April 25th, Editing and Finalising Thriller.

April 25th, Editing and Finalising Thriller.

Today we stayed behind at school to finish editing from yesterday in class. We changed all of the text to the 'crawl effect'- white 'Skia' font, this gave the appearance of a clear, professional font that could be seen perfectly over the top of the clips- we played around with the timings of the text so all of the credits finish just as scene 2 begins. Another piece of text we added was 'The Previous Day', to clearly show the time change, this was in the same font as the title 'Oracle', to help the piece flow together, creating a more continous opening.
After many our many struggles with the 'FADE TO BLACK' effect, today we were successfull and were able to add this to our thriller! We highlighted the clips and moved them along the timeline, which inserted a black gap inbetween the scene 1 clip 2 and scene 1 clip 3. Then, using the Video Transitions, we attached the 'Fade in and out to black' to clip 2, then allowing us to change the time of the transition, which it did not let us do before. Therefore the clip 2 fades to black, just as Rose looks up into the mirror- which adds a sense of mystery due to the fact her face is only on screen for around 1 second, keeping the audience hooked as they wish to find out more. This transition also shows the time change clearly- with the text helping to back this up. Another effect we completed today was the 'Echo' Video Filter, adding this onto the clips after Rose has taken the drugs, we all felt that this looked fantastic on the last shot where Maddies hand hits the tree, as it shows this from Roses perspective and adds a distorted point of view shot- as if the audience have been put into Roses unstable position, connecting them to the characters.  This filter was also added to the close up shot of the ripped PHOTO in the bedroom at Maddies house, as the eerie music from the start is playing, this effect again links to Roses unstable character near the end, after she has taken the drugs- linking to the foreshadowing of danger for Maddie.
The hot-tub shot where Doug takes the drugs, and then hands it to Rose had to be cut into 2 different shots, yet as the lights (on the hot tub) change colour throughout, when we put the two clips together- they changed from purple to dark blue immediatley, weakning the continuity of the clips.Therefore by adding a purple colour filter, the lights now stay purple- and although the quality of the clip was reduced, and the speech jumps slightly, we came to the conclusion that this 'transition' between the shots were more co-herient and flowed much more successfully together- improving the continuity of our thriller and making it look more professional.
After showing our 'finished' thriller to our teacher- there were still a few outstanding features which they felt we could improve on, which we can complete in our lesson tomorrow, these include;
- Changing the 'crawl' effect on the text at the start, as it looked to 'student-like', and having the text fade in and out would look more professional.
- Adding in another fade to black in the party scene where it cuts from the conservatory setting, to where Maddie and Doug start talking by the sofa, as the sound bridge of the music shows how they have changed room, also it is later on in the party, the fade to black make this time and room chnage clearer too.
- Try reversing the final clip of Rose washing her hands, which is repeated at the end, as it will bring the audience back to where it started.
Tomorrow, we are also going to burn our thriller to a disk, along with our preliminary.

Lauren Taylor.