As an avid, comic reader, I've heard and already read Scott's wonderful graphic novel about the history/ conventions of comics and...well, graphic novels. However, I felt it was a good time to revisit his work--in particular his chapter on the psychology of closure.
When talking about closure, what I mean is the idea that the human brain will try to connect (based on info. given), pieces of images, words, etc. and try to make them whole/ make sense. A good example of this would be in the chapter where Scott mentions "the gutter" between two comic panels. By separating the two images, "the gutter" leaves the story up to the reader's imagination. Considering what kind of images are displayed next to each other (such as a moment-to-moment or non-sequiter), the reader will either have to make a small jump (or huge leap) into how they believe the images are connected.
To me, this same concept could be implied to movies. Certain mainstream films tend to be shot moment to moment and action to action. This allows the audience to relate closer to the film, and to better understand the story that's going on. However, there are other films that tend to break this mainstream narrative. Despite not having seen it, Tree of Life is one that pops into my mind. In the film we see snippets of images ranging from family life to nature, taking us into the character's childhood life to his present one. The story is so open-ended, it allows some of the watcher's imagination to fill in the blanks.
