Editing Deconstruction - Insidious

I decided to look at Insidious and deconstruct it with regards to editing. After watching the opening scene, the techniques which are used throughout are very similar. The main trends I noticed were:

• steadicam
• track
• zoom

One of the first shots in the opening is of a lampshade in a dark room. The camera rotates 180 degrees, so that the lampshade is the correct way up, suspended from the ceiling. During the rotation, the lampshade stays in a central position of the frame. The title also fades down into the shot saying 'A JAMES WAN FILM', where the 'A' and 'FILM' are in white against the black background and the name is on the lampshade and stays there during the rotation. It then fades out from the centre of the word.

When the lampshade is the right way up, the protagonists room is lit up enough for the audience to see. Immediately the camera tracks down, in a south westerly direction, revealing the young boy asleep in his bed, until the point where the camera is in line with the child.

The camera then tracks to the right, focusing on no object in particular, establishing the scene of the bedroom. Although it is a steadicam, there is still a sense of handheld camera within the opening, as the shots are smooth but travel between rooms in a way that looks like human exploration.

After the camera leaves the child's bedroom, it zooms and focuses on a headstone like figure in another dark room. It then immediately tracks left, highlighting more of the house. Then it zooms and tracks at the same time, drawing the focus to different objects and areas in the room, usually the most shadowed area, increasing the focus which the audience are needing to give and therefore adding a sense of tension and suspense. The fast tracking gives an uneasy feel to the opening, giving the audience an idea of what the genre of the film is and what kind of themes are going to be present within the film. 

There is a slight flicker over the title, so that the red changes shade slightly but constantly, adding depth and a more 3D effect to the title. The lack of colour in the opening is juxtaposed by the bright red of the title, although at the same time, the colour has connotations of blood and death.

Overall, the editing in this opening is very smooth but at the same time quite fast paced. This makes the audience have a sense of unease as the camera is moving too fast in a low lit house to focus on specific objects, suggesting there are a lot of secrets hidden in the unknown. This editing is very effective for this film and the genre because before the film has even began the audience are feel tense about what is to come.

Below is the opening scene from Insidious:

Editing Practical - Freeze Frames

For my editing practical, I wanted to try a technique I hadn't used before. To do this, I found a freeze frame tutorial on YouTube and taught myself how to create the same effect on Final Cut Pro. I then found a short video of a snowboarder completing a forwards flip off of a ski jump and decided to use the freeze frame to stop the boarder at different points during the flight.

Firstly, I imported the video into the software, and chose specific points where I wanted him to freeze. I wrote down these times and then went back to the footage, stopping it at these times. I then took a screen grab of the point at which it had stopped and saved it to my desktop, with the file name of the time at which it was taken. I repeated this until I had all the different freeze points that I wanted.

Then, I imported all of the screen shots so that they started at the points which they were taken, and dragged out the duration to match the original footage. At this point, when the project is played, the flight stops at the first freeze and does not continue. 

First, I needed to change the filter of all of the screenshots, and then adapt this to enhance the darkness of the figure, so that there is a large contrast between the snowboarder and the background of the sky. I added the filter to all of the screenshots and changed it to 'darken'.

I then needed to use the mask tool (located on the far right of the screen) to highlight only the snowboarder in each of the screenshots, otherwise the whole of the screen will freeze and be seen for the duration of the footage. This was tricky as the mask tool gives you three pointers to drag around the selected area, but as the snowboarder is a funny shape and the sky changes colour during the jump, I needed to be accurate. Experimenting with the different elements of the mask tool available, I was able to increase the 'feather' and 'rounded' effect on each, making the mask closer to the outline of the snowboarder.

Finally, I imported a song from YouTube called 'A Beautiful Life' by Tim McMorris and fit it to my footage. I then trimmed all the clips so that they were exactly the same length. 

The final product is attached below. If I were to do it again, I would have less freeze frames of the snowboarder in the sky, possibly by using a longer clip. Also, I would be more precise with the mask tool to ensure the ultimate accuracy.

