Practice Thriller Editing

Our task was to compose a piece of film based around someone reading a newspaper, using as many of the conventions of a thiriller as we could. Unfortunately, the filming side of this was quite difficult, as both Fatma and myself were absent during that lesson due to illness. This meant that we gave no contribution to the filming process.

When we watched what the others had filmed in the next lesson, we all realised we needed more clips in order to do a good piece of work. However, this was out of the question, so we had to use what we had. I was a little confused with how we were to produce a coherent plot, but that's what editing is for (as a fall-back). I was pleased with some of the shots they'd managed to get of a girl reading a newspaper; including a close-up of her eyes moving along the lines as she read, a few over-the-shoulder shots of the inside pages of the newspaper and a high-angle shot, filmed from the first floor. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed that each shot had been filmed in the same location, and the entire film was just of a girl reading the newspaper (i.e. No shots of her walking, talking to anyone, etc). I also found that the camera had not been held steadily, and the zoom, however effective, was definitely not smooth. Though, I am sure it was the best they could have done, given the circumstances. I was quite pleased that they had remembered to film a few seconds before and after the shot they were filming.

The first thing we did, was upload the whole video onto the Mac, so that we could see all of it. We then split it into clips, and renamed them, so we knew exactly what shots were where, and how long they all were. We then trimmed them, and placed them on the timeline in a different order to create as much of a plot as we could, with as much accurate continuity as is humanly possible. There was a small problem with a specific, vital shot that we needed to add, but which had poor continuity. I suggested reversing it, and that seemed to make it work better, so we stuck with it. There were also places where we needed to slow down the clip for dramatic effect. Finding the "slow down" command gave us a little trouble, but once we'd found it, it all went rather well.

Once we were as happy as we could be with our minute-long film, we added some music to it. The non-diagetic sound, or soundtrack, was a difficult one to compose, as there was so much music to choose from that we didn't know where to start. Once we'd found a good drum-beat, everything else started clicking into place. While Yarohey and Nicole started blogging, Fatma and I decided to start layering the sound, so that it started quite quietly, with just a drum-beat, and then began to open up into a louder, more thrilling composition of drums, guitar, a violin and some form of piano or organ. I believe the composition of this music, and the instruments chosen, create a suspense that the film itself cannot. The music then cuts out just as we come to a speedy zoom into the headline of the newspaper's front page, which claims 88 people have died. This is acompanied by the squeaky sound of a fast zoom, and breaks the suspense and tension that the music has been playing up to. I believe it to be quite effective, as it is very unexpected, and could possibly make the more nervous members of the audience jump.

Our short film doesn't exactly make sense, but as a practice, the narrative is clear enough: There's a girl, on her own, reading a strange story in the paper, although -let's be honest- the cover headline says "88 dead" but the inside page she's reading is about mortgages. Still, you can't have everything perfect in a poorly planned practice. The editing does help. The mise en scene is quite good, and definitely helps to create a tense atmosphere. The girl in the shot is the only person inside the building, so she is definitely on her own. Her clothes command a casual respect, and her hair is tied back so that we can see the expressions on her face and her reactions to the article she is reading.

There was one shot that I thought built up the suspense, in conjunction with the soundtrack. She turns her head, and looks around, as if she knows that someone is watching her, but can't quite place where from. I have my own personal belief that the high-angle shot from the first floor could be a point-of-view shot from whoever is watching the girl. But that's just me. I think this really draws the audience into the story, such as it is, as everyone knows what it's like to feel as if you're being watched. It enables the audience to connect with the character, providing more suspense within the audience than if they could not relate at all.

I think we only really used one convention from the thriller genre: the music, as there was not enough footage to judge otherwise. However, I am impressed with what the editing could do to change a boring film of a girl reading a newspaper into a less dull, slightly more interesting film of a girl being watched.

Like Fatma, I also feel partly responsible for the poor quality and lack of variety of the footage. If we had been there during the filming session, perhaps our group would have done things differently.