in testing the Kuleshov effect experimentally, researchers now agree that the context in which a face is shown has a significant effect on how the face is perceived.
To find out whether the Kuleshov effect can also be induced auditorily, Baranowski and Hecht intercut different clips of faces with neutral scenes, featuring either happy music, sad music, or no music at all. They found that the music significantly influenced participants’ emotional judgments of facial expression.
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Works Cited
1. "How Spielberg Subverts the Kuleshov Effect." StudioBinder, 25 June 2021, www.studiobinder.com/blog/kuleshov-effect-examples/.
2. "Kuleshov Effect: Everything You Need to Know." NFI, 28 June 2021, www.nfi.edu/kuleshov-effect/.
3. "Kuleshov Effect." - Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 22 Aug. 2005, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_effect. Accessed 13 Oct. 2021.