Hurtwood House 13: February 2014

We decided to avoid using too much dialogue because we preferred to make an opening that introduced the characters visually. This is because I found that most thrillers introduce the characters in a cliched fashion by trying to sneak information about them straight away through what they said. Rather than doing this, I preferred to show the characters' relationships to one another by showing them acting naturally which wouldn't have entailed much dialogue. For instance, where we see Ted hitting Ollie over the head in the container, this is a much more interesting way of signifying Ted's power over Ollie and Ollie's attitude towards Ted visually rather than through dialogue. Ollie then replies with one word: 'Again?'. I liked how in one word, he communicated his lifestyle, his attitude towards Ted and his vulnerability.

Incidentally, we also found while editing that we like the sound of the engine of the jeep because it was more impactful than we though it would be when it's audible before it appears in the shot. Not only was the sound somewhat pleasant but it also became a kind of symbol of the drug gang. The contrast between the moments of silence and the loud rumbling of the engine helped to create a dynamic throughout the piece and keep the audience intrigued throughout.

It also The non-diegetic sounds we used in our thriller were mostly used from the sound effects directory on Final Cut Pro. We decided to use eerie music for the titles in order to set the atmosphere for a suspenseful thriller. Additionally to the music, we also added non-diegetic eerie sound effects with the cross-cutting in order to further the suspense.

Account of Editing

We began by sorting all our clips into files, naming them 'good' and 'bad', in order to narrow down our selection of clips. We sectioned into ‘bad’ all the clips that we knew wouldn’t be at all appropriate due to composition of shots, but also kept some that were not perfect for the ‘good’ file so we could have options if we needed them. After placing all the desirable clips in the ‘good’ file, we created more files within to organise the selection of shots into scenes, such as ‘container’, ‘car’ and ‘raid’, so as to save time when looking for clips.

After having sorted all our clips into files and sub-files in order for easier access and faster decision-making, we chose our first clip to be the Jeep arriving at the container. We liked the fact that we could hear the engine before the car appeared because it built tension, which we felt was important for a thriller. It also created an impact so we thought it would be good to start with to really set up the scene for the audience. Before having Ted open the container, we wanted to somehow introduce the theme of drugs, so we used a close up of Ollie’s hands making lines with the drugs. We found that not only did this introduce the theme quickly, it also created a sense of mystery because the audience didn’t yet know whose hands they were supposed to be.

We decided to begin the container scene with a clip of Ted opening the container from inside. This was to give a view from Ollie’s perspective because the change from dark to light gave Ted a sense of power creating a binary fission between Ollie and Ted in terms of age. We had difficulties using the full clip, however, because it slowed the pace of the action too much but also there was a clunking sound when Ted lowered the ramp. It looked clumsy and quite comical as it made Ted look undignified, which is exactly what we didn’t want because we wanted the audience to think of him as superior and feared as well as admired by his employees. We tried cutting the clip with a wide shot of Ollie looking up, which we found worked because it showed that Ollie had acknowledged Ted’s arrival as well as showing the audience the interior of the container and therefore informing them more about the world of these criminals.

We experimented with close ups of the police sergeants, with one bringing food to his mouth and the other doing the same with a coffee flask. We initially thought we might have been able to use them to set the police scene as well as giving police a negative representation by portraying them as lazy, but we then decided the clips looked too comical and wouldn’t have created the effect we wanted.

We felt that we should try to push the tension even further by beginning the entire video with a shot of the sergeants in the car to create the sense throughout the sequence with the gang that they’re being watched. We stopped sticking to the timeline as we found that we could make it more impactful by going with what we felt because of seeing how the clips looked in real life.

We initially kept the scene in the container separated from scenes the police being ordered to go in but then, in order to heighten the action, we used cross-cutting between the action in the container and the police constables sneaking around in order to really engage the audience by anticipating an attack and making the audience worry for the gang and want them gang to leave the container. We were very happy with this change as it created a much more anti-climax when the police opened the wrong container but it also created a lot more suspense, which made it much more exciting and also gave the audience a chance to connect with the gang by making them worry for them.

We had a clip where one of the sergeants picked up a Walkie-talkie and shouted ‘go-go-go’ but we decided it didn’t sit right with the tension we had managed to build so we simply used a medium shot of one sergeant noticing a disturbance and then cut to more action happening in the container, followed by more shots of the police constables moving for an attack.

We used a shot of the police constables sneak up to the container for behind them the time it took between them entering the shot and actually opening the door was too long and it undid the exciting tension that had just been building up which we thought would be disastrous for our thriller. We tried increasing the speed of the shot and found that it helped. However, there was a strange blurry affect in the movement by speeding it up. We tried not using that shot and just using a shot from the inside of them opening the container and found that this worked much better than we thought it would because it was a lot more impactful than if we had seen them approaching the container. In terms of continuity, it worked better anyway because we hadn’t previously seen the gang shut the container.

When editing the shot of the police from the front of the container where the deception is revealed, we cut it too soon and didn’t allow enough time for the audience to take in the twist before the head of police reacted by hitting the door. We extended the pause in that shot before the reaction and learned that the smallest amounts of time can make all the difference to the impact created on screen.

During the editing process, I focused on the order of the shots and on trying to create a narrative, which featured the gang and the police equally in terms of perspective. My role was to make sure we used enough clips and give the right amount of screen time to the police and the gang, as well as keeping an eye on continuity. We worked well as a group since I would focus on us using the right clips, others focused in cleaning up the sound, adjusting the pace, inspecting the progress and finding effective non-diegetic sounds to enhance our thriller.

I enjoyed editing because I learned a lot about how much timing contributes to the effect created by a film. It made me realise just how significant each moment is in setting a pace or having an impact and taught me what makes successful films meet their standards. Making the shots in the cross-section shorter made all the difference to whether any tension was created in the film, and the longer clips in the beginning helped to establish the characters and the situation as well as create a contrast with the faster cuts, thus making the video more engaging.

It was also fun to see how different shots, which weren’t designed to fit together conveniently, do so and add a comical effect. For instance, we had a close up of a sergeant looking forward and nodding before twitching his mouth and we also had a medium wide shot of him conveniently twitching his mouth again before clocking the gang situation and saying ‘hang on’. It was satisfying to cut the two scenes together at the twitch because of how he had conveniently done it twice, but it was also a very good cut because it showed one moment of him being certain and looking in control of the situation and connected nicely with him suddenly realising something is wrong.

Software: Final Cut Pro

Hurtwood House 13

Wednesday 26 February 2014

How have I used, matched or subverted conventions in my product?

Friday 14 February 2014

Sounds for Thriller

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Account of Editing

Monday 3 February 2014

Example of Target Audience

Sunday 2 February 2014

Example of Target Audience

Example of Target Audience