Planning Editing - Miss Georgiou

Editing styles are important to include within a thriller film because this is what makes the viewers feel the way they do about the scene that they are being shown. Editing styles are normally used within a film to make the story even more interesting than it already is. Various editing styles include; Reaction shot, this is when any shot in which a subject reacts to a previous shot. These shots show the emotions of the character as the audience are shown their faces. This then makes the audience feel a certain way about what they are shown. For example, if the character that is being filmed is crying, the viewers feel sympathetic towards them and want them to be okay. So, the audience create a relationship with them as they feel that they know them well when in fact they don't. Invisible editing, this is when the cuts are intended to be low key for except for special dramatic shots. The technique gives the impression that the edits are motivated by the events in reality on screen. Also, it allows the story to carry on without any interruptions, this makes the audience focus on the events that they are being shown on screen. The viewers end up creating a bond with the characters that they see because they see them so often that they feel that they know them very well. Montage is another style of editing in which is the speed of editing, where shots are quickly juxtaposed together to create excitement. When images are shot in this way, as mentioned, it creates excitement because the audience are being shown the images of a certain event very quickly. This means they must hurry and understand the story of they will be behind and not understand the story. Slow editing, is when clips are put together at a slower pace and this is done to create suspense for the viewers. The viewers want to know what is going on and when the images are shot slowly, they want them to hurry up so they can see what happens next. This builds up the suspense and tension, and normally at the end of the slow editing the audience are left with something that will most likely shock and surprise them. This makes them feel excited because they probably not expecting what they are shown. Fade out editing is when the screen fades to black and this often means an ending to the episode. This leaves the audience feeling unfulfilled and therefore they will want to see more, such as the sequel to the film or if it is an episode, they will want time to go quickly so that their questions can be answered as soon as possible. This builds suspense and tension for the viewers as they are left with a cliffhanger. 

Before creating our thriller opening sequence, myself and my partner, Krista had to plan what types of editing styles/techniques we wanted to include within our piece to achieve our goal of making a successful thriller. We must consider the element of editing and how we can use each technique in the scenes to make the audience feel shock, surprise, suspense and tension. For example, i must consider what styles of editing i will use and which ones will entice the audience the most when watch the opening sequence. I must also decide where and when i will use these various editing styles in order to create different emotions for my target audience. 

As part of the planning task, my partner and i had to create a spider diagram and write down four key editing styles that we want to use within our thriller sequence and in what scenes they would work best in. 

The first editing style we decided we would like to use within our piece is jump cut editing. Jump cut editing is when the film suddenly focuses on something. This is done so that the audience are up to speed with what they have seen and are ready to see the next part. We have decided the camera will suddenly film the man take the knife out of his pocket and the next image will show him about to stab her. This is conventional because the element of suspense is created and built up as the audience want to see what this character is capable of doing. Also, the use of jump cut within a thriller allows the audience to keep up with what is happening as they will be shown the story with more speed because then that way, the next image following the death is shown. The use of the jump cut creates surprise because the audience are unaware of what the character shown is going to do next. This makes the viewers create a relationship with the hitman because they don't want him to kill the woman and they feel that they know him well enough to know that he will do it anyway.

The second editing style my partner and i have decided to use within our piece is the timing of shots editing at a slow pace. Timing shots, this is when shots are either edited slower or quicker to add emotional impact or to create suspense. We will use this when the hitman is getting closer to the woman and killing her it will be in and out of focus to highlight disorientation. This leaves the audience wondering what will happen next. As they ask these questions, they begin to form a relationship with the character because they feel sympathetic towards him as he has been forced to kill this woman.  This is conventional within the thriller genre because it creates the element of suspense as the audience have to wait to see what happens next, so this keeps them gripped on the edge of the seats because they are anticipating for the next thing to happen.

The third editing technique we will be using in our piece is reaction shot. As previously stated, a reaction shot is when we see a character reacting to a shot that has previously been shown. We will use this when the woman quickly turns around just as she is stabbed. The reaction shot will be shown to film the reaction of the woman when she notices the man and the knife. This is conventional to the thriller genre because there is always a female victim and they are always inferior to the killer. Reaction shots are beneficial when creating thrillers because the audience release emotion and therefore, create their own reactions. This is conventional to the thriller as the element of surprise, shock, suspense and tension are present when this editing style is used because the viewers react to what they see and this creates different elements for them. The use of the reaction shot allows a characters emotions to be seen by the audience which then allows them to feel the same. This then makes the audience create bonds with the character on screen because they show their sympathy as they feel that they know the character even though they have only seen them for a very short amount of time.

The last editing style i will be discussing is the kuleshov effect. The kuleshov effect is where two shots equal one meaning. For example, a man holding a gun is one shot and a woman lying on the floor holding her stomach is the other. The implied meaning is that the woman on the floor has been shot by the man with the gun. I will use this within my piece to show the killer stabbing the woman. The next shot that will be shown is the woman lying on the floor with blood on her chest. The audience will imply that the murder has just taken place and can connote that the hitman is the murderer. Again, the element of shock, surprise, suspense and tension are present as the murder was unexpected, therefore making it conventional. The use of this allows the audience to understand what is going on without having to be told everything, it is almost like a hint to the viewers even though it has already been told. This allows the audience to explore their imaginations because they are not being told exactly what has happened, they just know so they imagine the possibilities of the situation ended in this way. The audience create a bond with the hitman because they worry about his mentality as he has just killed a woman because he was asked to. 

In conclusion, the planning of editing styles has help me to create a conventional opening sequence to a thriller film because i have some background knowledge on conventions as i have seen a variety of thriller films myself. It has also helped me because i now know what techniques to include and where i should use them to get the best possible reactions from the audience in order for them to feel the elements of shock, suspense, surprise and tension.