Final Product

Blackout

Above is the link to the final edit of my short film. Overall I would say that I am happy in terms of the way in which I edited it and the different techniques that I used in order to link it to the thriller genre. One thing that I am unhappy with is how youtube has changed the quality of my video once I had uploaded it, despite filming with a higher quality camera and I also am unaware as to why the film has not uploaded in full screen.

Short Film Editing Stages

Due to the unfortunate technical difficulties I had with Adobe Premiere Pro I was setback in terms of what I knew about the editing software I was using to create my short film so after downloading Final Cut Pro it was time to go back to basics and begin with a step by step tutorial on YouTube to start off my understanding of the programme itself. This helped to develop my knowledge of the new editing software I was using and provided me with the skills to complete my own project on there. Soon after this I began my own editing and experimented with different effects that Final Cut Pro had to offer, still using YouTube as and when I needed to.

For the very first sequence seen in the short film, I decided that the most effective beginning must be relatable for my target audience. To ensure that I covered this I wanted to subvert the thriller's stereotype and make the approach more modernised. To do so I decided to use the iPhone feature of screen recording and capture a text message conversation amongst the teenage characters. The thought process behind this being that the target audience will relate to it because they are a generation glued to their phones. By introducing the action of the plot across the messages shown, this also meant that I saved screen time as it was a much quicker explanation as to what the short film is about. It also meant that the characters did not have to explain on screen; this would seem far too staged. This action conforms to the thriller stereotype of the film involving a group of naive teenagers wanting to do something forbidden with a risk of disaster, however I have chosen to subvert some of the thriller codes and conventions throughout the rest of the short film.



I added the screen recording to Final Cut Pro and decided that I did not find it engaging to watch as it was silent. To change the pace and make it more interesting I added music to the clip and was much more happy with the product of this. Whilst searching for the right song, I had to ensure that it was not copyright and that I was legally able to use it in my short film. Another factor was the pace of the music and if it would be engaging enough to keep the audience interested to see the rest of the plot unravel.

To move on from the screen recording to the short film, I felt that the best way to do this was a time transition to display time passing in the action of the plot. Continuing from the decision in the text conversation that the group would meet in '15 minutes', I decided that it was most relevant to cut to 20 minutes later and develop the story line from the moment they meet. This conforms to the codes and conventions of a thriller short film because typically there is use of time transitions to maintain pace and gage focus on how much time is passing for the actors.











As the time transition is just text appearing on the screen for a couple of seconds I also had to think of a way in which I could keep this interesting in order for my target audience to continue watching. There was a plethora of choices in terms of transitions available to add to the slide. The stereotypical 'wipe' or 'drop in' were too boring for the likes of my target audience so I decided to use a transition that gave the slide a stereoscopic 3D effect and I used this for all of the time transitions to ensure that there was continuity. This effect gave more of a jagged transition which I felt was most relevant to the thriller genre.



Whilst adding in the transitions it was important that I used it either side of the slide to give it a slicker effect for the changing of action on the screen. I also had to choose the screen time for the time transition. I chose 2.3 seconds as I did not want it to be too short so that the audience have to pause it to read it or have to rewind to understand why the text was relevant, and this time slot also meant that it wasn't on for too long that there was an awkward pause in the short film where the target audience were left feeling uncomfortable.

For the next scene I imported it was the meeting of the characters who had been messaging in the previous scene. I chose to have the characters in mid conversation as the camera began rolling as I wanted it to seem natural, and I felt that this worked because of the chemistry the actors had prior to shooting the short film. I used a variety of shots in the scene to reflect the comfortable nature of the scene and the stereotypical teenage behaviour. I intended for the friendships to be relatable and for the action to be realistic to modern day society. In all of the scenes I decided to separate the clip from the audio so that I could manipulate them quicker and easier. I ensured that the volume was all the way up for the speech of the characters; initially it was quieter and it did not match up to the level at which the music was playing at in other scenes. This also allowed me to speed up clips of the action whilst the audio remained at the same speed. The only difficulty I encountered with the first couple of scenes was the background noise of the waves and the wind. This was due to the fact that I had chosen to film at the seafront but I stuck with this location as I felt it was relevant to the action as it is stereotypical for teenagers to hang around down near the beach. It also links up to other scenes closer to it, so I remained at this location despite the small sound issue.

This first shot is at a low angle because it is most effective in terms of levels and the rule of thirds. It captures the two shot nicely as there is no central actor, making them both relevant. Being down low meant that I could protect the audio being caught on camera from the noisy waves on the other side of the wall.







