1. Creating Suspense A look at editing & the thriller genre
This is an actual snowglobe-yikes!

2. Hitchcock Interview Why do so many people like to be afraid when watching a movie?
Hitchcock on Fear as Entertainment

3. What are we afraid of?
Hitchcock on Fear

4. Film Techniques that combine to create suspense:
Composition Editing Soundtrack

5. Composition
To make your audience on edge, use unusual angles and XCU’s on unlikely objects.
The POV shot can be your best friend in freaking people out. If you are the eyes of a character in a creepy place, it’s like YOU are in that creepy place.

6. “The camera should take on human qualities and roam around playfully looking for something suspicious in a room.  This allows the audience to feel like they are involved in uncovering the story.  Scenes can often begin by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements. This goes back to Hitchcock's beginnings in silent film.  Without sound, filmmakers had to create ways to tell the story visually in a succession of images and ideas.”

7. More Constructivist Editing at Work
In constructivist editing, remember that the meaning or feeling is created by the combination of the shots, not by the individual shots themselves. Shots of non-scary items or people aren’t frightening on their own. But if you see enough closeups of items you wouldn’t look at closeup or people at odd angles, it subconsciously starts to put you on edge.
Why am I at this angle?

8. 1408
Did you also notice that the pace of the editing increased when things started getting creepy?

9. Editing Constructivist editing, like Psycho, can build fear.
POV editing- constructs a meaning for audience- can be fear.
Parallel editing can build suspense. This is when 2 different stories are editing back and forth to make you think they are the same story until a big “reveal.”

10. POV editing Shot- Reverse Shot
Makes an audience understand what a character is feeling or thinking about without using words. - Start with a close-up of the actor - Cut to a POV shot of what they're seeing - Cut back to the actor to see his reaction - Repeat as desired
If there reaction is terrified, it’s likely to make us afraid, too.

11. Soundtrack What would a creepy movie be without a creepy soundtrack?
What if the soundtrack to this film:
Dracula Soundtrack
Were replaced with this:

12. Directors can work against these ideas to counter our expectations
The Sixth Sense- this kitchen shot works because there are no edits and no soundtrack
Think Hitchcock avoiding the
cliché.