Types of Editing

Obtrusive and montage editing is often used in psychological thrillers to enhance the feelings and emotions connoted with the image track, such as suspense, tension and anxiety. This is often used over important or significant scenes that what to be particularly highlighted to the audience.



Flashback from Memento

Flashbacks are a typical convention of a psychological thriller because it gives the audience an insight into whatever horrific past the main protagonist has suffered through. Flashbacks can be edited colour wise or have a blurred or slow feel to them. for example the opening sequence to Memento.

Colour grading is often used is psychological thrillers to make scenes appear darker and more sinister. The colour grading on shadows and scenes where sound plays a significance can enhance the tension and fear amounts the audience.



Requiem for a Dream

Slow motion or Fast pace editing are also conventional to a psychological thriller film as a scene in slow motion builds up suspense because the audience are intrigued to know what happens yet this process is pro-longed by the editing. On the contrary fast pace editing is very common for this genre of film as fast moving scenes create a shocked and intrusive atmosphere for the audience often to create a sense of fear. Fast pace scenes are usually used to portray chase scenes or scenes that pass a significantly long period of time. An example of this
would be in Requiem for a Dream fast paced editing is used to portray a drugs trip.