Editing Evaluation- Car Sound Effect

The ending of the film opening leading into the title has to be memorable and leave an impact on the audience. Charley had created quite a stand-out font and the smoke which we then put behind the typography made it less static and added an extra dimension to the 2D typography; because we didn't animate it and had literally just put an image in we thought the whole ending was a bit still. We then decided that we needed to put some sound to it because otherwise it would be silent and we had worked really hard to build up all the sounds throughout the film opening. Tia had previously done a sound practical on GarageBand and originally we had decided not to use it because the first few notes were a bit too staccato for what we wanted, however when we were looking for sounds, we just put the mp3 file in to see what it would sound like and although we were right about the first few notes being too jumpy, the last note is quite piercing and goes on for quite some time- it's also faded out really nicely.
We then cut the first part of the sound clip out to leave just the last note and tried that, however it still wasn't quite right. I then tried extending the suspense music underneath Tia's practical task which made it sound better because the two notes were off key and sounded wrong together which created a more eerie effect. After then watching the whole thing through, I still wasn't fully convinced about the ending; the sound was sort of irrelevant and I wanted a sound in which actually made sense and was to do with the concept of our film.

First of all I looked for frequency sound effects (like a hearing aid trying to find the right frequency) but I couldn't find one which sounded enough like I wanted it to and I also couldn't create one because the hearing aid we had bought didn't make those sound effects (and also Dave lost it) so we couldn't do that. I then came up with the idea of using a sound effect of a car turning on it's engine and driving off because the killer had just put the girl in the boot and this sound effect would let the audience know that the killer has driven off with the girl in his car. It took a while to find a sound effect which the noise fit with the type of car but when I did find a good one on YouTube I downloaded it and put it in. Unfortunately it was a bit too long so I bladed the middle section of it out to shorten the clip and then it worked quite well. I also liked the fact that the smoke now looked a bit like the exhaust from the car so it all tied in well together and gave a much more rounded and definitive ending.

Practical task - Editing 1

To add a greater sensation of this part of the sequence feeling like a flashback, I detached the sound from the footage and replaced it with a series of ambient sounds such as: Thunder rumbles, a rolling cinematic bass drum and extra cinematic ambient noises. The cinematic bass drum was chosen as a sound that played at certain transitions so it would greater emphasise the change in footage to improve the sensation of the killer trying to effectively "flick through" his memories to remember what he did.

Editing Evaluation- Sound Effects

As mentioned before, sound was a main focus in making this film opening effective. Therefore adding even small sound effects that maybe aren't even that noticeable or too significant actually give a lot to making the opening more realistic. When the girl is running up to the camera (before she is captured) I found a heavy breathing or panting sound effect that added to the scene because it shows her tiredness and also then makes it make sense when she stops to regain her breath. We were going to put in a fast-beating heart-beat but we decided that a heavy breathing would be less cliché and more realistic as well. I then bladed the heavy breathing as soon as the killer puts his hand over her mouth because this symbolises the fact that he's almost taken away her breath or life by this point.



Another sound effect that I thought needed to be put in for it to make sense was a car boot slam. We did have the original sound on the camera of the car boot but we didn't think it sounded crisp enough or enough like a boot slam because this was the last sound of the sequence and we wanted the slam to be quite prominent so I found a free sound effect from YouTube and made sure that it went in at the right time. Having this rather than just a silent slam creates better continuity and also almost is a bit of a 'jump' moment which the horror genre normally contains.

Editing Evaluation- Flashback

For a practical task, I did an editing practice which was a flashback experiment. To do this effectively so that the audience knows what they're looking at, ideally you need two contrasting scenes. For my experiment I did a girl flashbacking about a car crash she was in which killed her boyfriend (the driver of the car) and I managed to merge two completely separate scenes and make it look like the girl was remembering this traumatic experience.

This worked well because the 'present' scene was a still scene of the girl just looking dramatically at the camera, whereas the 'past' scene  was from her POV in the passenger seat of a car on the motorway. This was good because it didn't create any confusion as to what was happening because the 'present' scene wasn't moving, she was just recalling what happened.

