PRELIMINARY

REASEARCH WORK

 PRELIMINARY 1:

The preliminary begins with protagonist writing in her diary, whispering the words, whispering the words "I wish they'd disappear.." The diary reveals phrases like  " I hate them" hinting the protagonist's inner turmoil. The scene transitions to a news report announcing that a teenager has been found stabbed, leaving the protagonist shocked. Her breathing grows heavy as her guilt begins to consume her, she sits in despair, her diary filled with frantic, ominous scribbles. The screen goes black, revealing the words" some thoughts shouldn't be written..." before the title appears.

                                      

        

EDITING:

                    

When I started editing my short film in Adobe Premiere, the first thing I did was add the title. I opened the Graphics panel and went through different themes until I found one that fit the tone of my film. I wanted to keep it simple, so I went with a black screen as the background and a clean, white title with an underline to give it a polished look. I chose the font Cambria Math because it had a sharp, professional feel that suited the mood I was going for. After typing out the title, I adjusted the size  and positioning to make sure it looked right. Once I was satisfied  with it, I dragged it onto the timeline and placed it at the beginning of the sequence. To make the transition smoother, I added subtle fade in effect so the title would appear gradually instead of just popping up. I also tweaked the duration to make sure  it stayed on the screen long enough to be readable but not too long to slow things down. This small detail helped set the right mood for my film and gave the opening a celan, cinematic feel.

After adding the title, I decided to adjust the scale of the video to improve the framing and make the scene feel more immersive. I zoomed in by 46 %, bringing the total scale to 146%, which helped remove some unnecessary empty space and made the shot feel more focused. This small change made a big difference, drawing more attention to the subject and creating a stronger visual impact. I made sure the quality still looked good and that nothing important was cut off in the frame. The closer framing also added a sense of intensity, making the scene feel more personal and engaging. I played around with the positioning a little to make sure everything looked balanced. In the end, this simple adjustment helped give the film a more polished and cinematic feel.

I cut the clips to match the beat and scene changes, ensuring smooth and natural pacing. I muted random background noise and applied the Denoise effect, lowering its intensity for cleaner audio. To enhance visuals, I added strobe lights, used the default transition, and slowed down certain clips to build intensity. In the Color workspace , I adjusted lighting and fine-tuned the color scheme using Lumetri Color tools. I slightly lowered saturation while increasing Vibrance to create a more cinematic and polished look, ensuring the colors matched across different shots. I focused heavily on the diary scenes, using different editing tools to enhance their emotional impact. I also zoomed in on key diary entries, ensuring the audience could clearly see the words, emphasizing their significance. Finally, I added copy right free music that fit the mood perfectly, making sure everything blended seamlessly.

  

I focused on the phone screen, emphasizing incoming texts to create a sense of urgency and tension. I zoomed in on the phone screen using the scale tool and adjusted the positioning with keyframe animations, making the messages the focal point. To enhance the eerie mood, I added strobe lights, slowed down key moments and used default transition for smoother cuts. In the color workspace, I adjusted the lighting with Lumetri Color by lowering saturation to give it a unsettling look. I cleaned up the audio by muting background noise, applying denoise effect, and adding a copy right free thrilling sound effect to heighten the suspense. Finally I showed the protagonist's nervous reaction, then cut to a black screen with words " Some thoughts shouldn't be written" leaving a suspenseful and haunting ending.

                                                

  The sound effect used for the iPhone consistent notifications.

PRELIMNARY 2:

The preliminary begins with the voices of muffled laughter scatters across the halls as the bully walks by along with her friends who gaze at their prey with ugly smiles. The bully walks ahead with determination before he approaches the subject for an attack. The girl approaches but at this moment she begins to feel uncomfortable. The protagonist spends her time seating alone with a torn sketchbook while she draws with methodical strokes of her pencil. At that moment the bully stops walking after noticing the traced name that matches her own appearance on the page. The drawing shows her self-portrayal as an agonizing twisted figure beneath her own name. Her body breaks out in trembling spasms. Every sound in the hallway disappears as if by magic into a threatening silence. She listens to her racing heart which booms inside her ears. The voluminous atmospheric pressure makes breathing difficult for her. The protagonist keeps sketching. An immense unbreakable terror squeezes around the bully because her sight is becoming clouded. Her breath turns shallow. The walls seem to close in. The girl falls backward while her body shakes violently. The pencil keeps moving. Fright overwhelms the woman and she runs away without speaking. As the screen fades to black.

                         

EDITING:

My work involved project file modification and а nеw adjustment layer through options panel to achieve flickering light effect. I set strobe light duration according to music beats while keeping a keen focus on strengthening the effects. The default fade out effect with brightness reduction served as a method to achieve smooth sequence changes. I directed the audio at low register pitches while reducing background music until it faded to enhance tension. Editor set the speed duration at 110 to produce an offbeat slow pacing that delivered an unsettling mood.

For maintaining a focus on significant details I modified the frame through a zoomed-in positioning to enhance the scary atmosphere. The addition of heartbeat sounds using low-frequency tones served to create tension and I maintained low background music that I faded out to achieve dramatic impact during production. I applied a slight slow motion effect in Adobe Premiere to enhance the dramatic final reaction of the character making her fear and shock more visually powerful.

Lumetri Color tools enabled me to decrease colors in the Color workspace by intensifying both hue and vibrance to transform vivid walls into a somber dark effect. The adjustment of contrast values together with shadow modifications resulted in a deeper visual appearance which generated an ominous feeling in the scene. The modifications strengthened the eerie essence of the scene by increasing the psychological tension during the movie.

Through the application of CineSpace LUTs in Adobe Premiere I achieved a cinematic and moody look which improved the entire visual experience of the film. A specific LUT allowed me to modify picture contrast together with color grading parameters so the displayed content acquired intensified dramatic characteristics. The application of this effect enabled me to develop a matching dark look suitable for the unsettling story mood without compromising consistency between different sequences.

The Color workspace of Adobe Premiere allowed me to apply color grading for achieving a cinematic and moody visual effect. The darker and intense mood received enhancement through the combination of reduced saturation and contrast adjustments. The addition of vibrance elements performed dual functions by creating balance between color tones while preserving an uneasy atmosphere. The modifications produced uniformity in visual appearance which strengthened the tension found throughout the movie.

COPYRIGHT LINKS OF AUDIO USED:

I chose non-copyrighted sound effects from many options to boost the movie. The voice effects in combination with natural sounds strengthened the audience’s sense of anticipation throughout the pre-title sequence.

SHOTS I GOT INSPIRED FROM:

Black swan (2010) exists as a psychological thriller which investigates the intersection of obsession with identity issues. I incorporated both close-up footage and wide-angle shots together with dim lighting for the moment when Nina destroys her artwork because I want these elements in my first version to show her emotional breakdown as well as the isolation that follows. The dim lighting will establish a tense mood while the close-ups show her breakdown and wide shots show isolation.

The tension in this sequence of The Butterfly Effect (2004) developed through close ups and wide shots combined with low-angled angles as well as over-the-shoulder angles while the knife symbolized the main character's psychological distress conflict. These identical camera angles will appear in my preliminary work to show the character's psychological collapse while using the knife to represent the main character's deteriorating mental stability. The knife will receive special framing treatment to enhance its importance as a symbol while making psychological tension reach its peak.