Thriller Evaluation

As part of my Video unit our project was to get into groups and work on an opening sequence for a Thriller. We had approximately 6 weeks to work on the planning, filming, and editing of the sequence. I worked in a group of 3 which included me, Nikita Lewis and Toni-Leigh Plummer. Our opening sequence ‘Rebecca’ is about a woman who becomes a victim of stalking. Because it is an opening sequence we do not see the end of her fate or if the stalker later on is revealed. The opening sequence ends with Rebecca calling the police as she has realised that she is being stalked. This leaves a cliff hanger for the audience as for they do not know weather he gets caught or not, and weather she survives or not. The finished product of the opening sequence of our thriller ‘Rebecca’ did go well but there were also some things that could have been improved to make the finishing project even better.

Things that went well whist creating the opening sequence ‘Rebecca’ was the filming and editing. I feel that the editing went better then the filming as there was a lot more things we could use and to make the filming come together. We used Final cut pro to edit the whole sequence also we used sound track pro to add music into our thriller. The thriller’s sound track was made up of two different sound tracks created and edited in sound track pro. It also had diegetic sound of the atmosphere on the outside location shoots, sounds such as cars driving passed, the radio and turning the newspaper. I think that using two different sound tracks was a risk but we managed to blend it in well and it worked to our advantage. At first we were not sure weather to use two different sound tracks because they may clash and also the two tracks contrast with each other. The first sound track is a mellow, slow rhythm. This sound track adds enigma to the opening also it makes the audience wonder what is going to happen because at this time the audience are just getting introduced to the story line, also it created a sad atmosphere as the track is empty and has a slow tempo this makes the audience aware that there may be a sad ending, or a tragedy ready to take place. The first sound track is for the opening and is playing whilst the opening titles are on screen. The second sound track has a more up beat tempo compared to the first sound track. The slightly faster tempo helps add enigma to the story line also it goes with the narrative as everything starts to become revealed. The sound track creates suspense and mystery to the opening sequence as the story slowly becomes revealed to the audience.

We also used sound effects from sound track pro, the sound effects we used were a camera flash and also a echoy thump sound. At first we could not find a camera shutter sound that fitted to how we wanted it to sound so we edited it in sound track pro, we cut it down so that the camera shutter sound only made one click. When we did this we then edited it further in final cut pro, what we did was we slowed it down so that the shutter sound fitted better into the sequence. The echoy sound was added at the end with the title ‘Rebecca’ and a black background, we did this to add more trepidation into the story so that the audience are left on edge to want to see the rest of the story take place. I think that the sounds worked well because it added to the continuity making the sequence run smoothly and the audience did not automatically identify when the non diegetic sounds were added or when the sound tracks change. This was an achievement for the group because we did not think that we could do it.

In final cut pro we also used a number of different transitions such as cut, cross dissolves, fade into white and fade into black. These transitions help us with the continuity of the sequence as it closed gaps and also allowed us to add in things that added significance to the story line such as the non diegetic sound of the camera shutter, here we added in a fade to white so it looked realistic as if the audience are there when the pictures are being taken. At first we decided to have it on one picture but when we went back over the sequence e found another place to add it. A problem that we had in our shoot was that the colour from the indoors scene was too bright. It had a lot of oranges and citric colours and did not fit in with the rest of the scenes and this was identified by Fiona when she was watching over our sequence. How we fixed this was in final cut pro we done colour balanced and tried to get it as close to the rest of the other scenes as possible. I think that it did work well but it could have been better if at first when we were recording we set the camera (HD Sony Z1) to manual and found the white balance, but instead we set it to automatic. By doing this it did not show the full potential of the group, but at the end we did resolve it but it could have been better.  We did not change any thing else in the colour of the sequence just the start of it. In final cut pro we also slowed down some motion to add more suspense into the sequence also to make it look spooky.

In the overall editing experience I think that my group all played a fare share in imputing things to create and develop our final product. I put in inputs in what should be different and what should have been changed, the main role I carried out was to make sure everything was in order. Also I added in slugs, blackouts and transitions where I thought were suitable. I picked out the sound effects also, where the music should start and stop. I edited some sound peaks how loud they should be and where they should fade out and in.

Overall I think that ‘Rebecca’ could have been a little bit more better if we had experimented more with the software in Final cut pro, used more of the transitions, colour contrasts and speed. I also think the finishing product would have looked better if we used a manual setting when we were filming and found the white balance, this would have also saved us the hustle of re editing the colour on Final cut pro. The feed back that we got from the rest of the class was positive but we also had some constructive criticism. One was that it looked like a trailer of a film mainly because of the ending that it had, that is the title ‘Rebecca’ with the echoy non diegetic sound. Another criticism was also that it gave away too much of the film. How we could have changed this was by maybe not adding an ending title to the opening sequence and also maybe not have the character call the police in the opening. Another comment was also that the camera shots worked well for example the stalker disappearing behind a moving bus, people thought that this was very creative. In conclusion I think that the filming and editing or ‘Rebecca’ went well, mainly because we worked in harmony as a group, we all contributed and put in effort in the planning, filming and editing.