I managed to transfer some of the skills I used in the experiment to this flashback of the killer remembering previous deaths leading up to the one he was about to commit. However this one was more difficult because the two contrasting scenes were in the same location which could have been quite confusing. Therefore the first thing I did was find an effect which would create a visual differentiation when initially comparing the two scenes. 'Burnt Sunrise' gave the image an old, tea-stained look, aging the clip and not making the image as bright or vivid as the present time one as well. The flashback images also needed to be quicker than the present time to show that these are just quick brief thoughts going in and out of his mind so blading it at the right moments was also important.
Additionally, I added in flashing transitions in between each change between present and past time to further emphasise the flashback and on these flashes of white light I put 'boom' sound effects, almost like a cannon, to again add to the flashback and memory side of the part of the scene. It's also important to keep in mind that these are memories of the killer and so overlapping the sounds for both present and past brings and groups them together which shows a connection between the two events.

Sound Editing- Sound Effects- Scream

 

Sound Editing- Sound Effects- Scream

 

The scream- to make this realistic and dramatic, we wanted a piercing scream as the picture faded to black. We were going to record Tia screaming in the castle but the quality on the camera for the sound wasn't good enough so I looked on YouTube for a scream sound effect and then went through a video which had several sound effects on and then chose a scream that sounded like it came from a relatively young girl. After I put it into Final Cut, I needed to make sure that it came in and ended at the right time so the sound looked like it actually came from the clip and wasn't just layered over it afterwards. After playing it a couple of times, I decided that it didn't sound echoey enough for it to firstly appear like it was in an enclosed castle and secondly to make it seem creepier. Therefore I went onto the sound effects on Final Cut and added a 'large room' effect so it echoed more. Originally we were going to leave it silent to get a deaf POV shot from the killer, but we felt that this wasn't obvious enough or scary and so actually having a scream would have a greater impact, especially because it then fades to black, implying she is killed and this is the last sound we hear from her- it's also a scream that holds quite a lot of pain which shows the traumatic way in which she was murdered. For our film opening, sound is so important because the main theme to the film is deafness and the fact that having a deaf killer subverts common conventions. Therefore we have spent the longest amount of time working on effectively layering up different sounds to create the right ambiance for our film opening.

Practical Task - Editing

As part of the editing practical, I decided to look into altering the sound within a clip when it sounds as though it is coming from headphones. To do this, I initially filmed a short series of shots of myself writing in a notebook whilst listening to headphones. In the clip, I then take my headphones out and look around before putting them back in. 

I began by importing all of the filmed footage into a new project in Final Cut Pro.

Following this, I dragged each of the clips into the timeline and detached the audio from each of the clips and deleted for all of the clips except the footage where the headphone is taken out.

I then briefly cut the clips so that they fit properly and only the usable footage remained. 

I then imported the song that would be heard through the headphones and through out the clip. I also edited some of the footage to make it fit better with the song and so that it flowed nicely.

I then used the blade tool to cut the song in time with where the headphone comes out of my ear and gets put back in again. I then added the Low-Fi effect from the audio effects tab.

I then added the no treble effect to make the music sound more tinny and as though the music was being heard through the headphones, which was the effect I was trying to create. 

I then added more layers and continued to add effects to make the music sound more as though it was coming out of the headphones. 

This is the final draft of the edited clip:

If I were to redo the sound again, I would make it less distorted and more grainy, to really get the tinny effect of the headphones.

Practical- Editing Experimenting

Practical- Editing Experimenting

I decided to practice editing techniques on Final Cut Pro. After having discussed the plot with the rest of TDAC, we decided to use flashbacks as part of our film opening. I wasn't quite sure how this would work so I decided to give it a go and have a practice. Firstly however I watched a couple of tutorials on Youtube to give me some ideas and inspiration and then I started my editing experimenting for flashbacks.

Firstly I needed some footage to work with so I used the shot of Charley that we had filmed for our GCSE Elastic Heart music video. She's looking at the camera, then looks down, and then looks back at the camera. It's very simple but I thought that it would be a gapped starting point for me to build a story around by including flashbacks as the shot looks like Charley is just thinking (dramatically). 

Then I came up with the concept of a flashback to a car crash where she loses someone she loves. I went onto Youtube and looked at different POV car crashes and chose one. I then put it into Final Cut and got rid a lot of the lead-up footage. Then I used the blade tool and interwound small snippets of the car crash footage into Charley's shot, which was the 'present' in my sequence. After watching it back, I felt like it was missing something so again I went onto Youtube and looked for POV shots of the passenger in a car looking at the driver, who was smiling and talking to the camera. It took a while but found a sing-along video of a man singing a song with different cars on the road. Although it was completely out of context, there were second-long shots in which were usable. 

