Changes During Editing

The first change we made during the editing process was to the production company logo. We had wanted to somehow animate it so that the 3 circles which form the logo move together on screen as the logo appears and then disappears. We thought this would make the trailer and editing look professional, implying a higher budget film. However, nobody in our group had enough experience editing with Adobe Premiere software to be able to do it. Therefore, after a while of trying different things we felt it was taking up too much time and decided to leave it as a fade to black transition.

Another change we were advised to make was to swap the first and second shots around. The first shot was a midshot of Holly and Amy talking at a lunch table, however as this is shown the first voiceover of Holly is played. A member of our class noticed that it looked as though Amy was the one saying the voiceover which would be confusing to the audience. The second shot was a longshot of Holly, Amy and Natalie walking away so we swapped the shots to avoid this confusion again.

To begin with, we had almost no camera movement in our trailer but were told that there should always be movement or something happening in each shot to keep the audience engaged. To fix this, we inserted zooms to a few of the shots that weren't very gripping. An example of this is for a long shot of Holly walking through an avenue of trees facing away from the camera. She is small on screen so we included a slow zoom in to fit with the fast pace montage of shots that connote panic as there is non-stop movement throughout.

The final change we made during editing was to the transition from slow to fast pace in the middle which we had struggled with to make it look good. We began with the music and shot fading to black as the voiceover says "what do you mean?" before fading back in again. However, during feedback we were told that it didn't seem smooth enough and it was suggested that we leave a few seconds before the second track cuts in to create tension. We took this advice but found that it sounded best when the first track fades into the next but a fade to black is used between shots as the voiceover is said.

First Draft Feedback

After finishing the first draft of our 'In The Shadows' thriller trailer, we showed it to the class and got both positive and negative feedback to help us improve it.

'In The Shadows' First Draft

• Firstly, we were advised to include intertitles as the narrative wasn't portrayed clearly enough in the trailer. However, after discussion it was decided that there was nowhere appropriate to insert them and it would only make it look messy. We also felt that as our film aims to deceive the audience into believing it is supernatural until a reveal towards the end, including intertitles would either give away the twist or cause confusion for the audience. Overall, the class decided that although the narrative isn't clear, this is effect in creating the mystery and portrays the feeling of the unknown to draw in the demographic so no changes were necessary for this.
• Another improvement that was suggested was to either change the first music track or make the two music tracks fit together better with editing. The beginning of our trailer is slow in order to create an eerie/ghostly atmosphere, therefore it was important we used a music track that was slow and haunting to fit with the footage. We originally chose a song called 'If She's An Angel' by Charlotte Campbell, an unsigned artist whose permission we got to use the song, however the class thought the track didn't fit with the next fast-pace song which it fades into. To improve this, we tried removing If She's An Angel and replaced it with a track similar to the second fast-pace one, but slower and without drums. However, after putting it in we decided that it was too similar and didn't portray the ghostly feeling we were aiming for. Therefore we stuck with 'If She's An Angel' and slowed down the pace making it more effective in creating an eerie atmosphere and fades much more smoothly into the next track.
• The class also felt that the transition in the middle of our trailer needed to be smoother. This is where the trailer moves from a slow pace with long shots to a fast pace with quick cuts between shots. For this transition the music and footage fades out and a voiceover of a character saying "what do you mean?" is played before the fast pace music and footage comes in. It was suggested that instead of the first song cutting straight to the next, the fast pace music and shots come in after a few seconds to emphasise the urgency and panic catching the audience by surprise and drawing them in. After playing around with different methods and techniques, we found that by overlapping the fades so that the second track is playing as soon as the first track fades out sounded best and made the transition much smoother too.
• On the other hand, we received positive feedback for the fast pace editing during the second half of the trailer as the class felt it effectively builds tension and suspense to draw in our demographic. We also got positive feedback on our final shot used to end the trailer. We decided to use a close up of our main character whispering "help me" after the institutional information to leave the audience feeling tense and wanting to see what happens to her in the film.