Planning Editing Styles - Miss Georgiou

Editing styles are important in thriller films this is because they help to create shock, surprise, suspense, tension and a enigma. These elements are conventional to the genre as they help in keeping the audience keeping the audience interested and engaged. Furthermore, by using different types of editing style it helps the audience in building a relationship with each character as the editing styles help to show the individuals characters emotions, which the audience can then relate to. 

My Groups Editing Planning Sheet

The first editing style me and my group are going to use in our sequence is timing of shots. This will be used when the female victim is walking through the alley by herself on her way to meet the unknown person who left her a note. At first the timing of shots will be slow as she is alone as she is walking slowly until she notices her pictures on the walls all around her in the alley. Then the antagonist will grab her and knock her out as this happens the timing of shots will change from slow to fast. The slow timing of shots at the start of this scene build up tension and suspense implying to the audience that something bad is about to happen to the innocent young girl. This helps in building a relationship between the audience and the victims character as they sympathise for her. However, once it then changes to fast timing of shots, there is the element of surprise because the audience did not know the antagonist has followed her down the alley. Therefore, this use of timing of shots is conventional to the thriller genre and out sequence as it helps in creating the elements tension, suspense and surprise by the scene suddenly becoming more dangerous. Additionally, the audience are then questioning what is going to happen next and so there is also and enigma, all this helps in keeping the audience engaged.

Timing Of Shots

Fade In/Fade Out Shot

The next editing style we all use is a fade out followed by a fade in shot. We will use this when the antagonist knocks out the victim in the alley way and so the image on the screen will fade to black. This is to represent the victim becoming unconscious and her eyes closing, showing that the antagonist has hurt her. Therefore, the audience know that the antagonist does not care what he does to her and that she is weak and vulnerable. The fade in shot will then be used when the victim wakes up from being unconscious and she is tied up and helpless in a dark room. The use of the fade in shot straight after the fade out shot is to show her now waking up. It will be from her point of view as if her eyes are now opening. These two shots helps the audience build a relationship with the victim as they are scared for her and her safety while she is unconscious and even once she has woken up. Also, they know that she must be feeling confused and unaware of what is going on similar to how they would be feeling while watching. This is because neither the audience or the victims character know who the antagonist is or what his motives are for the female victim. Moreover, this is conventional as it builds up tension for the audience. This is due to the fact they don't know what is going to happen next to the young women and if she is going to escape from the unknown antagonist. 

Reaction Shot

Another type of editing technique we will use is a reaction shot. This will be used when the antagonist enters the dark room where the victim ins tied up hopelessly in the corner and he slowly walks towards the victim, scraping the knife along the wall. We are going to use the victims point of view shot as the antagonist first enters before then changing to the reaction shot of the victim. The audience will then be able to see the victim crying and screaming. This will show that she is frightened and although she doesn't know what will happen next, she knows that she is in great danger. The audience can relate to this and they don't know either what is going to happen, however, they can guess that the antagonist is most likely going to kill her with the knife. Furthermore, the audience build a negative relationship with the antagonist as they now realise his motives for the young girl. Whereas the audience's relationship with the victim is the opposite to there relationship with the antagonist as they feel sympathetic, frightened and fear for her the females victims life as they desperately hope that she manages to get out alive. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it build up suspense for the audience because they don't know for sure what is going to happen next and so it keeps them engaged as they want to find out the ending. 

Kuleshov Effect

The final editing technique me and my group will use is the kuleshov effect. We will use this when the antagonist murders the victim, using his knife. However, the audience will not see this murder take place. Instead we will show the victims facial expressions of being scared, frightened and worried as the antagonist approaches her. The shot will then change to the antagonist holding his knife before changing back to the young female victim lying on the floor dead. Therefore, the audience will feel sorry for the vicim as she has been killed, they also can infer from the third meaning of this kuleshov effect that it was the masked clown antagonist that has killed her. Moreover, this is conventional to the genre thriller as it shocks the audience, this is because they don't expect the antagonist to kill her.

In conclusion, by planning our editing styles me and my group will use this is because it has helped us to understand where shock, surprise, suspense and tension will be found within out opening thriller sequence. Additionally, we can make our sequence more conventional to the genre as the type of editing styles we have decided on using creates different effects elements for the audience also, the editing styles we are going to use are stereotypical to the genre. Therefore, our editing will appeal to out target audience which is age 15 and over, this is people the techniques we have used create  lot os suspense and enigmas, which make the film more interesting to watch and help in keeping the audience engaged.