Planning Editing Styles - Miss Georgiou

Editing styles within a thriller is important because it helps capture the audiences attention and allows us to demonstrate the three important elements of a thriller which are: shock, suspense and surprise. Editing styles also allow us to portray different emotions of characters and how they may view things for example when a low angle is used and to edit this, something like jump cut would be used and this is to create impact. In our thriller we will use four types of editing which will be listed below.

One editing style that my group and I will be using is fade. We believe that this will be effective to use as an editing style within our opening sequence for a thriller because we have seen it used in other successful thrillers and we believe that it signifies danger and warns the audience that something bad is going to happen, this prepares them for shock because of the tension that we have created. We have used fade towards the end of our opening sequence when Dave is in his car and the killer pops up next to him but from outside of the car and the effect this creates allows the audience to feel tense and experience suspense that my group and I have created. The use of fade in our opening sequence allows us to incorporate different elements of suspense, shock and surprise so we felt it would help us to include this type of editing.

Something else that my group and I included in our opening sequence is slow editing.  We have used slow editing when Stacey is walking towards her bedroom door but is aware that the person behind it isn't who she would like it to be. The slow editing emphasizes impact because the audience are able to pay attention to every important details of the scene and capturing reactions from Stacey who is the killers first victim. This also helps creates a relationship between the audience and her character because we are able to see her fate before she is able to herself, therefore allowing the audience to feel sympathetic towards Stacey. The use of slow editing is conventional to a thriller as it is something that helps convey the theme of fear and so we felt that this would be an effective feature to use in our own opening sequence.

My group and I also used jump cut in our opening sequence. This is evident in the scene where Dave returns home and enters the house, unbeknown to him that his killer is watching his every move and planning when to attack. This therefore allows the audience to build a relationship with Dave as they can see what's going to happen and want to warn him of the upcoming events leading to his death, yet they are unable to do so therefore proving that jump cut is an important feature for us to include as not only is it conventional to a thriller, but it also makes the audience feel scared as to what's going to happen and focuses the audience on the bad events that are about to take place.

My group and I believe that by using these types of editing styles, it will help us to engage our audience and make them want to know what's going to happen to each character and to become familiar with specific objects or characteristics of our victims and killer.