I then wove some of these shots throughout which showed the love one who died (and the character Charley was having flashbacks about). The flickering flashbacks worked really well because it mirrored the pace of the car crash and then every time it jumps back to Charley's face which is completely still (I also but it into 25% slow motion), it creates a really effective juxtaposition between Charley and her memories. On Youtube I also found a car crash sound effect and I used the song 'Time' (which I obviously couldn't use on the real thing because of copy right, but for practicing editing I don't think it will be a big issue). I then layered up and timed the tracks perfectly with the footage and I added a filter called 'Burnt Sun' which just differentiated the present footage from the flashback footage. 

Then I just faded out the music and uploaded it to Youtube and here is the finished result:

Preliminary task - Editing evaluation pt. 2

Preliminary task - Editing evaluation pt. 2

The editing stage of our preliminary task turned out to be one of the most complex of the three stages of the task (planning and filming being the other two). Although we managed a successful product in regards to successfully fitting the criteria set out by the exam board, there are certain areas that I feel ought to be highlighted for being strengths and weaknesses.

The first point to cover is in regards to a few minor continuity errors. With the task focusing on continuity, this is one of the main weaknesses of the piece. the first error is as I reach the top of the star is and stop to catch my breath, it should have been one continuous shot as opposed to two which shows in the end product and my tie and badge have changed positions which should have been spotted during filming, however, the timing of the cut could have been changed slightly to compensate for the change in shot.

Tie isn't over the shoulder

tie over shoulder

tie again no longer over shoulder

and finally, tie over shoulder again

The next continuity error we had made which isn't too noticeable, is the scene where I hide from Charley in the corridor. the main error is that from the shot where I first hit the wall, I'm still and then when we cut to the medium shot of myself, we see that I'm moving again out of the blue and in a slightly different position. However this can mainly be put down to the speed at which we went about editing our product.

(screenshots coming soon)

One of the key strengths I'd like to add in, would be the use of the non diegetic sound tracks and how they have been implemented to build tension, lower the tempo and to build sheer awkwardness in the sequence. There is a great sense of awkwardness about the sequence near the very end where I say "damn, I'm fresh" and the camera slowly zooms in on my awkward smile with 'superstition' playing on top. The same soundtrack being used to lower the tempo of the running scene to signify relief to have gotten to the library in time to pickup the Mentos.

you can feel the anticipation of a cheesy advertisement line coming.
 "damn, I'm fresh" being our choice.

To summarise, I would say that the editing for this task is well done excluding one or two continuity errors. However these errors being mostly down to a lack of footage as we got carried away with using so many different shots and angles, that we didn't actually get enough footage for every angle to make a choice on the shot that aided the continuity of the sequence. With strengths particularly going to the choice and timing of the non diegetic sound track.

Preliminary Task - Editing Evaluation

Preliminary Task - Editing Evaluation

After we had filmed all the footage we began editing. Initially, we imported all of the footage into Final Cut Pro. We then dragged the clips we had filmed into the footage timeline, in order of the correct sequence. 
As a part of the brief, we were required to include a shot reverse shot of a conversation between two people. 

In order to achieve this, we used the blade tool to cut the clips in the correct places so that they flowed correctly and did not sound out of place. This required listening closely to the audio of the clip, and quickly blading the footage in the correct place. We then put the clips in order, to create the shot reverse shot sequence.

Another successful aspect of the editing process was when we incorporated the Eastenders theme tune into the sequence. 

This involved cutting the footage into shorter and shorter clips and synchronising them in time with the beats of the music. We did this successfully and the end result worked well. 

A problem we faced when editing the footage together was that not all of the footage flowed together as well as we would have hoped. This led to several errors in continuity, such as the movement of Dave's tie after he has run up the stairs.

If we were to do this again, we would re-film this part so that instead of having the two separate clips which caused the lack of continuity in the first place, we would film Dave running up the stairs and correcting his tie in one recording, as opposed to how we filmed it. 

Another aspect of the editing that we would have changed if we were to do this again is certain continuity features, such as when Dave is walking through the door to high-five the librarian. 

If we had more time, we would have filmed more footage which would have enabled us to edit the scene so it flowed more smoothly. 

This is the final version of our preliminary task: