Style of Editing

The style of editing shows how each shot in a film is linked together.
The movement from one shot to another is called a transition.


The most common and 'invisible' form of transition is known as a straight cut. This is when one shot moves instantly to the next without attracting the attention

The benefit of straight cuts is that they help retain reality, they do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief. This helps with the viewers sense of immersion.

Another technique that is used is fading one shot out while another is fading in. For a while, the audience will be able to see both shots on the screen when the dissolve is taking place.  This transition is extremely effective if the goal of the director is to show a connection between two objects, scenes or people.

The final transition technique I will talk about is fading. This is a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until it becomes completely black or white. The shot will fade until either only white or only black can be seen on screen. This transition is used to indicate the end of a particular section of time within the narrative, can be used as the introduction to a time skip, which can be both short or long.

Speed of Editing

In every film, scenes last for a varied amount of time. Some scenes may stay on screen for a matter of seconds, whereas other scenes may stay on screen for minutes, this determines the speed at which the plot of the film is able to advance. Speed of editing also contributes to establishing the mood of the scene and even the whole film. If the director of the film wants his audience to feel anxiety and suspense the editing will be quick, what the audience sees on screen will be changing rapidly, this is can be done to divert their attention from the important things that they should be focusing on so that when they are revealed the experience is better and delivered in a more memorable way. This is just one of the ways speed of editing contributes to the success of a film.

Speed of editing can also be used to create a more relaxed mood, if this is what the director wishes to achieve, the film will be focused on one scene for a longer amount of time and the scenes will change less frequently as a result, allowing the audience to deliberately focus on the one scene, this lets them notice everything in the scene, even the smaller, less significant details.

Narrative and Cinematography

A story is simply a sequence of events, also commonly referred to as the plot. The audience would normally expect a sequence of events to be shown from start to finish in a film. This is not always the case, as the order at which events are shown on screen can be changed in order to achieve various effects. For example, the very end of a film can be shown within the first ten minutes, while the rest of the film back tracks so the audience can understand how the characters ended up in the situation that is shown within those first ten minutes. The way events are revealed is referred to as the narrative. 

When the sequence of events is shown in the expected order, this being, beginning, middle and end, this is referred to as linear narrative. This is also the most common form of narrative structure. 

Non-linear structure is when this order is mixed up, for example, end, beginning and middle.

Cinematography - There are several commonly used camera angles that are used to achieve various dramatic effects. 

These include:

Long shot

Medium shot

Close up

Extreme close up

Point of view

Low angle

High angle

First day of filming - 11th of January

Me and my group travelled to Hainault Forest to film the beginning of our thriller scene. We managed to create an interesting intro to the thriller to which we will add text when we are editing. We then planned on cutting straight into a chase scene between me and another member of the group. We believe that all the individual scenes of the filming session turned out reasonably well, however a concern among the group is how all the scenes will match together when we go to edit them all into one continuous film. Achieving consistency in this regard was really difficult when all we had with us was a camera in the middle of a forest. We believe we will be able to make the film relatively consistent and fluid once we are finished editing. We used a decent variety of filming techniques and our ideas and visions were produced relatively well in the acting as well. One of our group members was not able to get involved in performing on the first day of filming, we are saving their role for the second day, where we transition from a forest to a house in order to try to create an interrogation scene.

Continuity Editing

When editing a film, the editing must be continuous for the film to be successful. Continuity editing is when all props and clothes are kept the same in the film going from scene to scene. A person cannot film one part of a scene wearing one set of clothes and then finish the scene with another set of clothes.
Continuity editing creates a believable narrative flow which makes the audience believe that the shots are following a logical coherent sequence which makes sense and makes it easier to follow the film.

Ident

This is how our thriller will be introduced. The sequence will go as follows;

1. Ident - Production list
2. Ham productions presents
3. Director's name
4. Male Actor
5. Female Actor
6. Other Actors
7. Editor
    Costume
    Music
    Screenplay
8. Producer
9. Director's name again
10. Title of the film

The sequence will be playing during the thriller itself, this is because we are limited on the amount of time we have and this way of doing it gives us more time to focus on the two minutes of thriller.