Prelim Task Part 2

Prelim Task Part 2

In the second part of of our prelim project we had to edit the footage that we shot in the studio the week before. We used adobe premier to edit our footage beginning with a wide shot establishing the location and the characters and their positioning within it. We then cut to a mid shot 'B' walking in and confronting 'A'. We lengthened the shot duration on 'A' giving her more screen time allowing the audience to associate themselves and sympathise with her more than with 'B'.

Whilst we were editing, one our teachers stopped us and reminded us that we should be editing the narrative and meaning of the film not just putting the shots that 'look cool' in. We then started to spend more time looking at a variety of shots before we edited them in to see which one would serve the narrative best and also suit the characters more. We wanted person 'B' to seem inferior to 'A' so we experimented with our high angle shots trying to see which shot would convey this to the
audience most.

One of the issues that we had was with our actresses and the lines they had to recite. As, we didn't have a lot of time, the actresses had to learn their lines very quickly and unfortunately we had to cut some shots early because they forgot lines. We decided to write the lines on a piece of paper and stick it to the wall behind person 'B' so that she could read the liens if she forgot them. However, when we were editing we noticed that you can see her eyes moving on and off the paper trying to remember her lines and we didn't want the audience to notice because to would distract from the realism we were meant to be creating. We managed to find some shots where she doesn't look at the paper at all so we used them but we often had to cut them slightly earlier than we wanted. If we had the chance to repeat the task then I would hope to give the actresses their scripts earlier and filmed more shots rather than having to rush.

Another issue that we had when editing was that we forgot the most important rule of all whilst editing, to save. Half way through our editing, the computer crashed resting in the loss of some of our work. When we got our computer back and running we realised that luckily we hadn't lost too much but it opened our eyes to the importance of editing because we could have lost all our work and if that happens with our thriller then it might have bad consequences.

Something that I really enjoyed with the editing was experimenting with shot durations and how that can effect how the audience perceive characters. In one edit we showed a lot more or person 'A' making her seem dominant and subconsciously causing the audience to associate themselves with her more than 'B'. In our other edit, we added a lot of reaction shots of person 'B' allowing the audience to sympathise with her more than 'A' and made 'A' seem like the antagonist. It was interesting to see that the person with the most screen time always seemed more important.

One of the conventions of thriller as a genre is fast paced editing so when it comes to creating our thriller we will have to make quite fast and short cuts to ensure that we acknowledge the typical elements within thrillers. In the prelim task, the scene was quite slow paced even though the scene was quite tense, so it may also be interesting to play around with shot duration and see if longer shots and occasional slow paced editing creates more tension than the typical past pace of thrillers.

When filming our prelim task I felt quite limited because we had to priorities the shots on the starboard leaving us less time to experiment with different shot types. When filming our thriller it will be different because we don't have the safety of a pre made story board, we'll have to create it ourselves allowing us to have the freedom to experiment with a range of shots. I think the editing for the thriller will be a lot harder than the prelim task because we will have to consolidate a soundtrack and other sound into it and overall it will be a lot longer. Every shot will have to be selected specifically to justify the codes and conventions of the thriller genre and will also have to create an idea as to what the entire film narrative would be. It will be hard but one thing that the prelim task showed me was that as a group we know everything we need to and are ready to try something more challenging.

Prelim Task Part 1

Prelim Task Part 1

At the beginning of the lesson, we were put into groups of four and assigned a filming space. I was put in a group with Harry Gale, Daisy Jelley and Harriet Goodall and we filmed our prelim project in the filming studio. We were given a camera, a tripod, a storyboard and one hour to film a scene between two people, ‘A’ and ‘B’ where ‘A’ is demanding ‘B’ to do something. The first thing we did was give our actresses copies of the script which they had to learn very quickly. As soon as we could be set up our camera and tripod for our first shot, the wide shot. Before filming however, we did a few run throughs of the dialogue and made sure that we put markers on the floor of the set to ensure that

our actresses stand in the same places in each shot for continuity and to make sure they'll be where we want them to be in the frame of each different angle we did. The last thing we did before rolling was focus the camera by zooming in, focusing and then zooming out. Before every shot we made sure we utilised the ‘standby’, ‘roll camera’, ‘camera rolling’, ‘action’ and ‘cut’ rules that we learnt in our camera workshops. This helped everyone get focused before and made sure we got every shot we needed efficiently as well as making sure we got everything we wanted out of the shots by not starting the scene too early and missing out dialogue and cutting too early. We filmed for just under an hour and experimented with a variety of shots such as wide angles, over the shoulder shots, two shots, close ups, extreme close ups and high angles, doing as many shots as we could would allow us more flexibility when editing and would allow us to experiment with a range of shots not just the ones required.

