Editing Task: Church

Editing Task: Church

In this editing task I practiced my editing skills, in particular colour effects on the sequence such as black and white or sepia etc. I did this using iMovie, first I imported the separate clips from my video camera onto the software.

I used iMovie as it allows a wide range of effects and is easy to use and navigate. It allows the manipulation of clips and sound, as well as being able to add things or get rid of things that do not work or are not appropriate for what the user wants:

I selected the clips and imported them, I then dragged them down to the editing area to be manipulated.

The first thing I did was to crop the clips, as this allowed me to get rid of any parts of the sequence that I did not want or should not be in there (such as camera shakes or scenes that were too long and included elements that did not work.)

To do this I split the clip, which enabled me to delete the part of it that I did not want.

I then detached the audio and deleted it. 

This allowed me to get rid of extra sounds such as talking, background noise and wind.

I then chose the video effect that I felt would be the most appropriate for each clip. The different effects throughout the sequence such as black and white, sepia, dream and heat wave makes the overall sequence look more disjointed and disturbing, linking to the desired genre (supernatural horror.)

I then slowed some of the clips to add again an element of distortion to the sequence, again linking to the supernatural horror genre.

To allow the sequence to run more smoothly, I added the two transitions 'cross dissolve' and 'cross blur', so there were no sudden cuts between clips. I also added the 'fade to white' transition at the end as it linked to the 'dream' effect used in the scene before, and is a clean end to the sequence.

I added audio to make the sequence even more effective. The use of children singing, playing and giggling focuses on the idea of young children being used as it comes across as more errie and disturbing, which is a common convention of horror films.

Finally, I adjusted the volume so that the audio was not too loud and therefore did not overpower the clip.

This is the final outcome. 

What went well:

• The effects all worked together to create an overall disjointed and disturbing effect.
• The audio is specific to the classic horror convention of using young children as they create sympathy within the audience, and can also seem more creepy as they are so innocent.
• The church setting is effective and appropriate to the supernatural horror genre.

To improve:

• The sound and visual effects could have contained more conventions of the supernatural horror genre to have more of a distressing impact on the audience.