Editing Practical: Use of Black Spaces

For this editing task, I incorporated a variety of black screens into the montage of torture scenes to conform to common conventions as investigated in a previous post. As mentioned before, black screens are an easy and successful way of building tension yet creating enigma within a trailer. 

The Task:

 

In Final Cut Pro, I added all of the required clips which would combine to create the montage of torture scenes; initially, this meant that all clips were placed directly next to each other, as the left hand side of the screenshot below indicates. To add the black spaces, I inserted unwanted footage between each clip and then deleted it; this may seem like a lengthy process but was actually quite a simple task to execute. By deleting the clip, the black spaces shown in the right hand side of each clip appeared; the reason behind these spaces appearing is to keep the video at the same length despite footage having been removed. 

The screenshot attached below shows the torture montage with all of the black spaces included. When the sequence is played through, there would be a series of short torture clips which transpire into alternating black screens. As mentioned previously, these are common conventions of horror films as they help to build suspense, which is essential for any film trailer. 

I then added transitions to the beginning and end of each black screen in order to make the continuity and sequence run more smoothly.  Using the transition panel located on the right hand side of the software (see below), I selected the most suitable transition to coincide with the narrative of the trailer and also any possible music; for this reason, I selected the 'Fade' transition. By simply dragging the transition onto the desired clip, I could then edit the length using the Precision Editor to ensure that the sequence ran as desired. 

Once the sound was added (see screenshot below), the whole sequence was extremely effective in building suspense and adhering to common conventions of horror trailers. As the image depicts, a series of loud non-diegetic 'booms' were added during each interval of black to startle the audience and build the tension throughout. 

Evaluation:

The overall look of this montage with the black screens was hugely effective and successful in creating suspense and enigma for the audience; in my opinion, it is one of the more effective features of the trailer. I believe that this particular example of editing shows our group's and my skill set and development in understanding technology and different software. Additionally, considering how suited this feature is to horror trailers, I also believe that it emphasises our time and effort into researching common conventions of horror trailers. Despite being a basic editing technique, the final result was hugely effective.