Evaluation of Editing

When editing our video we began by creating a draft version including correct sequence of clips supported by the defined audio we felt applicable to this genre of thriller: crime. Upon creating this draft version we came across a few errors with our filming leaving us unable to utilise a wide variety of shot types whilst still maintaining that essential ‘thrilling’ atmosphere. This led our group to having to rethink the way we would create our thriller opening. We decided that by just using the camera footage of the car scene and shooting some additional footage we would be able successfully edit a good video.

This screenshot here is a good example of a few of the different techniques we used when filming. The first notable technique is the speeding up of clips to create a sort of time-lapse effect. We incorporated this into the scene where the victim we know now is dead and the camera follows the rope from around his neck to the boot of the car. We chose to speed this up as not only would it be too long a clip without doing so but it also flows well following on from the fast-cut editing used in the actual murder. The rope scene was included to link the murder section with the end titles/where the name of the film is revealed. It also shows the audience a little more of the crime scene giving them more of an insight. Another technique we used that you can see here is just a one second blank clip. Combined with fade-to-black transitions we used these to create tension in a scene, split up the different sections of the scene and also ‘fit’ with the soundtracks in each section. For example a pause in the music coalesced with a pause in the visual aspect, we found, is a very useful and effective method of creating suspense and tension. 

These two images displayed here are to show how we created our titles for the thriller opening. To begin with we designed a French newspaper (as to fit in with the theme of the film) and placed in pictures of each individual in our group but so that it looks like an article/set of articles. We then filmed a continuous shot following the rope from the front of the car to the boot of the car, where the newspaper was laid. When doing this we used close-up shots to film snippets of newspaper combined with the images of us. When we edited this in to our video we chose to split up the clips and freeze frame where the camera stopped on each person. Then we simply added text to the freeze frame, which produced a very professional but simple way of displaying our credits.