Editing in Our Film

We ultimately found the editing process to be one of the most significant areas of production when creating our film, several of our initial ideas being based in the editing process. This was especially relevant due to our decision to feature flashbacks in our film noir, requiring specific editing techniques and conventions to make this evident to the audience. 

Before we began the editing process we watched back all our footage, our shots for the most part shot twice one take and an insurance take if a take has a defect that we were unable to pick upon when watching the footage back on the camera. After choosing the most appropriate footage we structured our piece and put everything in a chronological order, the order established in our storyboard. 

After doing this we began the more detailed based editing process...

When editing the flashback sequence we attempted to use a sound bridge of a kettle boiling to relate the transition Kevin's mentality. We found this effective as the sharp shrieking noise agitates the viewer, creating tension. We partnered this with droning music playing quietly in the background to create a distant feeling with our target audience, reinforcing the idea that this is a memory that our protagonist represses. While these sounds oppose each other, one particularly high and the other low, we found this  especially effective in presenting Kevin's dissociative amnesia and memory blackouts. 

We then went on to add other sound effects such as the heartbeat and police sirens to add significance to our raw footage, making a narrative more understandable. We faded the sound in and out to make it less abrupt and layered the sounds over each other to make the sound more authentic. 

We conformed to the convention of using black and white in our flashbacks, mimicking the style of traditional film noir and to create a disconnect between the audience and the film, making it seem more surreal. We also increased the contrast on the shot to create high contrast, chiaroscuro lighting. 

We used a flashing/lens flare effect to mask the transition into these scenes to create further confusion in the viewer, this is a frequent technique used in the thriller genre, appealing to a more modern audience. 

We altered the colour pallet of the technicolor section of our film noir to make the temperature more cold and depressing, adding a rain effect in places and upping the contrast in places to make the footage appear as if it were shot across several seasons and weather conditions, this was especially significant in our montage.

We then exported the film as our Rough Cut...

Issues we found in our Rough Cut...

• The psychiatrist's scene is too long and feels disjointed and awkward. 
• The music doesn't fit with the scene.
• The psychiatrist's certificate isn't shown clearly enough, the scene lacks context when this is not clearly presented.
• The transition from this scene to the next feels awkward.
• Credits, title, production company logo and graphic epilogue need to be added. 

Resolving these problems...

Firstly we replaced the music with a striped back and altered version of the same track, making it simpler and more appropriate for the tone of the scene. We then trimmed down the scene and added a fade to black transition with a slight lag to separate the two scenes. 

Here is our original rough cut edit of the scene, followed by our new edit of the piece.

                           

We decided to to use digital and print news articles and social media to conclude our film, by doing this were able to present the fate's of our character's in a fast, succinct way. We used online tools and templates to accomplish this. 

We also used a website called 'Letmetweetthatforyou' to fake tweets from well established news institutions, referencing the fictional events in our film, we hoped this would add a feel of legitimacy to the montage, by using an brands and companies our target demographic, young people aged 17-25 would trust. We also hoped to appeal to our audience with our use of social networking, remaining relevant to a modern audience. 

Additionally we created a twitter account for our femme fatale, demonstrating how she manipulates public attention for her ambition and greed. 

When editing the montage we regularly used the 'Ken Burns' tool to crop in our articles, bringing attention to the most significant information and texts, making the message of the sequences clear.