To maintain engagement from the target audience I thought it would be best to change the location in the scene following on from this. It changes to a POV shot of alcohol being exchanged between two people. This action links up to the conversation the characters were having in the previous scene.









In the exchanging shot, I increased the original speed of the clip to maintain pace and intensity of the action. With this being a common occurrence in society (when older people buy alcohol for those who are underage) I decided I would make it as realistic as possible by making the shot subtle, fast and out of sight from other members of the public. This would make the action most relatable and this shot is the beginning to the build up to the climatic action shot seen later on in the film. The 'alcohol' is the motive in the short film and it is also the reason behind the thrilling plot twist so it was necessary
to shoot a scene displaying the exchange.



Keeping with the theme of the alcohol being illegal and dangerous, I also increased the speed of the next clip which was the character walking away from the exchange. The way that the alcohol is taken and hidden in the jacket indicates that she does not want to be seen. The actor also looks over her shoulder which conforms to the codes and conventions of the thriller genre as paranoia is a key theme.

The next scene displays the final connection of all four of the main actors together and it shows exactly how the scenes connect. I tried to do this as smoothly as possible so I used various camera angles and speech of the characters to support the fluency of the scene. The cutting back and forth between the scenes is in order to display that there is different action taking place at the same time and how they link up to the entire story line.

SHOT A

SHOT B

Shots A and B are the what the camera sees when we cut back to the first 3 actors that appear on screen. The element of levels is still apparent in the shot keeping the action interesting to look at- as opposed to the actors being sat next to one another in a line. The camera angle has also been changed to above the actors and it is closer to them than we saw before. This develops the involvement with the action as it seems more personal and deeper connected to the characters.

SHOT C

SHOT D

Shots C and D link up to A and B because they display the arrival of the fourth and final main character to the original location of the short film. The dialogue at this point is informing the target audience of what is to come and it is setting up the following scene. Again, there is more experimentation with camera shots here as there is a side profile close up that leads into a pan shot of where the other actors are. The master shot informs the audience of the location of the shot and that this shot concludes the actors involved within the short film.

The dialogue from the previous scene directs the actors to lead onto the next location which requires another transition. To do so I decided I would use a panning shot of the actors moving from their original location across the screen and disappearing. I did this so that it was unclear as to where the actors were travelling to. This leaves more suspense for the target audience and keeps them more engaged, as opposed to keeping the plot predictable and monotonous.





During the editing process of this shot I expedited the clip as it was just a walking shot which would have been boring and uninteresting at normal speed. This subverts the codes and conventions of the thriller genre as typically the editing would be slowed down to create tension in the action, however I believe that the opposite of this was more effective as it maintains the pace of the short film.

The next scene is filmed in the car as the teenagers are travelling from one location to another. I decided that I would make the music begin when the engine started as it was a key turning point and the action is getting closer to the climatic part of the story line. In today's society it is common for teenagers to have loud music on in the car and to dance and film one another for fun so I decided to replicate this as an experimental type of filming and I liked how it came out. I figured that this would be the most realistic way in which I should film a car journey in order for my target audience to relate to it. The happy vibes in this scene conform to the codes and conventions of the thriller genre because typically the action is happy and this is what makes the plot twist so unexpected and effective. The screenshot from the short film shown above is one of my favourite shots of the short film; I think it is very simplistic but creative and it came out exactly how I envisioned it.



This is how I layered the text onto the clip in my short film. I conformed to the codes and conventions of the thriller genre in terms of the timing of my text as there is typically a slight backstory to the action to begin with and the title sequence appears when the significant part of the story line is beginning. The scenes at the start of my film explain how and why they are there and the car scene is where the action is starting to build up, which is why I chose to add the title screen in here.

It was important to have a well known song for this part of the short film as it made it more reliable for the target audience and kept the music relevant. By having familiar music featured in the short film it would make it more likeable to those whom particularly enjoyed music, and it would also make the short film more memorable if there was catchy music that got stuck in the audience's head- further relating the song to the short film and leading to likely recommendations for others to watch. This conforms to the codes and conventions of short films in terms of methods seeking success.

To ensure that the long car journey scene is not tedious for the viewers once again, I decided I would change the action in the middle of the scene to keep it interesting.












In the research I performed of my target audience I decided that I would look at day to day life of teenagers- particularly those in my target audience. One of the most frequent events throughout a teenager's daily routine is being checked up on by their parents. Despite it not being a strikingly interesting event, I decide it would fit into the story line of my short film effectively so I incorporated it into this scene. The reason behind this is to highlight the lie that the character is telling to her parents when being asked where she is going, leaving her with no alibi- at this point the actors and the audience are naive as to why she might need an alibi.








