planning editing styles - Miss Georgiou

Intro - Editing is essential for a thriller film as it means that they can cut out certain bits and pieces to build suspense, surprise and jump moments which are key for a thriller. This can be done through various techniques and can have a lasting effect on the audience.

One technique used in this clip is a reaction shot. This will be used throughout the clip in every scene to show the emotions of our victim or protagonist and to highlight their facial features. It is going to mostly show the anxiety and fear of the victim, by doing this we will force our audience to sympathise with the character, emphasising her terror and allowing a relationship to build between the her and the audience. A prime example shown during the clip is demonstrated specifically during the main scene as the protagonists facial features are highlighted to show the reaction she has to her painful death. We will do this by showing a close up of the facial features the protagonist displays. The effect this has on the audience is that we develop a relationship with the character, feeling great sympathy for her and wanting her to survive. This builds up suspense and tension for the audience as she is in danger.

Next we used the timing of shots to different effects. This includes slow and fast editing used to create shock, suspense and surprise. This will be used in various examples through the clip however a specific example is demonstrated in the first flashback scene as the victim spots the antagonist for the first time during the short clip. As she is sat comfortably watching her cartoon film the tempo of the shots are very slow. This is done to show the calmness of the start of the scene. However it is also done whilst showing the antagonist, by doing this we prolong this part of the scene. As we see the set up of the man stalking the girl we feel sympathy of the innocent victim as she is in trouble. This prolonged shot builds up suspense for the viewers as we feel scared of what could happen and we want to find out the outcome.
As she spots the antagonist outside the window she begins to panic and runs to the kitchen for a knife. This chaos and panic is conveyed by the speeding up of the tempo for the clip. This is juxtaposed with the calm slow tempo shown before to emphasise her shock and terror at the presence of the antagonist. The effect this has on the viewer is that we feel furthermore shocked by the sudden appearance of the stalker and the effect he has on the young girl. This sense of shock is key to a thriller as it is one of the main conventions involved when producing a successful piece of work. It builds a relationship between the victim and the audience as we feel her panic due to the sudden chaos conveyed by the quick tempo editing.

Another from of editing used to have lasting effect on the audience throughout the clip is the use of filters. This will be included throughout the clip to produce different emotions for the viewers. One example of this is during the flashbacks. Firstly we will make sure that the flash backs are seen in a colours showing it to be old memories, or simply just another colour to the present day. By doing this we are emphasising how this mental torture and stalking has been going on for a long time, expressing the paranoia and anxiety that she must have been going through. The effect this has is that we feel more sympathy for the girl, creating an attachment between the girl and the audience, therefore building up suspense as we want to see the film and find out the outcome of what happens to her. Also the colours of the filters will be a dark an gloomy. This could be done to represent death, therefore foreshadowing future events; this being the death of our protagonist. The effect this has on the audience is that we feel suspense building up to a gloomy death, it shows something bad about to happen and we fee tension towards finding out what this is. This is very conventional to a thriller as suspense is crucial into creating a entertaining thriller.