EDITING

Sequence
When we initially constructed our film opening, we had a lot of footage, and we wanted to use it all. We had filmed in places like the woods, so we wanted to incorporate it in some way but it just didn't look enough like a slasher film opening. As we tried to include everything, the sequence ended up looking more like a trailer than an actual opening. To combat this, I analysed some slasher opening credits to understand better how to make it flow. Then we started again.

We mainly used straight cut edits, however the transition from the victim's bedroom to the shed happens with a fade, just to add an essence of passing time.

Special Effects
In the clip of the killer stalking the victim outside her house, we used a few filters to make it seem like it was done on a camcorder. There is a slight blue tint on the screen here too because this colour is usually used to portray something that happened in the past.

Sound
Initially we intended to use the song, 'I don't want to set the world on fire' as it certainly would have given our film a disturbing touch, however we decided against it as it didn't create enough fear. In addition to this, the screeching 'House of Leaves' music didn't fade into it well, so we had to scrap that idea.

We looked at exemplar AS media openings and found that a lot of them had layered sounds to create fear, and had made it parallel and synchronous to the scene. Taking inspiration from them, we started with a blank canvas and began to add sounds from Final Cut Pro to create an element of fear.

The sounds we used ranged from metal scraping, to impact hits, and even a low drone sound. On top of this, we also found a very subtle track to assist our sound. This meant that the 'House of Leaves' track could fade it better. We also made sure to synchronise the impact hits with things that should shock the audience, such as the appearance of the killer.

In addition to this, we recorded some of our own sound effects such as the gasp when the girl wakes up to chloroform over her mouth.

Opening Credits
I have already done a blog post on opening credits, however, at first we just used a random font and put our names in one corner, so it wasn't well thought out. We eventually changed this.

The Title
Again, I have already made a blog post about this. However we put this writing on the black screen after the last viewing of the killer to add a more disturbing touch to our opening. Perhaps we could have improved the way it appeared on screen, but it isn't anything terrible.

Analysis of Finished Opening

Analysis of Finished Opening

As can be demonstrated by the GIFs and images that have been taken from our opening, our finished product was much more improved from the Preliminary. The camera angles and editing is more skilled and clearly indicates our improvement. The lighting and framing produces more tension and response from the audience and therefore shows the success of our opening.

The killer takes up the majority of the frame and this indicates his importance and increases the fear within the audience. The steady cam shot also indicates the fear.

The pan towards the killer's collage on the wall gives insight into the killer's pattern of victims, and this particular victim's life, establishing her as an upper class teenage girl.

 The absence of light at the start of the shot, it provides tension as the audience is left in suspense, and emphasises the killer's grotesque mask, which is only thing that is scene when we shine light from below(under lighting). This reveals half the face and creates an eerie atmosphere.

The close up of the weapons shows that the victim is in danger, and the blood on the weapons indicates that the killer has either already killed someone or used these on the victims. This builds tension for the audience as we are seeing from the victim's p.o.v, and learning the situation as she does.

This over the shoulder shot in dim lighting depicts the killer developing a picture of their victim, although this is unclear to the audience at the time therefore they are left in suspense, wondering what is on the picture. This will be evident late when the victim sees the murder board. The use of red lighting makes the atmosphere ominous.

 

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Analysis of Preliminary

Analysis of Preliminary

The preliminary was a practice for us to begin to understand the techniques and tools needed  in editing. It is evident that the preliminary was practice because it can be viewed as very amateurish and is this is demonstrated by many of its features.

The editing of the preliminary was very over the top, sloppy and unprofessional which included lots of slow motion editing, typical of students who are new to the Final Cut Pro programme, and this can also be seen by the unskilful use of straight cuts. The camera framing was basic and clumsy and demonstrated the lack of knowledge on the importance of the camera framing and angles. The lighting is poorly used shown by the shots of Sarah; the intense back lighting makes the sequence seem untidy and highlights our inexperience. The credits and titles further indicate the lack of expertise font is substandard and seems improper in the preliminary.

FINAL PRODUCT VS STORYBOARD

CLOTHES

The clothing used for the scene in the shed looked rather plain, just a grey top and black leggings. We used this casual look to show that she was taken in the most abrupt manner in her house, since she did not have time to change. 

In this scene we made Nicola wear something a little fancier yet casual to show she is a rich girl. From afar we know she is wearing a coat and jeans, she looks rather rich walking away from a huge house, the combination of the house and Nicola's clothes equate to the audience that the girl walking away is not poor, but rich. 

For the serial killer we thought since we needed to conceal the identity of the serial killer it would be best to wear something general such as a black coat and the mask as it is part of our serial killer's persona. In every scene the serial killer is shown in the opening we see them wearing the mask and coat, making the look unique and probably recognisable.

MISE EN SCENE

How we created this scene in the dark room:

We used the dark room and the red lighting to experiment how the radio would show upon the camera, we had wanted to use pan for the who scene since, it would be tracking the movement of the serial killer and their skills in being able to create photographs and their collections of the pictures they had, presenting that the killer has been stalking their victims for a while. We first used a radio to prove the eccentric attitude most psychotic serial killer often present in the majority of slasher movies. Then we did a straight cut edit to the scene of the killer developing the picture in the chemical in the tray.We used top lighting on the radio, as well as the tray. Then we collated the red bulbs and we again tried top lighting to make the actions of the serial killer visible in the dark room. The top lighting although is meant to give an angelic vision, we used it to shadow the movements of the serial killer, the red lighting gave the scene a further sinister aura.We used a picture to make the developing seem realistic.

How we created this scene:

We found an area where it would suit the neighbourhood we were trying to represent- a rich neighbourhood and decided that to portray our stalker and make the audience understand that the rich girl is a victim we should film this scene in p.o.v shot and pan from a hidden position. We later thought that it would be great to add realism, by adding the video effect when editing so it makes the audience think that the stalker/ serial killer had taken the video of her walk, adding on to the invasion of space the serial killer keeps doing, puts the audience on edge or makes them think the stalker is too close for comfort.

How we created these scenes:

 This scene was filmed in a shed. We used top lighting from one end of the shed to create the light gradience diagonally where the stalker pictures and mood board of the rich girl was created. We made Nicola dress up rather plainly, and did her makeup to look like bruises. To add further emphasis to the kidnapping, we tied the victim up (not too harshly so that we did not hurt our actress) and put a sack over her head with some splotches of blood. This shows that the victim has been abused along the wa. We also splattered some blood on her shoes and wiped some on her ropes and hands.

EDITING RESEARCH AND SOUND

SOUND
As well as using House Of Leaves and The Dread by Kevin McLeod for our opening, we also used a combination of layered sounds and sound effects, particularly for the more tense moments. This was a skill none of us previously had, so we had to develop it for our coursework. The development of this skill is evident when comparing our coursework to our preliminary task, which has no layered sounds and relied solely on our own sounds and background music. For our final product, however, we had greatly improved this skill to layer more sounds at once, as well as using synchronous diegetic sound effects, such as footsteps or a door creaking.

EDITING RESEARCH
When beginning to edit our final product, we also had to develop our skill in editing. This is again evident when looking at our preliminary task, which had very little editing aside from an overuse of slow motion, and amateurish straight cut editing. Our straight cut editing has since become a lot more precise, and we have also used various effects from Final Cut Pro.