07/01/2016- Editing

Editing the footage even more!

After the Christmas holidays, it was time to get back into editing. With having a break from our opening thriller sequence footage, we were able to get back into editing with a fresh eye. This gave my group and I to firstly identify the things we must do in order to make some significant progress as the deadline is quickly approaching. Here is the list we came up with:

• Edit our footage down as much as we could, by cutting out parts which were too long or not of a high quality. This is because our opening thriller sequence was well over 4 minutes long. Seeing as the brief is to make it around the 2 minute mark, drastic editing was needed. We were able to look at our questionnaires which we conducted before the Christmas holidays in order to see what our audience felt should be edited out, as well as using our own personal judgement and advice from our peers.
• Sort out the sound! The sound was fading in and out in random parts where it wasn't necessary. This was because we had edited the sound and then cut parts out of our sequence, which had moved the sound from the clip is should be with.
• Try and make some opening titles. This is really important to enable my group and I to achieve the high grades we desire, however at this point, I believe it isn't essential. This is because the footage should be our priority and getting it to a high standard and to match the brief is the most important thing at the moment.

Firstly, we decided to watch the footage and identify parts which we could delete. By cutting parts down here and there, we managed to get the footage down to 2 minutes 40, which was a huge achievement. Cutting out pieces of footage was very difficult, as knowing which parts to delete was very tough. Shown below, is part of the footage we cut out. We had our actor walking towards the wall, but we felt as though that part didn't really add to the narrative enigma, and so we cut it straight from the girls face below in a flashback, to Daisy, (the victim in the present). This is effective because it shows our antagonist has an on-going problem with victimising girls.

One of our shots which we edited to make the duration of our opening sequence shorter.  



We then were looking at where else we could cut footage down. Originally when reviewing our opening thriller sequence, we thought that the part where our actor is strangely stroking the victims face on the wall was for too long. However, when our peers watched our opening thriller sequence, this was the part where they thought it was most disturbing and weird to watch, which a convention and aspect that really makes a thriller scary. We decided to not cut this part out.

We decided to not cut this part out as it adds to the narrative enigma. 

My group and I then reviewed the part of the opening thriller sequence where our actor makes his way down the stairs. This part takes up quite a bit of time in the opening thriller sequence, and so we were planning on cutting parts out. My group and I debated on whether to cut this part out entirely, but we then decided that this part contains aspects of good editing and so this could minimise the chances of achieving a high grade. We also thought that this part creates suspense as he makes his way from the bedroom to the front door, and so we have also decided to not cut down this part either.

We then cut down the overall time of the footage by cutting out little parts of scenes which weren't adding much suspense to the narrative. This therefore allowed my group and I to get the final time down to 2 minutes 42seconds.

 

We didn't have time to sort out the sound today, but tomorrow we have decided as a group that I am going to edit the sound so that it fades in and out in the right places.