"Making a Great, Suspenseful Film Part III: How do you edit your film?"

So in Part I and II, we went over development, pre-production and production of your suspenseful film and we're almost ready to get to post-production. But before you get started, you need to figure out what equipment that you're going to use to edit on. Here's the two major pieces you'll need to edit:

Computer

So the big thing about your computer is that editing takes a lot of memory and a fast computer processor. Essentially, video files are very large and so your computer needs a lot of RAM (short term memory) and a fast processor to deal with these large files. And it also needs a large hard drive to store these large files. If you don't have these things, you could find yourself watching the computer just sit there processing these files for a long time and feeling frustrated. Sadly, this is probably one of the largest obstacles for new filmmakers because it can be one of the most costly areas. The good news is that if you're editing a short film of just a few minutes length, then you probably don't have to go out and buy a really expensive computer. But as you start heading into larger films, you want to start to think about saving. Just in case your curious, I use a Mac Book Pro and my set up definitely does the trick.

Also, I fill up my hard drive with video files constantly, so I've had to get a portable hard drive. I use it to store films and video files so I can clear out my computer’s hard drive. I would highly recommend a portable hard drive for this purpose. Click here to find out what I use.

Software

So there is a lot of editing software out there. If you're just starting out, I would recommend that Mac users use iMovie, and for PC users I would recommend the basic Premiere software.

But eventually, Mac users should go to Final Cut Pro (which I use) and PC users should go to the regular Premiere. In the end, the best program is the one that you like to use and understand and it works for your computer.

Now you can begin editing! There are six steps to editing your film so that it becomes a great, suspenseful film:

1. Get organized

In order to edit your film efficiently, you need to get organized. When you are not organized, it really makes the process more frustrating; it's good not to skip this step. Although I'll be honest, I sometimes do, especially when I just shot the footage and know it well. But I also admit that when I have skipped this step, I've regretted it.

The main way to organize your footage is to label your clips in an easy to understand format. I use four categories:

1. Scene number.

2. Shot description.

3. Take number.

4. Was the shot good, bad or okay?

So it would look like this. "Sc1 WS T1 Good" This would translate to: Scene 1’s Wide shot, Take 1. And the shot was good. You can check out the labeled clips above in the picture.

So now, when I am editing, I don't have to review the footage. I just have to read the label on the clip and we're good. Or if someone is trying to help me, they’ll be able to just read the label too.

Also, another tip is when you're shooting your footage, you should take notes so that you can refer to these notes when you're editing.

2. Edit for story structure

Start by taking out your storyboard you created in pre-production. This is a great guideline for editing because you just have to use the storyboard as a way to remind you of the sequence of shots and then just pick the best take of each shot and put them in the right order.

So in the picture above, you’ll see the timeline. The time line is what all editing programs have, where you put the video clips down into this area and it is the foundation of your movie. You should put all of the video clips that you want in your movie on the timeline using your storyboard as your guide.

After you lay down all of the video clips onto the timeline, you'll want to trim off the obvious parts of the clip that are bad like when you yell "Action" or the actors lose focus. Each editing program has a way to trim or shorten clips and you need to refer to your program’s help section if you don’t know how.

Then, you should have your basic story in front of you on the timeline and you just review it and ask yourself the following questions:

-Does this make sense?

-If not, do you need to deviate from your storyboard and rearrange the clips?

-Was there a shot that didn't come out right and you need to find an alternative clip in your clip bin?

-Sadly, at this stage, you sometimes realize you might need to reshoot a clip. Take notes and if it's not impossible and too inconvenient, do the reshoots (this means when you have to go back and film the same shots again because of mistakes.)

A note about reshoots. The key with reshooting parts of your film is continuity. Continuity means that everything in the frame of the shot matches all of the other shots. When you are reshooting, it's often another day and people change clothes, their hair changes, etc. So before you reshoot, carefully review the footage and plan for making sure you have continuity i.e. tell the actors to bring the same clothes or send them pictures so they can do their hair and make up the same way.

3. Edit for tone, pacing and tension

So after you have edited for story structure, then, you need to start thinking about tone, pacing and tension.

So first... tone and pacing. Tone is basically what kind of film are you making. What specific genre are you working in? If you think about The Shining and the specific type of horror film it is. It's scary but in a very patient, classical way. There are other types of horror films with different tones. When you think of horror films like Shaun of the Dead, you think horror comedy. They are related but they have very different tones. And you would edit your film very differently if you were going for a horror comedy then if you were going for a more classical horror film. I believe in terms of editing, tone comes in large part from pacing.

In a classical horror movie like The Shining, the pacing of the film is more restrained and patient. Typically, the shots are going to last longer and there is going to be more room to breathe in a scene. A lot of the horror comes from the audience feeling the overall sense of dread in a shot and letting that linger and build.

In a horror comedy, you might go for a faster pace. You're still going to have a sense of dread and let that build but you might cut the film so that we get there faster or there are funny juxtapositions of images.

But it's important to know what you're shooting for in terms of tone so that you can edit accordingly.

Another area to look at after you decide the tone is how do you build tension and then release it. It's sometimes subtle but you keep the audiences attention by building tension and then releasing it. Over and over again. For example, one of the main reasons the long tracking shot at the beginning of the Shining clip of the boy riding the big wheel works is because of tension and release. As the boy is riding his big wheel he's approaching a turn in the hallway. We feel the tension as he approaches the unknown because we don't know what's behind that corner, then he turns the corner and there is just more corridor. This happens again and again and it works well because of this principle.

