Editing

Our allowed time to edit is for an hour on Mondays and Fridays, and then if there is a computer vacant in your free time you may book it and use it with your team.
Our first task of editing was logging the shots we needed; in order to do this we created several log bins to separate different types of shots. In our groups we needed a lot of these separate bins as we experimented a lot with types of shot, we had close ups, card shots, tracking table shots, conversation shots, betting shots and then different kinds of shots of Guy walking through the alley and shooting Luke. As we shot so much footage during our day or shooting it took us quite a while to select the most fitting shot. Despite this I think we did a good job on this particular project.
Next, using our story boards we sorted out the order of the shots we needed. Through the editing process we have already changed to order of a few shots and frames. This is because we felt visually some shots did not link together and they did not create enough suspense building up to Guy breaking through the door.
In my opinion starting the next stage has been the hardest part of editing so far, cutting the clips at the right moment. Not only did we have to establish the order but check for continuity. Also cutting the clips at the expert moment was hard as if you didn’t have fast reaction you would miss the target time. To do this we simply pressed in the “I” key to start cutting then the “o” key to stop cutting it. After this we put them into the appropriate log bin. Our first shot is cards moving diagonally throughout the frame, we cut it once the cards touched the top right hand corner. And put it done into the main sequence, repeating this process until we reached the time allowed (two minutes). To ensure each shot did not clash with the shot before we went through the sequence many, many times. We also speed up the order of shot towards the end of our thriller, this was to create more suspense and give the audience an idea that Guy is coming rapidly and his chain of thoughts is faster as he goes towards the poker room. Its alarming as we are unsure what damage Guy wants to do and more so why he want to do this to seemingly innocent people. Short sharp snaps of Guy reaching into his pocket to find his gun may raise the question of who he wants to hurt.
“Jaws weren’t a movie a movie until John Williams score was added” Steven Spielberg. Sound is so important in our clip not only to raise tension but to make it more authentic.
We decided to use a mixture of conversations and music. The conversations were done in the poker players own language. The music we used gets faster in tempo through out the sequence. All sound was digetic about from the gun shot which we imputed whilst editing. We had to go this as we did not use a working gun.
Our group collectively decided it will be most effective to incorporate the title sequence into our thriller; this is so the audience may feel as it our opening sequence is actually just a card game. Then as it gets further in they realise what the production is actually about without paying much a attention at first. The ending may come as more of a shock to them creating an on edge vibe. This keeps the mood focused an unsuspected for the first minute or so.
The importance of all these choices can turn this sequence from average to good. Hopefully by making these decisions we have improved our video.
There were only a few difficulties when editing our thriller, firstly it hard to get the whole group involved in this process as only one person at a time can cut shots. Also as this type of editing was more challenging then our prelim as the scene was more sophisticated and the speech made it more complex for speed purposes. We not only cut to the next shot when a person finishes their line, we now had to add in connecting shots and card tricks.

Costumes

We really pushed for all our poker players to wear suits and have their hair gelled back into a neat side parting polished shoes and the occasional hat. Not only to give the sense of their importance but to differentiate them from our modern day gangster look. Wearing these sorts of outfits make them look important, having their hair done shows they are well taken care of and have a high status. Like in poker scenes from other movies the important people not only have countless chips but cash and other things to bet with i.e. car keys. I think the more detail we put into creating their individual looks made the whole sequence more believable.
The hats and some jackets were obtained from the school costume department. Luckily because of our schools previous productions we were give a huge variety of costumes to choose from, so we were able to differentiate each person.
Not only was it imperative everyone looked the part but also the mise en scene had to be spot on. As a group we assigned each other props to bring in and so the pressure was not put on just one person. A poker table was brought in along with glasses, whisky and ashtrays. To find cigarettes buds to convince the audience we had to go around the school and find smoking spots.
We also took a lot of time in discussing what Niki should be wearing; in the end we decided a red dress with heels and a fur coat. The colour red is a very powerful and over powering colour, so we used this to in a way reveal her personality to the audience as we may not be able to bring it across to the extent we would like to in two minutes. The shade of the dress had deepness to it, like the story we were filming. A fur coat was chosen to show she was wealthy and a well dressed character; like the poker players she had a high status.