Editing in Psychological Thrillers

Editing in psychological thrillers from kjr84

Camera Movement/Shots for a Psychological Thriller

The most common shots used in a psychological thriller are; the mid shot and the close up. These shots are used as they help the audience to relate to the characters because they can see their facial expressions, allowing the audience to understand how the character is feeling. This creates a realistic feeling which is a common theme throughout psychological thrillers as the more realistic a film is, the scarier it is. Another shot used more commonly is a extreme long shot/establishing shot. This is used because it gives the audience a sense of location so they can understand the diegesis and what sort of troubles the character could come into. The "12 Monkeys" trailer is a good example of these shots being used.

Sound In Psychological Thriller

During psychological thrillers there will more than likely be non-diegetic sound during a scene that accompany the images. The non-diegetic sound is usually tense music or eerie sounds, this is important because it reinforces the relationship between the characters and the setting.

The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller and in the trailer is a good example of tense music being used.

Psychological Thriller Setting Ideas

Within a psychological thriller the setting is very important and the two most common settings used are a city or inside a building. These are good settings to use as they provide realism. Using inside a single building, for example a house or restaurant, could be good to use because I am limited to a maximum of 3 locations so it would make it easier. It would also allow me to film the entire scene in one day or maybe 2 which would give me more time to edit. Using a city setting would be good because it would give me a wide variety of choices for different shots however it would be difficult to get find places without many people who would interrupt filming. 

The Girl on the Train

On Thursday I went to see The Girl on the train. This film is a psychological thriller which is what one of the briefs for my course work wants me to produce so to get ideas on how to make a successful psychological thriller. Whilst watching the film I felt uneasy and was constantly thinking about what was going to happen. This is something I must make sure I can do so I can grip my audience to my film. There was also a lot of enigmas that left me wondering about something was happening. If I can leave the audience watching my film ask questions about what is going on in my film it will be a success.

Colour In Film

Colour is used in film to show emotion and can often represent genre in a film. A good example of colour used in film is Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. The uses of green, yellow and brown mean the colours do not contrast each other creating it to be pleasing to look at. He used this because it is calming and it suits the film.

On the other hand colours that are on the opposite end of the spectrum will compliment each other as they balance out the image and the flow of colour won't be disrupted. Films like Amelie use this complimentary style colour scheme which creates the atmosphere of the film.

Sound Terminology

Different Elements Of Sound Used In Ex-Machina

During this scene there is a few different elements of sound used. Firstly, diegetic sound is used as the character in the white shirt punches the other character in the black hoodie. The thud from the punch and the bump from when the character hits the floor is diegetic sound as the characters in the diegesis can hear both of these sounds. There is dialogue in the scene which is speech between the characters.There is also non-diegetic  sound used. The music used is non-diegetic as it cannot be heard by the characters. The music can also be described as parallel sound as it complements the text image.

Preliminary Task - Editing Part 2

During the editing process the audio levels of the film didn't change however I had to turn the audio level of the music down so that the audio of the film was still audible but the music could still be heard and be effective. I rushed this part as I was so close to the deadline so I don't think the audio levels are very accurate so this is something I will have to improve upon when it comes to my coursework.
Whilst editing I only cut the videos down and didn't edit anything else like the saturation or brightness. This is because I do not know how to do this however when it comes to my coursework this may be something I definitely need to change so I will have to work out how to do this before then.
When I had finished editing my film I had to export it so that I could put it on to the Friesland YouTube channel. Underneath is the finished product.

Preliminary Task - Editing

Before editing I had to upload all of the clips we had filmed onto the mac which I was filming on. This took a very long time as the mac I was on is older than other macs. It took nearly 2 days to upload the clips onto the mac so next time when I am doing my coursework I will have to upload my clips on a different mac so that I have a lot more time to do editing.
As we filmed in groups we had to share a SD card so it took longer to get all our clips onto the mac as we had to do it one at a time, therefore when I am doing my coursework I will have my own SD card so it will take less time to upload clips giving me more time to edit so that I can produce a better piece of work.
I edited my film on premiere pro by dragging clips I uploaded to the computer into the sequence and then cut them down. The only tool I used was the selection tool which is the standard tool that is used most the time anyway. I had to add 2 effects to 1 shot adding a horizontal flip and a vertical flip. At first I didn't know where to find these effects to add but after asking someone in my group I know where to find all effects so this will help me in my coursework as well as now.
So that my editing suited the brief, my shots had to be edited so they included and match on action. Match on action is where a shot cuts to another view that matches the first shots action. The brief also wanted me to film in continuity which is where through different shots the audience has the impression the action unfolds with consistency.

Preliminary Task - Filming Part 2

Whilst we were filming for the preliminary task we had both natural and unnatural lighting. Whilst we was filming in the humanities corridor most of the lighting was natural as there was a lot of large windows which let sunlight in, however it was a rather dull day so it hardly changed much. Also there were lights on the ceiling in the corridor however they are pretty old lights so they didn't add much light. Whilst we was in the IT room the light outside was brighter as it was a different day but didn't make much of a difference, on the other hand the light in the room was much brighter than the one in the corridor so more light was added in the IT room.
The main focal point in the camera for the duration of the scene was either one of the main characters or towards the end of the film it was a pizza box, so the focus of the camera was usually on these things and the background was left partly out of focus. Whenever the characters are in shot the rule of thirds apply as one is usually placed towards the left side of the frame and the other to the right although at the end the character left in the scene becomes the main focal point during this shot and so the audience knows they are important during this shot they are placed in the centre.

Preliminary Task - Filming

There was 3 of us in a group all filming/acting in the scene and we filmed during school hours in an IT room and a corridor in humanities. When we first started filming we were in a different room, however when we went to go film in that room again it was occupied so we couldn't film in there so we had to change room. To avoid this happening in my coursework piece I need to make sure I know where ever I am filming is unoccupied and what times it is unoccupied.
Whilst filming for the preliminary task we had to start the camera rolling before saying 'action' so that the start of the shot wasn't cut off and the entire shot is there. We also had to do the same at the end of a shot so we didn't cut the shot short. As I was one of the main characters in the film I didn't really use the camera very much and I have also never filmed with a DSLR (the type of camera we used to film) so when it comes to my own film I will have to pick up how to film with it as quick as possible. Below is an example of the camera we used to film.

We used a tripod for nearly all the shots as it steadied the camera which was what we were being marked on. We used 2 different tripods one was given to us by school to borrow and another one was a Gorillapod which one of the members of my group owns. Below is a Gorrilapod.

The brief we were given for the task told us to film in continuity and we had to follow the 180-degree rule and we did this by filming from the same side of the room for the entire scene. It also said that the characters in the scene should exchange a couple lines of dialogue, therefore we made a screenplay which the actors had to follow, however we didn't follow the screenplay to the full extent and cut some bits from the screenplay out due to time. This is something I will have to overcome when it comes to my coursework so that it is as good as possible.