Editing a horror movie
If you want to produce your own Halloween horror movie, or indeed any kind of dramatic scene, there's one thing you're going to need and that's tension and suspense.
Here are our top ten tips for the budding horror director:
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- Think in scenes
Try to break your story down into scenes. Imagine each scene as a story in itself with a beginning a middle and an end. A scene can be of any length, but for a Hollywood style film, one to three minutes is about average. Each scene needs to open by telling the viewer where they are, and what's happening, and end with something having changed. That way each scene will progress your overall story.
- Cut to music
In a scene where dialogue isn't central, add the background music to the timeline first and then cut the shots to it. Try to cut on a beat. That way, as the tension in the music builds, the pace of your editing will have a structure too.
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Keep the hero out of the picture
Let the audience know something your main character doesn't, and then everything they carelessly do will raise the tension of the scene. A labourer working in a farmyard isn't a tense scene, but if the viewer knows there's something watching from the barn, every movement he makes towards the barn will increase the drama.
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Pace Yourself
Use the length of cuts and the nature of the action to create changes of pace and rhythm within your scene. As action increases, use shorter cuts - even down to a second or less - to pick up the pace. For tenser, more pensive scenes, slow things down and use longer shots.
- It's all in the acting
Fear in film is not about seeing frightening things. It's about people's reaction to them, and the viewer's knowledge of what's about to happen. A velociraptor isn't scary in and of itself. People didn't hide behind the sofa watching Walking With Dinosaurs. So to make your work scarier, show the victim more than the monster.
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Do the Blair Witch
The Blair Witch Project showed virtually no actual violence. The villain was kept off screen throughout and there was no real direction of the actors or camera - the whole strength of the film was in its editing. It may look amateurish, but it's an extremely well edited piece of cinema.
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Use sound
Don't forget the audio track. Give the viewer a few choice sound effects and let them imagine the rest. Showing a murder on screen could end up looking naff - especially if your werewolf costume isn't up to much. Showing shadows on a blank wall, and having the sound effects of the murder can be much more effective (and cheaper).
- Stay close
Close ups not only allow your actors to portray their fear and anxiety, they also stop the viewer seeing what's around the corner. A shot of the actor's fingertips as they open a door, or their face as they creep around the corner keeps the viewer wondering what's going on off screen.
- Make them think it's all over
We've all seen it - a long build up of tension while our heroes search a dark empty room for the source of strange noises ends in relief as they discover a cat meowing in the corner. It breaks the tension and everyone thinks it's all Ok.
- Deliver the payoff
...And that's when the monster leaps in. Just when everyone thinks it's all over, the expert director delivers the coup-de-gras. Just the briefest shot - a fraction of a second combined with a loud sound effect or musical crash - is all that's needed and the viewer will hopefully leap out of their skin.