Pre-Production Evaluation- Editor

As an editor  I am responsible for turning raw material into a finished product which is hopefully worth high marks.  While the main part of my role will take place post-production, the planning stages are very important and it is crucial that I play a big part in making sure that what we plan will provide very good raw material for me to work with later on.  I will have to work closely with the cinematographer to make sure the shots are of the right length so the audience do not get bored. In a horror film, the music must be perfectly timed otherwise it has no effect; it will be my job to make sure the music adds suspense, I will use Garage Band to do this. If my job is not done properly the film will not be convincing  and the quality of the film will be compromised.  The editors job is very important as the editing of a film can change the narrative and themes of the film.

We watched many films before deciding on the idea from our film. One film in particular which influenced me, as an editor was ‘The Orphanage’ that is shot in a big, old house.  There is a scene towards the beginning of the film, which uses the corridors in the house in a really interesting way, something that I’d love to recreate in our film; therefore we are very lucky to be able to use Izzi’s house which is very similar to the one in the film. Also, ‘The Others’ is a beautifully edited film which uses light and dark in a really great way, again something which I think would be good to have in our film. ‘The Others’ also uses foregrounding, which I really like. These 2 films have given me ideas, which I have included in the shot list, about how to use different angles and shot types to make a normal house seems haunted. As they have both been very well edited, it is easy to gain ideas from them on how to make the film convincing as a horror film. Another film which I believe to be very well edited is 'The Sixth Sense' which also uses colours and the contrast of light and dark in a really interesting way. This film uses a variety of shot lengths in order to build tension throughout the film, some of the shots feel as though they are too long, this has been done by the editor on purpose to put the audience on edge.  Both of these films that have influence me have children in them, this is where the idea of having a small girl as the antagonist came from. 

The opening of the film, a Point of View shot, will build tension because we can hear footsteps as the camera gets closer to the door, heavy breathing can be heard which is fast, this causes the audience to start breathing fast too. Also this scene will take place at night, so as the editor I must make sure this looks realistic, as we have decided not to shoot at night. We don’t know who the threat is, so this adds a sense of mystery to the opening scene. The first POV shot will be combined with shots tracking shots, which will show footprints in the gravel, I put these different shots into the shot list so that there is a variety and while still building tension, the audience will not be bored. 

The main convention of a ghost film that we have conformed to is having a small child as one of the main characters, examples of this in other films include Cole in ‘The Sixth Sense’ and Simon in ‘The Orphanage’. The antagonist in our film will be a little girl, whose innocence will be shown by her costume (white dress). Our film will challenge the innocence of young children.  The setting of  our film also conforms to the sub-genre, as it is a haunted house, like the house in ‘The Haunted’.  

Merry Abbott