Editing The Thriller - Cutting the sequence together

Editing The Thriller...

With all the footage in place, I began to edit a first draft of the sequence. I decided to open the short with a wide shot of the grotty, slightly unsettling guildford leisure centre. to follow this I placed a closeup of pigeons to back up the idea of dirtiness and that the area is quite rough. The rest of the edit worked out nicely. The only issue we faced was one of our main shots broke the 180 degree rule and so it looked a little odd. The other main issue was that the video lasted more than 3 minutes - way too long just for an opening sequence. At first I tried cutting any tiny pointless frames at the beginning and end of each shot, so that there was no time whatsoever in which there was no action. This in total shaved off about 15-20 seconds which was good, but not enough. Fortunately the sequence is fairly simple and mainly made up of a woman climbing a set of stairs which isn't particularly interesting. This meant I could cut out two shots of stair climbing which brought the total time down to below 2 minutes 30. To cut these clips I had to use the blade tool on adobe premier by pressing cmd b and I also used the trim handles.

Now, with the first video cut complete, all I have left to do is a sound cut, colour grade, and finally add the titles themselves! My only worry is that the video doesn't build up enough tension for the final scare to have any impact, however I will not truly know until I have added the sound in.

Editing The Thriller - Playback and Review

Editing The Thriller...

Today we finally got into the editing suite and began the process of putting our short sequence together. To begin with, we looked through all of our raw footage, and chose which shots looked the best for the first draft. One thing I noticed is that we had a lot more footage than I originally expected, meaning we had a lot of leeway to cut and be selective with our favourite shots. Having picked the best shots I then sorted the footage into groups on the timeline;

1. Establishing Shots
2. Stair Climbing
3. Walking Across Car Park
4. Inside Car

Following this, I began to edit some short separate sequences. This helped me get back into grips with Adobe Premier and also sparked some ideas of how we could cut the short together in more interesting ways. I ended up taking charge of the editing process, simply because I have had a bit of experience editing beforehand.

It  was a relatively easy process and didn't take our group too long. We all agreed on the shots we liked and the shots we didn't and soon enough we were ready to start making a first edit.

The Shoot Day

The Shoot Day...

After all the preparation, the day was finally here. The day before we did final checks with our actors, car-providers and makeup artist of when and where we were going to meet. The morning arrived and we set off to Guildford, carrying cameras, microphones and costumes. On arrival we came against our first issue. The carpark level we had hoped for was in use and so we had to use the open top floor. This wasn't too much of an issue however. The fact that we were so high up makes the woman seem even more alone and vulnerable and the foggy, misty day gave a real sense of gloom and ambience. Everyone felt fairly confident, ready to film and very cold.

We all met together on the rooftop. As our dead body actor Adam was getting his makeup completed, I had to run to the local shop to get a bag of groceries for Fran to carry throughout the film. I ended up taking control of the shoot throughout the day. I did the camera work, directing, and decisions of what we should film next to get best use of our time. It was fairly challenging. We had to work in tight spaces such as a stairwell for a long time - climbing up and down in the freezing cold until no one could feel their feet anymore. I think it went quite well, no one argued and we worked efficiently.

The only real problem we came across throughout the day were the public. We had to do more retakes than expected due to people walking in front of the camera or opening doors etc. We also had to pay off a homeless man who wasn't happy about us filming around him.

If I could do the whole thing over again I think it would be good to look at the site beforehand in order to know the floor plan, know how the site looked and to know how far the car park was from the main street. We had to improvise nearly the whole shoot, simply due to the fact that we had to adapt to our surroundings.

In the edit I'm looking forward to see if our shots work well together, if they are smooth and professional looking and if we have enough!

Sound Research

Finding Sound Effects

One of the key aspects to make a thriller 'thrilling' is the sound used. We are relying solely on natural ambience and footsteps to create our tension. Below are some of the sounds I hope to use.
I want to create a sense of uneasiness through mostly quiet, with pleonastic rhythmic sounds of cars screeching and footsteps. I want it to become quieter as the film went on.


https://www.freesound.org/people/sonsdebarcelona/sounds/69825/
https://www.freesound.org/people/MorneDelport/sounds/326400/
https://www.freesound.org/people/martian/sounds/178889/

Narrative Action

Narrative Action...

• Business Woman picks up shopping on the way home from work. We see her exit the shop onto the street pavement 
• She walks down the street close up on her tired face.
• Cut to her walking but camera tracks her from across the road
• Walking continues from over the shoulder shot as if she's being followed. Then cut to shot of her walking from behind a parked car followed by similar shot behind a bush.
• Woman enters dark car park at a wide shot
• From the top of the stairs we see her climb up to her level.
• Woman walks into car park and towards camera into focus. as she arrives at the camera the door she enters slams, she jumps and then continues
• Cut to her walking through the car park, Footsteps are quicker and louder
• As she walks faster she looks behind her. We hear sounds of car screeches
• Cut to following behind woman. We see her car as she unlocks it in front of her
• We see woman walk round the front of the car to the boot from inside the car
• The woman opens the boot, she hesitates as she pulls the handle
• Woman loads the boot with her shopping, shuts it and walks round to the driving seat
• We see her sit down through the front window. She adjusts her hair in the front mirror and then looks to her left
• From over her shoulder we see though the window a dead body in the car parked alongside
• Close up on dead body with eyes open looking at her.

Props, Costumes, Lighting and Mise en Scene Research

Props, Costumes, Lighting and Mise en Scene Research...

Luckily for our group, the sequence we have created is fairly simple and so this part of preparation shouldn't be too difficult. For props all we need is a shopping bag full of groceries and two cars, preferably small hatchbacks without tinted windows. The shopping will be easy and hopefully the cars will be too, as we will have adults on set who can lend us their cars for the few hours we need them.

 For costumes we want our actor Fran to wear a work suit; perhaps a blazer skirt and a shirt and our dead body played by Adam will wear a white shirt (the bottom half of his torso won't be visible.)

Mise en scene will be unpredictable. We have no clue how busy the streets or the car park are going to be. In my head preferably I'd like the streets to be empty; two or three people walking by at most.

Lighting may also be difficult. As it's winter the sun disappears fairly quickly and a solid consistent daylight may be difficult. In the car-park it should be easier as I want a hard artificial light which we can do manually and not have to rely on the lights already there if they don't fit.