Editing the First 30 Seconds

1. HOW I EDITED THE FIRST 30
SECONDS OF THE TRAILER
Eleni Papaioannou

2. INTRODUCTION
Although both Chloe and I equally split the camera work and shots by taking it
in turns to film on our filming days. All the footage was uploaded onto my
laptop and I took a lead role in the editing stages of our trailer. This included
the editing of shots (both editing the shots together and editing individual
shots) as well as finding and editing the music and sound effects.
In this presentation I will go through my thought process and the action I took
when editing together our trailer. After I edited our trailer fully we then sat
down and made minor changes.

3. PART ONE
I took inspiration for the first two shots of the trailer from the Rememory by having a long shot
followed by an arial close up. For this section of the trailer I decided to have on average a longer shot
duration than later on as this will create a slow and mellow atmosphere. This will reflect Bea’s peaceful
life before and create a juxtaposition to the high intensity mood later on.
Here are the first two shots from
Rememory and below are the first two
shots of our trailer. You can see the
similarities between the shots. However
I decided to have the establishing shot
be the water running as water one of the
most important themes throughout the
trailer as it is Bea’s irrational fear that
Justin is trying to drown her that leads
her to kill Justin. Water is also a
symbol of purity and cleansing so by
playing this shot at the beginning of the
trailer I am not only establishing the
theme of water/drowning but also
hinting to the character of Bea as she is
in the following shot.

4. PART TWO
I made use of the built
in transitional
features during the
first 30 seconds of the
trailer in particular
the fade to black
transition. This was
because from my
research I discovered
trailers like The Gift
and Inception used
this style of transition
to establish a new
setting or shot.
I used the fade to black transition between a few different shots within the
first part of the trailer. Such as from the long shot of Bea and Justin holding
hands that then cuts to the shot reverse shot between them. Using this
transition added a sense of professionalism and also adds mystery to the
trailer as the shots become concealed slightly by the transition so not
everything about the film is given away.

5. PART THREE
THE FADE TO BLACK TRANSITION

6. SHOT REVERSE SHOT EDITING
I decided to cut this scene using a shot
reverse shot of the two main
characters. This was to highlight the
close personal connection between the
two. Additionally, the continuity
between shots adds to the ordinary
and peaceful atmosphere as
everything happens in order.
In general, it was a lot easier for me
to edit the first part of the trailer due
to the mood and atmosphere I wanted
to create. The calm mood was created
through the long shot duration, the
minimal editing of shots and high key
lighting.