Evaluation of post production

This was the second sequence our group edited together, the first one being our preliminary task. Preliminary task was much more basic - we did no think about sound or lighting that much, and the editing was not that good. Also it was very different because our preliminary task was filmed in the studio, and we had the advantage of controlled conditions, while our main task was filmed on location, which added difficulty to the process.

Our approach this time was much more serious - we had more than an hour of footage to edit as opposed to a short tape we had in our preliminary task. We tried to improve on our organization - each shot was named correctly and cut precisely from the raw tape to make sure that it was easy to cut the sequence after all the shots were logged. Also we payed much more attention to the quality of our shots, for most of the shots we had more than one take, and we spent some time looking for the best one.

I have noticed that our understanding of the editing processes and basic skills of filmmaking became much more sophisticated and advanced since our preliminary task.
We had much more control over the pace of our sequence, which is dictated by the speed of the editing. We have decided to make it slow in the beginning by using longer and more static shots. We show two different environments - changing room and corridors. In the first part of the sequence we cut between them to show the connection. During the course of the video the cuts become faster and the tension is being build up. The sequence starts off slow to confuse the audience - it is quite hard to guess the ending until the killer reveals a knife. Our editing sets up a connection between the killer and the victim, however the nature of this relationship is not obvious for the audience, the way she walks in suggests that they are a couple who are about to have sex, not a killer who is about to stab her victim.

Sound is very important in our sequence. High pitched strings and different synthesized effects are traditionally used in thrillers and horror movies. However I could not put them in the beginning of our sequence, because the sequence is trying to mislead our audience. Therefore I decided to use some footstep sounds and room ambience, which will be used as a diegetic sound in the corridor. I used the recorded sound of the shower in the changing room scenes. Non diegetic sound is added in the stabbing scene - a white noise rise effect to build tension up, and some low pitched explosion sounds to emphasize the stabbing.

I think the use of diegetic ambience sound in the beginning helps to concentrate watchers attention on the actual footage by keeping them interested in the sequence. I think this would not work if the sound effects gave away the ending of the sequence.

We decided to keep titles very simple in our sequence, because we did not want to detract attention from the action on the screen, slow titles would affect the dynamics of the sequence, which would break the buildup of tension. We have a title of our production company, Lionsgate, in the beginning and our movie title in the end. All of this was done using Final Cut text tool.

I think our editing makes the sequence appealing to the audience, by creating a mysterious atmosphere with ambience sounds, shot types and the pace of the sequence. The tension is being build up during the course of the sequence and the audience wants to see how it’s going to end.