LO4: Enhancing edit for final draft

The very first edit I made to the clips was to crop them and remove any unwanted sound from my clips.

I cropped the aspect ratio of my clips by first going to the sequence settings. As in my rough draft I used the wrong aspect ratio for the clips, I changed the format size back to 1080x720. Although my previous format size was more cinematic which is more suitable for a movie trailer, I hadn't recorded on my camera for that format size, which ended up making my clips much more zoomed in then originally intended, this ruined a lot of the cinematography of the clips as they were no longer adhering to the rule of thirds. I then reframed the clips using the selection tool so that my focus' will be centred.

Here is a screenshot of how I auto reframed my sequence.

Here is a screenshot of my aspect ratio now cropped so that the focus is in the centre of the shot.

I then removed the sound by unlinking it from the clip. I did this because most clips, even though they were supposed to appear silent, has 'white noise' in the background which is very distracting for the audience and unintentional. Although the clips now seem awkward as there is no sound at all, I will be adding music, voice-overs and SFX over the clips.

Some of the clips I recorded were too short, resulting in the scene ending abruptly and causing the trailer to move too quick. To make these scenes last longer, I right clicked on them and slowed down the clip by selecting 'speed/duration' and setting the number lower, allowing me to adjust how much slower they're going to make the clip the perfect length.

After I put all my clips in place I added a simple effect to them, this being fade in/out.

One of the ways I did this was by right clicking on the end of a clip on the timeline, I then selected 'apply default transitions'. However, this fade out was often too long. To fix this I zoomed in on the timeline and dragged my cursor over the effect, this reduced the size so that it was suitable for the selected clip. Making sure my fade outs are faster is important for the genre of my teaser trailer, as horror trailers are often fast paced. This makes the clips seem as if they are appearing and disappearing faster, improving the pacing of the clip. 

Although I applied this to most clips, especially in-between title/black screens and scenes, I still kept some without these transitions. This is because it helps to make a more impactful scene in a trailer, as the hard cut combined with other sound effects I will be adding, help to emphasise the clip feel more like a dramatic moment that would be in a real movie scene.

One of the most important elements in the horror genre for creating suspense and fear is sound. This is why this next part of my edit took the longest, as I had to get it right. 

Sound effects: 

I used the site free sound.org to gather my sound effects for the teaser. Although I recorded some (screaming sounds), I still needed to add non-diegetic sound effects that would be difficult to create myself. These sound effects are important to help me follow conventions of typical horror trailers. 

I then added my voice overs, which were effective at enhancing my edit as it made it feel more like a trailer, as they are commonly used to communicate to the audience the plot of the product without needing to include long scenes. They also allow for more visuals to appear during in the voice over so that the trailer can keep the audience engaged in what is being advertised. This is when the edit started to look more like my final vision. However, one issue is that, during pre-production, it's difficult to properly time how long the trailer will be as scenes may need to be longer than intended in order to convey the right emotion. This means that it's hard to tell how the voice overs will fit into the teaser, this resulted in me having to re-record voice overs but with slightly faster takes so that they can fit in to the product. This was detrimental as it meant I had to stray from the production schedule slightly in order for recording to be completed so that the scenes feel the way I hoped. 

(the razor tool that I used to cut up clips and audio)

I then searched on YouTube for copyright free trailer music that fit the aesthetic I was trying to create. 

Adding the music in proved to be difficult for a number 

of reasons, the main one being that my teaser was too

 long for the music. This would result in areas of my 

trailer where the section of music (that I cut up using 

the razor tool) was silent. To fix this issue I found 

where the audio looped and duplicated it, so 

that I could make the music last long enough for the teaser.

One thing I have to consider however is that I can't make the music too loud to over power the voiceovers (and sound effects when they re eventually added). To ensure I don't run into this issue, I will continuously balance them out when the SFX is added. Another consideration I have to make during editing is that the teaser isn't too quiet or too loud, this could cause viewers to lose interest if the teaser is too quiet or become annoyed at it if its too loud. This would be detrimental to the product I am advertising as those negative emotions will become associated with the product in the viewers mind. As I am editing I will make sure to rewatch the teaser in different audio levels to better asses how loud the audio-visual is and adjust from there. 

I then started importing my FreeSound.org SFX and layering them over my clips. For example a "whoosh" sound effect for when the torch goes across the frame and "knife" sound effects as the scissors get dragged along the counter as seen below.

The first sound effect I added was a 'cinematic boom' which is commonly used in trailers/teaser trailers to give more weight to an impactful moment. However, I used mine to lead the audiences into a scene after the initial scare, this way the music returning from the silence feels less out of nowhere. As cinematic booms often have a loud noise fading out, I used Premiere Pro to reverse the sound so that it builds into the loud noise instead. I right clicked the audio clip and then went to the speed/duration option, this brought me to a window where I could select the reverse speed option so that the audio plays in reverse. This resulted in the quick build up sound that re-introduces the music effectively and makes the trailer flow better. 

Another example of a sound effect I added was a 'sting', which is most used in horror to highlight an enigma or create tension. In my teaser I added it on the scene where the character 'Chris' is attacked and screams. This was to create a loud noise that helps make the moment more of a jump-scare as the loud noise would elicit a reaction out of the audience. It also makes the scene less awkward as the only noise in the silence isn't the scream in a quiet room. This appeals to genre conventions effectively so that the audience feels the trailer belongs to the horror genre, fulfilling their audience expectations. 

Other examples of sound effects I added were the diegetic sounds, such as knife scraping, stab sounds, glass breaking etc. These sound effects help to immerse the viewer in the world I am creating by making it seem more real, as the important sounds are more pronounced and can be heard better.

Another way I enhanced my edit was by using colourings and filters. This was because, although I was happy with how my lighting looked, the colour of the lighting in the scenes themselves were often too white. This gave my teaser a very metallic look which was not intended. Adding the filters made scenes have more of a colour to them, such as the kitchen scene being slightly more blue, giving the teaser much more visual identity than in the offline edit. 

Another way I adjusted scenes was by changing the properties of the clips. For example, in the scene shown my light source was coming from behind my actor, this made the scene very difficult to see as the light wasn't revealing the properties of the scene. So in editing, I reduced the shadows so that the scene was much more visible and the audience can see what's happening. 

However, this wasn't the only way I adjusted clips to improve the edit, I also adjusted the properties to improve how the scenes look. In this example, I reduced the shadow bar, making them much darker, this caused the light to be much more concentrated and made the surrounding darker, allowing e to appeal to genre conventions by creating a creepy atmosphere to keep the audience engaged.

               

(Before)                                                                 (After)

After gaining audience feedback, I completed my final stage of editing my adding colourings to the scenes using the adjust settings. This was effective in improving my final edit as it helped to give the teaser much more visual identity, this is because survey feedback complained some scenes were too metallic-looking and felt too lifeless/damp.

I did this by changing the 'temperature' of the more colourless looking scenes to improve their visual style, for example this scene where I increased the temperature to make the torch beam more orange in appearance, compared to the much more clinical white. This helps to connote the burning hot tension the scene is trying to convey