I think the main problem we had was at the beginning with focusing the camera. We ran

the scene a couple of times before filming so that we knew where to put our markers as well as to allow the actresses to practise. However, the girl playing ‘A’ kept walking to different places making it hard to decide where to put the marker. Eventually we decided the best place to mark her so that she was well lit and focused before filming.

If I was able to do the task again, I would have wanted to spend more time on the shots that weren't required, the more experimental shots like the high angle. We wanted person ‘A’ to seem inferior to ‘B’ by using a high angle but because we didn't have a lot of time we were limited. I would have also liked to have given the actresses their scripts earlier to allow them to learn their lines quicker and under less pressure because of the time restraint. One of our actresses struggled so we ended up writing her lines on a piece of paper and hanging on the wall above ‘B’s’ head. This was a slight issue because it would mean that in some of the shots, you could see her eyes flocking from the script back to the actress which was very unnatural. However, the close ups were the last shots that we did and were the shots where this would have caused a problem but because we

did them last, our actress had managed to learn her lines so she didn't need the script anymore. Overall, I think the shoot went well, we set the camera up correctly and made sure we were happy with the brightness and other settings on the camera so that in post-production we wouldn't have to edit it.

When it comes to filming our thriller, I will definitely make sure that the actors get given their scripts before the filming to make it seem as naturalistic as possible. I would also consider the location more as the location that we had for filming this short scene was fine but it may not be suitable for other narratives.

Notes: Thriller

Notes: Thriller

Thriller Hybrids:

Action Thrillers:

Are films packed with action and get you on the edge of your seat, they aim to keep you entertained with pyrotechnics, tense story lines and a either a twist or cliff-hanger.

Romantic Thrillers: 

Are films that provide moments of uncomfortable suspense and a heightened feelings of anxiety alongside moments of delight and pleasure.

Comedic Thrillers: 

Are films that are often considered 'easier' to watch then other thriller hybrids mainly because the comedic element lightens the narrative and distracts from the suspense going the audience breaks.

Science Fiction Thrillers: 

Are films that play with the action element associated with science fiction films but are a lot more immersive as suspense is utilized a lot to create more jeopardy for the characters putting the audience on edge.

Thriller sub genres:

Crime/Spy/Espionage  Thrillers: 

Use a criminal or a catastrophic event to create tension as well as involving a complex investigation that constructs plot twists and surprises for the audience keeping them on edge.

Disaster Thrillers:

Presents a world jeopardizing event that typically only a small group of people van stop.The film would follow the progress of the group and see how the world is nearly destroyed. The pace would increase as the films progresses. 

Forensic Thriller:

Similar to crime thrillers, forensic thrillers follow the actions of a criminal or a criminal act. all the time trying to identify the criminal.

Political Thriller:

Often take real political events and bring them to life on screen,. The jeopardy for the characters is often very high as it is usually those in high status positions who's lives are put in danger. This sub genre is quite similar to disaster thrillers because the threatening of those i power could lead to global catastrophic i.e nuclear war.

Psychological Thriller

Plays around with the audiences emotions and tries to disturb them and use suspense and tension to make them very paranoid. 

Survivalist Thriller

Usually explores the idea of isolation making the audience very paranoid and defensive. Audience member s often develop a strong connection with the character as they feel very empathetic and scared for them. 

Notes: Genre

Notes: Genre

Genre: the style and category that a film falls into

Thriller: a genre characterised and defined by the moods the elicit, giving the audience a
             heightened feeling of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.
             The aim for Thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats.
             The protagonist in these films is set against a problem – an escape, a mission, or
              a mystery.

Sub Genre: a more specific genre that wouldn't work on its own without the main genre

Hybrid: when to main genres a fused together e.g. comedic horror

Connotation: things we associate with particular genres

Editing Workshop

Editing Workshop

The software that we use for our editing is Adobe Premiere which is a practical and applicable software rouse. However, like any software, one of the golden rules is to always make sure you save your work, mainly so that you don’t loose your footage and also so that you can access it from any computer in the editing studio. To save your work there is the normal way buy pressing file and save but you can also save by pressing the command (cmd) and ’s’ key on the keyboard.

There are some key terms when i comes to editing, these include footage, rushes, daily’s and timeline. The ‘footage’ in film is the action that you shot and will eventually cut and edit together to make your film. ‘Rushes’ or ‘daily’s’ are film production terms used to describe the raw footage from a day's shooting. ‘Timeline is the term is the interface which enables editors to see all their edited footage on the monitor.