After the phone call, the music comes back on and the atmosphere changes from a tense phone call to an exciting drive in a matter of seconds. This conforms to the typical codes and conventions of the thriller genre as the clips are fragmented and jump back and forth between heightened emotions.

In order to save screen time and to create unnecessary scenes, the action cuts from the car scene to later on when the teenagers are drinking the alcohol. This has been done because the scenes leading up to the drinking would not have been exciting to watch and there are no details needed from the previous scene to the time in which the short film cuts to. By selecting the time frames in which the short film would show, this saves irrelevant scenes from being screened. The transition used is the same as the one used previously which is effective continuity.

The first shot in the next scene is of the alcohol in the centre of the screen, highlighting how it is the most significant part of the action at this point in the story line. As made clear by this screenshot, the lighting has gone from natural to artificial. This was shot in the dark because it was essential that the location was not revealed in these shots. This is because the teenagers end up in a place in which they are not familiar with by the following morning, and I did not want it to be obvious as to how they got there- this meant that there were no obvious links for the audience to pick out. Throughout this scene there is experimentation with different types of artificial light including the flashlight of a phone and the use of a car's headlights. I think that these were effective for the atmosphere and mood of the short film.


Another popular song was used over the top of the action to increase the pace of the story line once again. The action in the clip and the speed of the song were both increased which built up towards the climatic part of the story line. To indicate the change of the time again, another time transition was used. This signified how the previous scene came suddenly to an end. Initially I had a clip in the film that displayed how the teenagers had found the strange location they woke up in but I re-watched it with the rest of the action and decided it was not effective and that I did not like it.

Here is the deleted scene:

When this scene was originally in my short film I felt that it could be relatable for my target audience as the teenagers are seen as though they are filming each other which is common in today's society. Throwing a modern twist on the short film it could have incorporated the use of contemporary apps like 'Snapchat' or 'Instagram' in which they recorded one another on. The use of props would have also been effective in this scene as they are seen carrying bottles of alcohol which indicates the reason for the change in their behaviour.

However there are a few reasons that counterbalance the positive effects of this scene in my short film and this includes running time, pace and screen time. Having the brief for the short film being around 5/6 minutes, I was already over the limit by a couple of minutes and I decided I wanted to be closer to the 6 minute mark. To do so I had to go through and select the least relevant scenes that would not confuse the action in the plot. The second reason is because the action was at such a fast pace in the previous scene and I only intended for the pace to change when the "next day" arrived thus this scene slowed the action back down again. Having a large amount of screen time was impractical and by looking back over the scene I decided that it was completely irrelevant as I wanted to leave an element of surprise in how they ended up where they woke up in the following scene. For those reasons I decided the scene was irrelevant and that the short film was more effective and mysterious without it.

















Here are the screenshots displaying the continuity in the time transitions. This also shows the abrupt end to the previous scene.

This is another one of the most significant screenshots from the short film. It displays the fate of one of the main characters and it is the denouement of the story line. I would say that this shot conforms to the codes and conventions of the thriller genre as it is showing the death of a character from the level at which they are at. In this case he is lying on the floor, therefore the angle of the camera also begins from the floor. Low angle shots are typically used to give significance to a character and show their importance to the audience. However, this shot differs because it is not looking up to the action- they are on the same level. This is displaying the world from the victim's point of view and emphasising the vulnerability of the character. Despite the angle not giving the character any extra height, it does heighten the suspense of the action.

As the characters panic about the situation, the most climatic point of the action is fast approaching and the build up is created through my manipulation of the sound and angles of the clips. The layering of sound effects can be seen in this screenshot. To create tension I thought a police siren would be most relevant to feature as it signifies the danger of the situation and creates a more serious atmosphere. As well as the siren I used a chaotic background music that used drums to develop tension in the song, which was perfect for what I wanted for the short film. The layering of these created an extremely dramatic, yet dynamic ending to the short film.

I used different camera shots in these final scenes aswell and the cutting of them added to the effectiveness of the pace of the action. For instance there is a shot of the teenagers fleeing from the building taken from behind them, and another of the same piece of action except it's filmed from outside to create a sense of continuity.




Below are the final shots of the short film and these reveal how the plot ends. During the editing process I decided that I wanted the cuts of the walking with the camera to be jolty so to create more suspense and conform to the shaky cam typically used within the horror genre. I also manipulated the music so that the one of the dramatic drum beats would occur at the same time as the conclusive shot of the short film as a signifier of the end.