Editing diary

Once we gathered all the footage we needed for the thriller, I began to edit them. I started off introducing a sound track to create tension before an image was shown, the music used for the tension is a slow piano and flute piece. As the thriller goes on the music start to get quicker and I change the soundtrack to set the mood of the scene; the tempo increases as the physical elements of the thriller come into play. After the physical scene of the thriller the music then gains a slower tempo again when Nathan is tied up to a chair adding to previous tension created, leaving the viewer in suspense of what is going to happen to Nathan.

 The opening of our thriller begins what a few taster cuts of what is to come throughout the duration of the thriller. Followed by all of the names involved within the thriller and also our company name 'NJR Productions'. The reason for this being that we felt if the viewer had a little teaser of what is going to happen then it would make them intrigued on what is to come. When editing it we had recorded a part where I find Ryan on the floor murdered and I remember seeing a suspected figure walking from Ryan's house. To make the thriller look realistic I decided to do a clip making it a flash and go into slow motion making it seem like a real flashback, of the walking suspect. Furthermore, it gives the viewer an idea of what James is thinking; building tension of what is going to happen next.

Coming towards then end of the thriller, the last clip is of Nathan tied up in a chair with a balacalver over his face in a dark room with nothing but a garden light shining on him. We recorded a clip of me coming up behind Nathan and taking of his balacalver so his identity was revealed. As the name of our thriller 'Retribution' was not shown on thriller yet, I thought it would be a good idea to leave the audience in suspense. When I remove the balacalver from Nathan to leave the audience in suspense we agreed that if we cut out his identity at the end and replaced it with a flash and then 'Retribution' appearing, leaving it with a cliffhanger ending with the music is still playing with a blank screen leaving a mystery behind the thriller.

Symbol	Name	Definition/Notes
	Universal	All ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children. Films under this category should not upset children over 4. Examples: FernGully: The Last Rainforest, The Incredibles
	Parental Guidance	All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for children under 8. Example: The Simpsons Movie, Toy Story, Tron: Legacy
	12A	Cinema only. Introduced in 2002. Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged at least 18 years, at all times during the motion picture. However, it is generally not recommended that children under 12 years should watch the film. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, commonly used milder swear words, and moderate violence/sex references. Examples: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pirates of the Caribbean, Yes Man, Fred: The Movie
	12	Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.
	15	Only those over 15 years are admitted. Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong words, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity. Examples: The Uninvited, Good Luck Chuck, Love and Other Drugs
	18	Only adults are admitted. Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and strong violence/sex references along with non-detailed sex activity is also allowed. Examples: In Bruges, Saw III, Jackass 3D
	Restricted 18	Only adults are admitted, and can only be shown at licensed cinemas or sold at sex shops. Films under this category have material the BBFC does not allow for its "18" rating, thus the violence and sex activity will be stronger in R18-rated VHSs, DVDs and films than those rated "18," however, there is still a range of material that is often cut from the R18 rating. More cuts are demanded in this category than any other category.

Shooting Schedule

Diary of day shooting

Storyboard for our thriller

Props and Costumes

Props in a thriller film are often included for a symbolic effect, for example the characters may have props that are personal to them which give a glimpse of how that character may influence the outcome of the film. An example of this would be a man with an expensive car, this could be seen as symbolic of the man's personality showing him as flash, arrogant and egotistic.

Props can also be used in a thriller as a turning point in the film for example in our thriller clip a mobile phone is used as the link between Nathan's murder being discovered by James and so the phone becomes a vital prop which is fundamental to the rest of the clip.

Another prop we used was the knife towards the end of the thriller when James has tied up Ryan. The knife represents how even though at the beginning of the thriller James appear to be the 'good guy', towards the end he has now become a crazed killer, hunting for revenge of Nathan's death.

Costumes are also very important to thriller films as it lets the viewer create an idea of who they think to be the victims and who are the suspects. For example a young girl dressed in a light colour like white or pink would create an image in the readers mind that she is innocent and pure, therefore becoming a victim.

 In our thriller Ryan is wearing dark colours and clothes that cover up the majority of his face and body, James will be wearing lighter clothes for example blue or grey at the beginning of the play but after he has captured Ryan and tied him up he will be dressed in darker clothes like black or red.

