Genre Conventions - Editing

Genre Conventions - Editing

Editing in a horror film is one of the most important factors of the film. The editing has to be done to perfection to achieve the scares. The pace of the film has to switch from fast pace to slow pace to disorientate the audience. The suspense that is built within the scene keeps the audience on their toes and excited throughout the film, the editor has to cut this scene to ensure that a dramatic tension runs through it and ensure that the audience is gripped with in the scene. The main suspense is built on the audiences anticipation, the pace of this scene is the key to building this anticipation and suspense.

The time span of the clips are used to make an impression on the audience:

A long time span / Slow paced editing  

A long clip makes the audience tense as it focuses in on one subject for too long and evokes the audience to feel the need to look away or lets them focus on the detail in the shot - this depends on what the shot is. On these types of clips the audience expects to be scared however if a jump scare is placed at the right point in the scene then the audience will still jump as the tension builds and builds however if this cut is placed too late then the main tension will have been wasted.

A short time span / Fast paced editing

Fast paced clips create chaos and disorientation, making the audience focus on lots of things in a short amount of time making them perceptible to the scares. On the fast paced shots a hand held camera is the best option to use as this makes it more messy and not uniform, these shots might make the audience feel a sense of urgency and this could lead to strong feelings of panic. These fast paced scenes and cuts must be used sparingly as too many will make the audience confused and it could make them forget the plot of the film as they are too focused on trying to keep up with the action.