Editing Techniques

Creating a thriller film involves a lot of attention to detail on the director's part, especially when it comes to the technical elements in a film. Some of the topics that I've been researching a lot are the camera shots and editing techniques. Different directors take varied approaches to this but the overall products normally look the same in terms of the direction and editing.

While my video clip will only last two minutes, I want to incorporate the typical editing in any thriller film when the climax is nearing: quick and sharp jump cuts. This will be added at the end of the clip when the audience finds out that there is only one person in the backyard and the entire scenario just happened in A's head.

I found this brilliant interview of director and producer Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, where he talks about the direction in his popular film Psycho (1960). The video is sort of like a director's commentary, where he explains his thought process behind famous scenes from the film- for example, the shower scene- and how they affect the audience in ways he wants them to.

Hitchcock talks about using shapes and sizes of the objects within the frame to create meaning. He talks about one scene where the camera is placed right above a character and the killer, and as the killer cuts across the person's face, the camera moves down and gets a close up shot of the man's face.

"This is size of image put together to create shock. In other words, if it were music it would be tremulous on the violin and suddenly a brass instrument hits which would be the big close up."

This video was very informative for me because these are some technical elements and details that I want to know about, before I start filming my film opening.

A film that I watched this weekend, as a part of my research for this project, was Se7en (1995, dir. by David Fincher) and there were a lot of recurring shots and edits made throughout the film. When the protagonists Detective Somerset and Mills (Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, respectively) were discussing about the serial killings that took place in the film, the shots would vary from mid shots to close ups. Some times it would be slow pan shots that would let the viewer see the entire room and move from one character to another. When the tension was building up in some scenes, the shots would get faster and the cuts became jump cuts. The compilation of all the editing made the scenes very suspenseful and mysterious. The lighting is very dark and so is the color palette, making the audience feel on edge and tense. I found an article which talks, in-depth, about the different elements of the film, besides editing.

All of these are minor details that the audiences don't consciously notice but in the grand scheme of things, have an impact on how they perceive and judge a film. I hope to add some of these tricks and techniques into my film opening to make it a true psychological thriller!