Editing: Adding Effects

In order to ensure that the footage we captured adhered to common conventions of our chosen genre and that it coincided with our narrative, it was essential that we add effects, such as filters and transitions. This was completed using Final Cut Pro, whereby the control panel on the right hand side offered many different effects for a range of narratives and genres, including film noir and 'old' films.

Manipulating Saturation:



One aspect of our opening features a flashback of a fire. When imported into Final Cut, the lighting for the fire was too bright due to the natural sunlight; for this reason, we edited the saturation using the colour palate and adding an effect labelled "Crisp Contrast". This made the fire appear more sinister and violent as desired.

Adding Filters and Effects:

Additionally, there was a clip in which the victim is seen walking towards the shack (lair) and also whereby she picks up an old match box to light a match. To coincide with the psychological aspect of the opening, I decided to add the 'Trails' effect, which, as the image shows, created layering of the footage (appearing as two people) to suggest disorientation or confusion.

Here shows the scene whereby the victim is seen walking towards the killer's lair and the 'Trails' filter was also applied. This again created the idea of disorientation on either the killer's or victim's behalf.



Our entire narrative is based around the killer watching the victims in the lair before killing and thus, we included various shots with the 'CCTV' filter layered on top.  By manipulating the text to change the date and time, we were able create the illusion that the victim was being watched, coinciding with the psychological aspect also.

This image shows another example of where the 'CCTV' effect was used to make it seem as though the victim is being watched.



There are also various scenes included whereby we use a hand held camera rather than stedicam to make it appear as though the victim is recording the experience herself. We chose to include this as it creates a sense of realism for the audience as they may feel as though they are experiencing the horror alongside the victim. For these shots, I added the 'Camcorder' filter, which made the screen look like the LCD display screen of a camera, as shown above, to indicate that the victim is recording the footage herself.

Evaluation:

Overall,  I feel that adding the effects and filters to the footage allowed us to experiment further with lighting and aesthetics despite limitations encountered when filming,  such as lighting issues. The filters including 'Camcorder' and 'CCTV' enabled me to manipulate the footage to better coincide with the narrative, whereby the idea of the victim being watched is heavily portrayed, which I feel I executed well. Although adding such effects is a simple feat, I believe that the results in the film opening show great creativity and a wide range of skills.