Research into editing styles- Miss Georgiou

Editing is essential within the thriller genre because it creates shock, surprise and suspense for the audience. The editing consists of the transitions and timings used in the scenes which links them together to make a film that fits together without long breaks in-between each transition.

In this sequence from the thriller film Human Centipede, directed by Tom Six, many editing styles are used to create suspense for the audience, as she tries to escape from the doctor. For example a jump cut is used when the doctor finds the victim in a room, where she has locked herself away and as they scream at each other, it demonstrates a change of viewpoint and location from each character and fosuses on them idividually. Using a straight cut is effective in this scene as it shows the two different situations which creates tension for the audience as they do not know what is going to happen next which will make the audience feel suspense. The audience will have sympathy for the victim as they would not want the doctor to get to her and want her to be safe.
Shot reverse shot is used where the two female victims are in the surgery trying to find a way to escape or survive. The camera follows the conversation bewtween them as one shot quickly follows the other, allowing the audience to understand the conversation and situation the girls are facing. This makes the audience have to think quickly about what is going on which gets their minds racing about what is going to happen next. This makes the audience surprised, epsecially as she manages to get away from the bed.
A straight cut is used when the victim is running down the corridor and then enters a room. This cut demonstrates the change of location which provides the audeince with an understanding of how desperately the victim wants to escape and it also shows how scared she is. The audience will have sympathy for her and therefore will feel the suspense as they do not know if the doctor will find her.
This post will help me when I create my own opening thriller sequence as it will allow me to consider which cuts i could use to make the audience feel shocked or surprised.