We have been editing our trailer over the past couple of weeks and I have found that I have seriously improved my skills since last year and become increasingly quick with the software- Adobe Premiere, things such as using a range of library sound effects, understanding of use of non diegetic sound, shot selection and a range of transitions including dissolves and fades to black, which are all included in our A2 product.
Sound wise we have removed most of the background sound and added our own track with a spooky feel, the use of additional non diegetic bang sounds added during post production to create dramatic impact and again reinforce genre conventions. We have also recorded and added a narrative voice over this allows for a first person exploration of narrative and allows the audience an understanding of the preferred reading which is a convention of mainstream genre films like Thrillers. We had our lead character read out the lines 'It came in the post this morning' and 'I think it's trying to tell me something', these give the audience a brief understanding of the plot as well as adding mystery and excitement.
We have also used the pace tool to add a slow motion sequence to create dramatic tension and ensure the audiences attention is focused on the central protagonist entering into the chamber for the first time – this encodes narrative enigma for audiences and reinforces genre conventions.
I have found my skills had developed to the point where editing was far more time efficient in A2 than in AS. I learnt to avoid jump cuts, which confuses the audience. I have also learnt to add multiple audio face transitions (difficult process but necessary to ensure audio sounded smooth) We have also played around with the manipulation of colour to change some of the footage into black and white to give a gritty, shocking representation (we wanted the image to look old, blurry and mysterious).
We have also been focusing on transitions including a significant use of dissolves and fade to black to build tension and allowing for backdrop for titles which is a convention of film trailers. The remaining footage mainly used straight cut for purposes of continuity.
The structure of our trailer actually challenges typical conventions by beginning at the end of the film-Tom Banks in the torture chamber. It also challenges conventions by introducing the conflict at the beginning of the film- followed by the normal world (Banks in his office). However we attempted to create a 'trailer rush' in the middle by using fast paced music. We also followed the idea of introducing the lead first, followed by the villain.
The next thing we will do is put our final trailer on YouTube as an example of Web 2.0 to get interactive feedback on my production at A2– it is also helpful as users can easily upload short films for audience feedback and for marketing purposes.
