From the course: Video Post Production for Low-Budget Films
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Using cuts to establish tension and increase drama
From the course: Video Post Production for Low-Budget Films
Using cuts to establish tension and increase drama
- The environment of our short film is defined by tension and anxiety. We establish this through a variety of techniques: composition, lighting, sound design, even the props. But arguably, the most important tool for building suspense is the editing. As we began to discuss in previous chapters, adjusting the pacing of your editing is an important tool in integrating suspense into your film. A fantastic editing lesson can be learned by looking back at the work of the Soviet filmmaker, Lev Kuleshov. As an early cinematic experiment, he caught the same blank facial expression of an actor with a variety of images: soup, a coffin, and a woman. The experiment show that our emotional responses to the images forced us to project emotion on to the actor's indifferent face. In other words, suddenly, the actor is hungry, grieving, and then, lustful. When editing your own work, remember this example as a reminder of how easily the viewer can be manipulated. It is important to remember that every…
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