Post 16: The Kuleshov Effect

The Kuleshov effect was made by the filmmaker Lev Kuleshov, and shows a shot of a man with a neutral expression, then followed a separate shot that could imply which emotion he is feeling, this shot would be changed to see what emotion was picked up by the viewer despite the shot of his face not changing. Here are the stills from the original:

The first in the original series shown here was meant to be hunger, the second shows sadness, and the third shows lust. They showed these clips to people and they thought that the actor was showing the emotions himself, not noticing that it was only the shot in between that was changing.

This experiment made a huge impact on both film and psychology, showing how audiences' minds can be changed by one simple shot. It also illustrated the importance of filming in sequence and montage in film, as it can assist in the portrayal of emotion.