Account of Editing

The editing process was slightly challenging in the beginning of it but after we moved further along and edited our thriller, it became more comfortable for us and we could judge how good a sequence looked much better. Correcting mistakes and re-editing them was another thing we learnt but we didn't have to re-edit much at all apart from the fact that we’ve moved around the video so we have to adjust the right sound for the right part of the video and also fixing the pace of the sequence. But we all looked at it and tried cutting different parts where the detective gets killed and managed to over come the problem of it being a bit slow in pace. Making the most of our thriller on Final Cut Pro but putting the shots together and cutting was easy and straightforward and took less time once we have adapted ourselves to the software. If we did it again I would have changed the way in which we placed a few of the shots and put them together to get the pace and more flowing, but overall I am happy with the result produced by our group. The group worked well together, although we did have a few clashes with ideas so to resolve this problem we did some individual work by creating different versions which allowed everyone have a go at the beginning stage and then in the lesson we showed each other and went with the idea we liked the most and would incorporate it into the final body. I enjoyed the editing process and it was good to see our thriller being made as we went along. It was also exciting when we came to adding the music because it is one of my favorite things and so I enjoyed the opportunity to pitch in my ideas.. The sound also made a massive difference to the entire feel of the film it helped create an eerie suspense which we were going for. We did not assign ourselves specific roles however some of us were better than others at each role. I think I personally helped a lot with sound and general ideas for where to cut a scene.

My preliminary task, which we all did during our first few weeks, you can really see the difference between editing our thriller and editing the prelims is that there was a lot more to be done and in a lot more detail, we did not have the real issues or sound or any sound effects in our prelim task whereas this was a big process for our main thriller. From this experience I think I have learnt a lot in terms of editing, I now know a lot more about using FinalCut Pro, whereas before I had never used it much, I also now know how to cut sequences in order to raise tempo and suspense which is very beneficial for me.

In order to introduce our characters, we thought we had to give most camera time to the detective and less to the femme fatal, this was to create binary opposition. Most of the shots of both characters are of the same height and therefore it portrays them as both physically equal in power except she is clearly holding a gun and the audience know that he has put his into his draw as we specifically filmed a close up shot of him doing so, and therefore she has the power over him. Sound was difficult to add in, especially where the typewriter is used. Possibly more difficult though was making sure that each sound was perfectly in time with the action so that it was smooth and in sync. After this we had to find a gun shot effect we could use as of course we did not have a real gun and therefore could not record a sound ourselves. Once we had found a suitable gun shot in the effects we had to cut it and pan it to make sure that it sounded as if it were inside and had no reverb and most importantly that it fitted in with the timing of the action. After this we had to find a suitable soundtrack for our thriller, in the style of a typical film noir, we looked at many different clips of old films to see how they use music to the greatest effect. We were not allowed to take the music we heard and use it in our thriller because of copyright so instead we had to recreate our own more modern version.  We didn’t want it playing loudly throughout so we cut it in some shots so that we could hear the gun and typewriter, we also made sure that the pace matched the pace of the film (slow to fast back to slow). We had a minor or a major key sound at significant moments to highlight them to the audience and to build up tension before the climax, this is a common convention of a thriller.

We began editing quickly after the shoot day using a program called Final Cut Pro. We used techniques like match on action when the detective is frantically looking through papers, putting his gun in the draw and dialing a number into his telephone to suggest to the audience that there is reason to be anxious and that there is danger. Another technique we used was eye-line match when our detective turns to look at the door and we then see the femme fatal Dayana is standing there. Shot reverse shot is also used at this point and as she walks towards him to shoot him, enabling the audience to experience the situation from both characters points of view and see both of their expressions. Once the detective is killed we no longer have shot reverse shot because we wanted to show he was dead by taking away what he would be seeing, instead we use an over the shoulder shot from Dayana's position so that the audience see him fall to the sofa to add tension and emphasize his death and it's importance. It quickly cuts to a wide shot and continues to follow Dayana out of the room and through street. The first thing we did was to separate shots that we thought we could use and shots that we didn’t think we would use. We made the choices by firstly discarding all the ones, which were badly done, or had continuity errors or faults such as people in the shot or background noise we didn’t want. It was easy to find a good version of each shot as when we were filming we repeated each shot various times from various different angles or points of view. We picked particular shots based on how we felt it would fit into our original storyboard and plans, and how it would work for keeping tempo and suspense. Next we placed the good shots we wanted to use onto the timeline and made a basic layout of our thriller, which we then were able to work with, cutting, adding visual effects and sounds.

We already knew the tempo we wanted our thriller to be at, we started with a slow steady pace which we created by using a long tracking shot of the detective walking along the street and then into his office and hanging up his coat and hat before sitting down at his desk, this allowed us plenty of time to show the titles and also time to start to build up suspense. Then as soon as he switches on his table lamp we sped up the pace by cutting quickly whenever he made an action, such as him typing on the typewriter, searching through paper and dialing his phone to create a sense of urgency and danger. We kept cutting quickly until he is shot and falls on the couch. Then we cut to a slower tracking shot of the girl taking something from his pocket and walking out the door and down the street, similar to the beginning shot. We found the correct pace for our thriller I think, as we didn’t want it to be like an action film, but we wanted it to not be too slow like a drama for instance.