Evaluation - William Johnson - Editor

My role within my group was to be the editor. This role meant that I would have to take the footage off of the camera, and then cut it up into individual clips, and then place them into an order to make sure that the narrative makes sense, and too make sure it flows easily. I also had to add effects to the shot to make the final product look more presentable. In this project I had too work closely with the cinematographer so i knew the order he intended the shots to go in. Filming over 10 minutes of footage and only having to use 2 minutes worth of it meant that my editing had to be very precise. Although the majority of the footage was test shots, or shots that did not go to plan, it took a long time to cut. I cut every clip so that if there were more than one version of the shot, as a group we could decide on the shot, and delete the old shots. Then with shots I had left I would either look at the story board, or talk to the cinematographer about the order of the shots. Then i would edit the clips, taking off a few seconds from a shot so it would flow smoothly. The speed and fluency of the clip would develop tension because it is more realistic so you forget that its just a film and think that your in the film. Then I would add in the effects. This meant changing the colour slightly to give the shot a certain effect, or just to make it easier to view. For Example the shot of the little girls face, we made the colour whiter, so she looked more paler. Another example of doing it too make it easier too view is when the man walks though the barn, the shot came out too dark, so I changed the colour to make the shot brighter.

The other thing was too make the antagonist fade in and out. We got this idea from the Ring. Samara the little girl fades in and out so she looks as if she is a spirit or something else supernatural.

I did this by filming the shot twice, on with her in and once without her, we planned all this before we did it. When it came to editing we would layer the clip. The one with her in on top and the clip with out her in underneath. We then made the clip with her in fade in and out, this

meant she would go come on and off the screen.

When she was on the screen we never put the levels up so you could see her fully, we made sure she remained translucent. This idea was used to scare the audience and make her seem more ghost like. If she remained solid, our film would look amateur. One problem we did encounter was that the two different shots were framed slightly different, this was probably due to the camera being nudged. This meant when both of the shots were visible you could see every object twice. I overcome this by changing the positioning of the frame. Another problem we encountered was when we wanted a "shot reverse shot", but did not have enough footage. We had two choices, either to copy the footage and play it again, or cut some of the footage in half and used the second half. We chose the second one because the only clip we could use the protagonist was making an action, and it would look bad if we used it twice. The idea of a "shot reverse shot" we used twice. The Second time we used it for suspense. The first time we used it too reveal the antagonist and build tension. We got this idea from "The Devil's Backbone". In the film the camera is looking at a door and see's a little boy, then the camera looks at the protagonist, and then back at the door, and he is gone. We used this idea within our film.

The genre we were filming for was horror. Within convention of a horror filming the more suspenseful the clip, the longer the editing, the scarier the faster the editing. I followed these conventions. For example when the protagonist was walking through the barn the shots were longer, and when it got scarier towards the end the editing was fast paced. We received a good audience reaction. We were told that people actually found it scary, which was the aim of the film. The feedback i got about the editing said that, the fading effect on the girl was very good and worked well. The shots flow well, and they work well along with the sound, and the cutting back and forth of the close ups build tension well. Overall I was pleased with the final product. After looking back at the product, I realised one clip I would like to chance. towards the end there is a scene when the protagonist is shining his torch of the antagonist is staring at him, and the feel that the shot goes on too long, and ruins the atmosphere. I could have solved this buy cutting off a second of the clip. This project has enhanced my skills as an editor and also has enhanced my capabilities on Final Cut Express.