Area Locations

There will be various places we will use for our thriller, here are some of the locations:

• The first scene will be shot in James' house in Ongar in his kitchen. We are going to use this location because it is big enough to film the struggle scene between Nathan and Ryan and also because on the day of our filming the house was empty. This suited us because it meant we could film without worrying about inconveniencing other people.

Picture of filming in James' kitchen  ----------->

• We also used James' house for some opening shots in the credits and the final shots where it jumps back to normal time with Nathan tied up in the shed. We used this location because the shed let almost no natural light in and therefore, the effect of having the more powerful light in Nathan's face was more effective. The shed also had a very old spooky feel to it which fitted in nicely with the tone of the scene and the thriller.

Picture of us in James' shed  ---------------->

• Other locations that we used were mainly for the shots of Nathan walking and being chased by james in the car. Some of these shots were taken around King Georges Park and in the car park there for example the scene where Nathan gets run over and taken by James. This was a good location because the car park was empty at that time of day and therefore, we could film the chase without worrying about dangers from other cars. Other shots were filmed outside Nathan's house and in York Road in Shenfield of James pulling away to help Ryan and more shots of Nathan walking.

Picture of Nathan being run over ------------->

Music

During the editing of our thriller opening we incurred several problems concerning the music that we would include. Firstly, the music that we intended to use had to be edited to fit in with the thriller so that when the tension had been built up in certain scenes the music reflected this by intensifying. Once we had achieved this another problem arose in that we weren't sure if it was copyrighted or not.

We researched the music to identify whether it was copyright free and after finding 'supposed' comments from the creator that it was, we inserted it into our thriller. However, after further research to ensure it definitely was copyright free, we found that it wasn't in fact and the comments that said it was originated from an unknown source. We found out this information with only a few days remaining before the deadline of the completed coursework, so we were then in a rush to find a new piece of music to include in our opening.

After continuously researching pieces of music we eventually found one that was definately copyright free and so we spent a whole night on the day before the deadline to insert it into our thriller. We also ensured that it accentuated the tense scenes and intensified the thriller during the pivotal takes.

Final Product/Changes

http://vimeo.com/21321835

This is our thriller clip after it has been filmed and edited, however when we viewed the clip it was clear to us that some things still had to be edited and changed.

Firstly, we realised that the clip was over a minute and thirty seconds too long and therefore, the first change that we had to implement was to cut down a lot of the film to ensure that it was no longer than two minutes and twenty seconds. This proved quited difficult as cutting some parts of the clip takes away some of the tension that we had built up, but after carefully analysing what bits we were able to cut the clip fitted in to the time limit we were allowed.

The second major change that we had to make was to cut out any bits of our clip that ruined the tone of the thriller for example in the final scene of the clip Nathan can be seen smiling and laughing whilst in a serious scene which makes the scene seem unreal and unprofessional. We cut out the shot of him laughing and made the scene considerably shorter with just shots of the hood being pulled off his head and sound of the struggling in the background. Another problem we had with the first murder scene is that James' hand appears on the top of the fridge when he is not supposed to be in the scene. We added a flash at the time when the hand appears in the scene to disguise the mistake and this also fits into the scene as it represents Nathan entering into the shot.

Post-Production of Preliminary Task

After we had finished filming our preliminary task we went into the editing room and were shown how to use the software by Year 13 students. We were shown how to use the 'Pinnacle' programme which after they had shown us how to use we had a go on it and then once we were familiar with it we could then edit our clip.

The first bit of editing that we had to do on our clip was to cut out any of the takes that were not needed in
the final piece and that were not relevant to the main focus of our clip. For example a lot of the takes were of unimportant speech and so we took this out of our clip to make it more tense and to keep the viewer interested. After we had decided which shots to cut out we then used transitions to make each take fuse together. We did this by using fades and wipes so that after one take had finished a new one immediately began, this also adds tension to the clip.

We added some titles to the film at the beginning and end of the clip for different resons. The title at the beginning of the clip was 'Cherpsing' which is an urban word for talking and was the main theme throughout our clip. The title at the end of our clip was 'Par.', this is also an urban expression for an insult and showed how the character was insulted when the girl did not have james' 'ting'.

The editing was quite straightforward as the takes that were relevant to the clip did not need much editing and only a few shots had to be cut out. Also no music was added to the clip and the sound in our film was of good quality. Other than that the only thing we had to add was titles to the beginning and end of our clip.