The ‘cutting’ tool or ‘razor’ is the tool we use in editing to cut footage by specific frames so that no shot is longer or shorter than necessary. The short cut for the cutting tool is ‘command c’ on an Apple keyboard. After using a tool such as the razor, there is a short cut when going back to the default ‘arrow’ and that is by pressing ‘command v’.

In and out points are the points in which you begin and end a shot. When choosing your footage you can press ‘i’ for ‘in’ and you would have trimmed the beginning, to trim the end you press ‘o’ for ‘out’. After doing this, you would drag the footage onto the timeline.

When editing it is often quite hard to find the best frame in which to cut. To make it easier you can press ‘+’ to zoom in enabling you to be more precise. If you want to zoom out to see all the footage on the timeline you press ‘-‘. Another short cut is ‘command z’. This short cut allows you to undo mistakes very easily.

Editing Techniques

Editing Techniques

There are a variety of different editing styles and techniques which when it comes to creating an opening to a thriller, will be very useful to know and understand the connotations that come withe executing particular ones. Here are a few sample of the most common editing techniques:

Montage:

Montages are often used in television series at the beginning of an episode to remind the audience of the events that took place in the previous episode. They condense large amounts of information into short sequences allowing the audience to absorb all the necessary information but take a far shorter amount of time to do so. In films they're often used to show how time passes. I've chosen an example from Rocky IV when both Rocky and Drago are training for their fight against one another. Although this montage is particularly long, it condenses weeks of narrative into minutes.

(To view the most relevant part of the video please skip to 1:11)

Continuity

Continuity editing is often quite hard to notice because it's used to make the sequence seamless and allow the audience to follow through with the action with no disruptions. Continuity is usually most effective in dialogue.

(The best example of seamless continuity editing in between 0:44 to 1:38)


When learning about continuity editing, I found that seeing a visual example helped. The video below offers more examples with informative audio narration.

 


Parallel

Parallel editing is when there are two or more events happening at the same time. Small groups of shots from each event are placed in between one another in a way to usually increase the tension or disconcert the viewer. Bellow are two examples, one from American Snipper and another from The Godfather:

Transitions 

A transition is the way each shot flows into each other. There are many types of traditions such as straight cuts, fade outs, dissolves many more each of them used for different reasons to portray different connotations. When learning about various transitions I found an excellent video that sums them up in a clear and informative manner: 



Below is video from 'Girl, Interrupted' that presents a very interesting montage that uses dissolves between every shot. This combination suits the style of the film and its disturbing but somehow fluid nature.

(Please skip to 1:30 to see the montage)

Sound Analysis

Sound Analysis

In this scene from Memento, diegetic ambient sound is used to create suspense. As the main character, Leonard Shelby, enters the building, we hear his footsteps slowing down with the intervals between them increasing in each step. This pattern in his footsteps almost resembles the pattern in which we breath, so when he suddenly stops it almost makes the audience hold their breathe. This would make heighten the suspense and anticipation for the audience.

The non diegetic soundtrack is parallel to the narrative in the scene. We only hear it when suspense is being built. When Leonard reads the caption of the photo saying 'kill him', we hear a high, minor key chord crescendoing. This would create anticipation for the audience but might also be used to display Shelby's emotions and/or understanding of the narrative in the scene. It is clear that he doesn't know what he's doing due to memory problems, the sound used could suggest that he is realising the truth.

Throughout the extract, there are several moments where the diegetic sound has been enhanced, making pleonastic. Moments like these include: when Leonard punches Teddy, loading and shot from the gun, all of which are very violent. The use of these shots conveys an idea that these actions were quite spontaneous and not necessarily in the a nature of the character. By enhancing these sounds, an element of surprise is introduced creating a bigger impact as the audience wouldn't necessarily expect it.


The non-diegetic voice over, from our main character, is used to inform the audience about both the character(s) and the scenes narrative. The voice over alone provides information about the entire narrative and allows the audience to anticipate the coming events just because of a few seconds of voice over. The fact that our main character is

talking to himself, could connote that he is either mentally unstable or insecure. This provides the audience with enough information to understand the character but not give too much away so there is still some room for individual interpretation. 

The diegetic sounds used like grunting and panting is used to depict character status and create tension. It is mainly Teddy who we hear grunting and panting in fear as Leonard attacks me. This vocal struggle depicts Teddy to be quite a weak character when amongst Leonard and also quite morally strong as he refuses to let Leonard pursue his intentions for longer than expected.