Sometimes tension is built up from juxtaposing two images back to back in the edit. A good example is the close up of the boy's face looking up at the door. Then we cut to the Over the Shoulder shot of the door. And then we cut back to his face. This back and forth editing is creating tension.

4. Edit for text and transitions.

I just want to briefly mention text and transitions for your film because for this project, it's not really that necessary but it might be useful.

As far as text in your film, there are really only two types of texts you will possibly need: Titles and credits.

In terms of titles, as you might have seen in my version of The Shining scene, I used a teaser clip to start the film and then displayed the title of the film, "303." I did this to help get the audience into the tone of the film right away. I think this is a good way to think about titles. It's not just telling the audience the title of the film but it's helping them get into the frame of mind of the film. Think about film like hypnosis. Like hypnosis, film puts a person into a dream like state. And in order to put them into a dream like state, you have to ease them into it. So I would recommend you think about using titles at the beginning (and music and possibly other images) to help ease the audience into the dream state.

If you want to make the credits for your film (the part of the film that acknowledges everyone who worked on the film), I would just put that at the end of the film.

In terms of transitions, for this project, I would say you really don't need any special transitions. Often beginning filmmakers go crazy with transitions that they find in their editing program. For example, there are transitions where the screen flips away and does a double spin. But all of these fancy transitions are often distracting and tell the audience they are watching an amateur film. Most professional films don't use any fancy transitions and just let the images and sound speak for themselves.

You might want to think about using a cross fade sparingly. A cross fade is when the one shot fades to another. You would use a cross fade in three major circumstances. 1. To show the passage of time. You want to tell the audience that the next scene is an hour later or a day later. 2. To show that you are entering a dream. Cross fades can suggest that the character is dreaming and the next scene is a part of a dream. Not necessarily but I've seen it done. 3. It helps us ease into a scene at the beginning of the film or ease out of a scene at the end. But carefully use your transitions so that your film can look professional.

5. Edit for music

Music is a huge part of film. In this assignment, music can really take your film to the next level if used well.

So if you re-watch The Shining scene, the music by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind really acts like another unseen character in the scene. It starts out with a very simple percussive sound that eerily hints at something sinister coming. Then, there is a whole progression of strings that play underneath the action, building to the climax of the scene. It's clear that Kubrick worked with the composers to make the music show the dread that the boy is feeling in the scene. And in turn, we the audience feel that dread too.

So you want to find music that will do this for you. You have three main options. 1. Make the music yourself. 2. Find a piece of music from your own collection or on the internet. 3. A third option that I use is Filmstro, which is like a hybrid of options 1 and 2.

1. Make the music yourself. If you want to do this, and have the time and motivation, I would recommend you use a program like Garage Band. With programs like these, you have a great deal of control of what kind of music you want to create and to design it very specifically for your film. The biggest issue here is that in order to do a good job, you have to know how to use these type of programs and you have be able to really have the time to get it right.

2. Find the music. The trick with finding the music is that you want to find just the right sound for your film but you also want to find music that actually changes when you want it to change so that it enhances the action on screen. This is very, very difficult. And on top of that, you should also be aware of copyright issues. If you are planning to put this up on the internet or show it anywhere officially, copyright issues can come into play. Since this is an early exercise, I am not going into that on this post, but I want to at least bring it up.

But given all that, besides i-tunes, I would recommend that you find music on YouTube where you can easily convert it into a mp3 file with a program like this.

Or you can purchase film music at a place like this.

Or you can go to a free online music website like this.

3. The hybrid solution. Last year, I discovered a program called Filmstro which is like having your own professional composer on staff. It's not perfect but it's an amazing way to get closer to professional music composing without hiring one. So basically, you can find different templates of music for your film and then the program let's you design the music to fit your film very precisely. Check it out here:

6. Watch with an audience

So here's the final and very important step of editing. It's so important because when you're editing, your brain becomes layered with thoughts and memories of your process and at some point, it's really hard to tell if the film is working or not. You see the film but you're also seeing the film with a million different things that has happened in your making of the film. That's why you need an audience who has not seen the film and bring fresh eyes and ears to the project.

But before you get feedback, it's important to tell your audience what your intention of the film is. If it's a comedy, action, drama or whatever genre of film, let them know. I feel often feedback goes wrong, where the audience has their own agenda and that agenda is different than the filmmaker. Sometimes, people just like certain things and it doesn't really pertain to the film you're making. This feedback can be the worst. So let them know what your objectives are and that will help steer the feedback in the right direction.

Here are some questions you should ask the audience to get quality feedback.

What happened in the film? What was the story?

I know this sounds totally obvious but I like to ask this question first because you can tell a lot about what's working from just how they describe what happened. Without judgment. This will answer your question, is the film clearly conveying the information?

What worked? Please give specific examples.

I believe in every film there is something that's working. Or at the very least, there's potential for something working. You have worked hard on this film so far and you need some positive reinforcement. So let's start with the positive before you go into what's not working.

Also, by saying what worked, you don't accidentally get rid of stuff that your audience really liked.

What didn't work? Be specific

So finally, we get to what didn’t work. Now this is a subjective question and it needs to be answered with the objectives of the filmmaker clearly in mind. As long as the audience member thinks about the filmmaker’s objectives and lets the filmmaker know what seems to be not working in this context, then this feedback can be very useful.

In addition, if you have an audience member who is a filmmaker, they can be useful in giving ideas on how to solve the problems that come up.

So that’s it. I hope that was helpful and that you have a great time editing your film!