Never assume it’s only content that matters. The combination of shots and audio you use fires off synapses in the viewer’s mind, reading significance and attaching meaning.
Watching a film is not a passive activity: viewers are constantly examining, analysing and trying to fill in any blanks in their mind using their imagination. As such, they will make connections and read deeper meanings that haven’t been explicitly made. This can be useful when you’re aware of it, but dangerous if the audience reads something you hadn’t meant to imply.
The great Alfred Hitchcock said once that if he showed a clip of an old man and followed it with a clip of a mother and baby, the audience would infer that the old man was a nice elderly gentleman. If he showed the same clip of the man followed by young women in bikinis, the audience would likewise make assumptions, this time understanding him to be a lecherous old man.
Show a woman followed by a plate of food and the audience will think she’s hungry, no matter how neutral she seems.
It’s the film-maker’s most powerful tool. Staying conscious of these connections will help you to control them and steer the viewer’s emotions to maximum effect.
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