research into editing styles - Miss Georgiou

Scream 3 - The Cutting Room

In the thriller Scream 3, many different editing styles are used, these effect the way in which the audience view the scene and the characters, from creating excitement to creating suspense. In the film so far, many characters have already been killed so the audience is already gripping their seats waiting for something else to happen. So the editing of films is particularly important as no film would be quite so gripping and thrilling if it didn't have the fast movements and jumps making the audience feel something is waiting around the corner. Editing builds suspense, tension and thrills the audience as the story unfolds itself throughout the film and plays a key role for keeping the audience interested.

In the scene 'the cutting room' a jump cut is used when the girl is hiding and the security guard comes in.

 

A jump cut is where the film suddenly focus' on something. This is conventional to a thriller as it makes the audience feel more involved in what is happening in the film as they can see both sides of the story and other characters in different scenes. It builds the suspense as it makes the audience feel like something is going to happen as the camera keeps focusing on other characters in different places. A reaction shot is also used in this scene when the girl realizes the killer is behind her and the camera shows the killer and then automatically back to the girls face to show her reaction.

 

This is conventional to a thriller as it shows what the audience should be feeling at the time as it shows the characters reaction and emotions. Making the audience feel more involved with what is happening as they share the same emotions as the character. It also makes the audience feel more scared as they could imagine it happening to them as they can relate to the character. 

The timing of shots also vary throughout the scene, this is where the shots are edited either shorter or quicker to add emotional impact or suspense. In this scene, the shots start off slower and longer because nothing exciting is happening. But when the tension and suspense starts to kick in, the shots become shorts and sharper until she realizes the killer is behind her and tries to escape and shots become very short and faced paced. This shows to the audience that she is scared and making the audience think she might escape because they can't see a clear shot of what is happening as the shots are short and quick, this builds suspense.

                                

Overall, the editing of shots help make the film gripping and tension filled, without editing films would be boring to watch as they would just be a long strip of filming. It would be a lot harder for the audience to engage and build a relationship with the characters as well, as the audience would not know how to feel. Their viewing experience would not nearly be as scary as the film would not be tension filled or build any suspense. Researching editing styles has helped me develop a better understanding of what i want to include in my final thriller clip as i have thoroughly analysed the different effects different editing styles have on a audience. This helps me to plan how i want my audience to react when they are watching my thriller and make it easier to guide them in feeling different emotions towards the film.