Thriller editing evaultion

Our thriller is about a successful businessman who is on his way to work like any normal day. However he meets an accident and ends up in a coma, where his conscious haunts him. He does not realise that he is in his dream world and not reality. However within the dream world, his life depends on it, as another mistake can lead him to death straight away.   

This project was edited under the program Adobe Premiere Pro, in the setting of DV-PAL, Widescreen 48 KHz (UK format).  We created a new project in the program and imported the files in. From there we sorted out the clips, separating them into folders, making them easier to search for when it comes to editing that part.

 For example Damian (Tony) accidents shots, we put all the footage for it together. 

Within this photo you can see it named under as “Damian accident dead scene”. We originally used a normal camcorder to film most of the scene's, however at one point we had to use the mini HD camcorder which made Premiere Pro crash, but not as bad as we thought, which we were lucky.  

When we started editing this project, I started of the block cuts, so we have an outline of the story. Which made it easier for us to edit as the whole story is there but just need fine edit on it and add on extra few scenes or touches up.

When we were picking out the clips, we double click on a clip and a mini box would pop up and play the clip. Watching the clip in this way is much easier and more convenient, than dragging the clip and loading it on the timeline and then watches it.  As that way waste more time and knowing Premiere Pro, loading a clip on the timeline every time then delete it, it will increase the chances of Premiere Pro crashing more often.

Though there is times where we reused a clip more than twice, for example the scene where you see Hannah (Margaret) appearing everywhere. You see Damian (Tony) turn around countless of times; if you look closely it is the same two shots of him turning around. The reason we did this, was that it was sadly the only footage we have left of that scene, as we lost some footage and could not get time to refilm. 

However within this section I edited it all mainly. I went through several clips of Hannah (Margaret) appearing everywhere and picked out the ones that suited that situation the best. In these footage’s I did quick cuts of it, so you don’t get to fully see the scene but yet enough to understand the situation that Tony is going through.  Along with the quick scenes going, it makes the situation seem tenser and build up the suspense. If you look at the photo above you will notice that there is no affects added between the shots, neither in the audio either. But the sound of the wind in the footage gave it an effect of quick passing sound.

But as for sounds, I mainly edited the sound, making it level or some parts not to over powering. Such as for the scream for example, I wanted it loud and stand out but not exactly piercing. Otherwise it would hurt the audience ears and make it too dramatic. If you look at the photo you would notice that scream audio bar starts of from low and fade in and then gradually go louder. This is to make it easier for the audience to hear and as the scream fades towards the end. As making it louder towards the end, it will not make a big difference part from making it stand out a bit more.  

 But speaking of sound levels, I listen through to the audio countless of time to make it sound natural. If you look in this image, you can see that not all the audio level is the same. Due to the fact that some audio bars are naturally much louder than others, the heartbeat audio for example. I put it low so it would blend in better with the other audios, though it is still much louder than other audios. Which is not too bad as this heartbeat audio meant to overpowering, to make the death of Margaret scene more dramatic and so that the audience can feel what the characters are feeling at that moment too.

If you look at this photo, you can see that in some footage I added affects, such as fade to black. To link it with the following scene, using black for that scene in the photo. Black is a colour where it is mysterious and creates questions, you never know what could be in there and what may happen. So I choose fade to black in the aims to lead the audience to Margaret pass. To the point where Tony see’s Margaret, just before she dies. To make the audience see for themselves in Tony place and understand how that moment feels for him and her.

Too show that we try to make the audience feel what the characters feels was a success. Was that when we showed it to our class, people seems to be interested in watching it and some people even got freaked/scared of Margaret when she appeared everywhere or go up close to the camera(example shot in the photo).  

Also people understood the storyline this time. Which is a complete success and better outcome compare to the children drama we created before, where not many people understood the storyline. Also for a good couple of days people kept singing the song “Sweet dreams” by Marilyn Manson, which was played towards the end of our thriller. From this we can tell that people remembers our thriller.

Overall I mainly did the first edits and some edits during the point where it is nearly finish, then the final touch ups.

As I was in Berlin, I could not take part in the final editing, so I mainly did them when we started editing it. In order to make it fair for others, such as we all edit the same amount but in different sections and time. For example, due to the fact that I was in Berlin while one of the members of the group was not, it is only fair if I edited in the beginning instead of her, since I won’t have any other time to edit. Also the fact that she will be in college still when myself and another member of the group is away in Berlin, so she would have plenty of time to edit.

I personally believe I edited better this time as I manage to edit shots where it is the final cuts (Margaret appearing everywhere), compare to the children drama where I did not do any final cuts. However I still continue in doing the final little cuts along dealing with the sound levels. From looking at some second year work, I now know how to improve on my sound editing as some of them shown me how it works and the reason why. However In improving the thriller, I would personally try to get rid of the wind sound in some footage and refilm some parts. In order to make it flow better and much easier to listen too.