Edit decision list

While editing our opening there were many important decisions we made that we thought were necessary to make our thriller opening appear more professional, whilst maintaining a more cohesive narrative.

EDIT DECISIONS

• Bars at the top and bottom of the screen

 The decision to place black bars at the top and bottom of the screen was a conscious one group decision to improve the opening. The bars helped make the opening look more professional, giving it a widescreen style feel while at the same time it helped cover up some unfavourable parts of certain shots without having to refilm footage.

• Surprise cut at the bat swing

  During the opening, when Joan swings the bat we decided to cut to black early before a titl fades in. This decision was made in order to make the scene seem more ruthless. It causes the viewer to believe something much worse may happen because they didn't get to see it all. The cut also is an amazing dramatic effect which would catch the audience off-guard and throw them off balance a little which was one of our aims with this opening.

• Fades into titles

Another decision we made was to make the the titles fade in between shots instead of appear somewhere in the shots. We preferred this transition effect as it made it easier to intercut between the scenes of Joan, and the scenes of the Russian spy seamlessly. It also suited the mysterious nature of the narrative of the opening and looked quite professional.

• Intercutting between the interrogation and Russian spy

The decision to intercut between both the scenes of Joan and the interrogation, and the Russian spy in the park is to keep the audience asking questions. Rather than place one scene after the other, we decided to cut in between the two. The use of intercutting here places the idea in the audience's head that the two scenes are related, making use of the enigma code, producing questions in viewer's heads as to how they are related. This keeps the audience engaged and interested in the film.  

• Saturation change on certain shot

 On certain shots in the opening we altered the way shots looked by adding a filter or changing the brightness or saturation of a shot. There is one shot in particular which is  much more undersaturated than other shots to the point where it looks washed out. This was done to replicate the feelings of the hostage, who was on the brink of passing out.

• Distortion on the title card

On the very last few frames, the animated title card begins to form but after a few seconds the title and music distorts simultaneously. This initial sleek and cool title suggests that the film will be a slick spy film however, the distortions and weird sounds signal the viewer that it might have a lot themes of a thriller in that the film is actually a spy thriller. This will draw in viewers as they will wonder what's in store for them for the rest of the film.