Thriller Editing

Thrillers rely on post-editing to make the audience more invested in the film. Below are some of the techniques used to keep the audience's attention.

JUMP CUTS

• This is an abrupt transition between two shots where it breaks continuity. They are commonly used in thrillers to convey distortion within a scene, either to reflect on a character's mental state or a supernatural phenomenon. This can also be shown as a character's weakness in an action scene.

ELLIPTICAL EDITING

• This is where time is cut out of the film between shots. Thrillers often do this to keep the films exciting, so they cut out any unnecessary and boring shots. This is to keep the audience engaged when a thrilling scene suddenly appears, and keeps the pacing of the film in a good rate. This keeps the viewer's interests in the film close and becomes more effective to the surprising scenes

PARALLEL EDITING

• Parallel editing is commonly shown in thrillers, to show the audience what two or more characters are doing at the same time in different locations, as their actions usually have high impact on one another. Usually, parallel editing shows the difference between the protagonist and the antagonist, where either one of them doesn't know their impacts on each other, or one of them knows about the other's actions.

GRAPHIC MATCH

• Graphic matches are used to connect two scenes together, which would otherwise be seen as unrelated, and share similar visual properties, either by colour, shape or texture. They can be used in thrillers to emphasise the action within a scene, famously done by the movie Psycho, and A Space Odyssey.

MATCH-ON-ACTION

• These are used in all genres to help keep continuity within the film, especially during action scenes. if a film doesn't use match on action it can confuse the audience and won't have the same effect if match on action was used. In thrillers, it's used to build suspense throughout the scene, engaging the audience.

FAST-PACE AND SLOW-PACED EDITING

• Most thriller films include slow and fast pace editing in their films, effective at creating suspense and tension, as well as drawing out emotion and representing characters. For example, slow-paced editing is used when something big is about to happen, leaving the audience in suspense, most likely making them jump and scare them when it happens. Fast pace on the other hand conveys energy in a scene, either by illustrating energy-dependent like anger or desperation, or a quick argument or fight between characters, and even chase scenes.

FOCUS

• Deep and shallow focuses are also common in films to illustrate to the audience what they are suppose to be looking at during a scene. A shallow focus is when the camera blurs out the background and objects to focus on what is in front of us, such as an object or a person. A deep focus then tells the audience to focus on what's behind.

CONTINUITY

• Continuity is usually maintained throughout the film, with the exception that on some occasions it can be broken (such as a jump cut) to create a specific affect, continuity is maintained by an editing technique called match on action, this makes sure that as shots cut, it follows on from the last shot smoothly. For example, this is more noticeable in fight scenes, when the characters are fighting and the shot cuts to the next, the audience doesn't really focus on the fact that the shot has just cut, this keeps the audience focused on what is going on in the scene. if there is not good continuity (which there isn't done purposely) then it can look odd in a scene which can result in confusing the audience, thus diverting their attention from the scene.

MONTAGE

• Montages are sometimes used in thriller films, this is to show that a series of what is thought to be unrelated items or people, are actually related. An example of a montage is in Hot Fuzz. This shows how the character became a police officer.

TRANSITIONS

• Transitions are used in all films, however how they are used is important for how the scenes are portrayed. The most common transition is a cut, this is used a lot in thrillers to cut between shots and create a tense atmosphere. Wipes, however, are not commonly used in thrillers; when used they tend to be more subtle. Star Wars for example is well known for using a lot of wipes to convey a passage of time. Dissolves can also be used to illustrate graphic matches, parallel editing and the beginning and end of a film.