Evaluation of my Post Production

Editing my final task was much more complex and sophisticated than my prelim task. For our thriller, we used order of shots and use of shots along with sound effects to tell the narrative, where as with our prelim task, we used dialogue alone to tell the narrative.

Editing our thriller took about 3 – 4 weeks and in this time we choose our use of shots, including close ups, to emphasise the narrative of our thriller. We used tracking shots to show continuity, and tilt shots to build up tension. For our thriller we had to be careful about the editing process as the use and length of shots, and the order in which they have been placed controlled the pace of our thriller. We had to get the pace of out thriller correct as it changes the style of the product.

We used a blend of close shots revealing very little and fast cuts to surprise the audience. This is because we wanted to create a mood where the audience would know very little about the thriller at points and then be surprised and this is what makes the audience want to carry on watching.

We used foley work to make the sound more emphasised and thriller-like. We used these diegetic sound effects along with some of the ambient sound from the shoot day. We used the drone sound throughout the sequence to enhance the realism of the thriller genre. We enhanced the sound of the footsteps to create tension. However, we used the ambient sound of the shoot day of the trap door opening as this is more authentic and sounded great.

Titles used throughout our sequence were put in an order like in other thriller films. We used a made up distributor ‘a Storm Cunningham film’ and a made up production company ‘Milano Productions’ to make it more professional and more like other films. We used a pace which kept with the mood and pace of our film as we did not want to break the tension because a thriller is supposed to have lots of tension and suspense. We wanted to choose the right size and font of our titles to emphasis importance using larger font and we used a childish looking text to create suspense and show that we are using a captured child within our sequence.

I feel that we have made the right choices to appeal to our target audience because we use dark thriller music which fits with our narrative and the pace of our film controlled by our use and length of shots fits to make the mood of a thriller film. This would ensure that our target audience would watch the film because we have made it like other thriller films using professional thriller techniques. We felt that we created the right amount of tension and drama needed for a thriller in our use of shots and choice of nondiegetic music. We were trying to capture the essence of other thriller such as ‘The Orphanage’ and ‘The Others’ which also used similar shot choices and music to create narrative.