Rocky Horror Edit

Students at Staffordshire University were asked to create a 4 minute edit of a feature film. For this module the student began by deciding to do Black Swan but felt that it wasn't working. There were issues with reflecting the entire storyline as it has the same story duplicated throughout the film. The editor then attempted to edit Frozen but felt that they felt that they were unsure of the storyline as the film was quite new and so they chose a film they were familiar with which was The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

The main narrative of the story is that engaged couple Brad and Janet are going to tell Dr Scott that they are to be married, on their way their car breaks down near an old castle. They go in to use a phone but they go on a strange adventure. Meeting Dr Frankfurter who is on a mission to make his own man, Columbia in love with one of the first men that Frankfurter experimented on, Magenta and Riff Raff siblings who with Dr Frankfurter are from a different planet and came here to clone and make a better human race. Dr Scott, Brad and Janet's friend is a scientist in the field of UFOs after he sees what is happening Riff Raff and Magenta kill Dr Frankfurter and Rocky, his human creation. 

Here is the first edit by the editor which was then improved by doing the following;

• Cut out the part in the time warp where Columbi explains how she met Eddie.
• Cut out parts of the song "Touch me" and shorten.
• Adding in the car breaking down with narrative of what is happening.
• Adding in the line by Riff Raff explaining they are aliens. 

There are a few errors within the edit these are as follows;

• When the editor started working on the titles they wanted the word to move like blood and dribble down the screen but the effect looked to cheesy, the editor then tried to put a displacement map over the mouth but this didn't work so this effect was used as it can move with the time and it has the sense of liquid moving in it. 
• Throughout the film there is a lot of use of cheesy transitions, in the feature film it uses this and it is there to add the cheese factor to the film. This was the first stage play for the LGBT community and they tried to bring that feeling into the film, the editor tried to encompass that through the transitions.
• In the beginning of the film the transitions are quite fast paced and some of the sound is very loud in comparison to some quite quiet audio to improve the editor should have ensured to check the sound levels out through speakers before uploading it.
• The use of the narrator aided the editor in being able to use his voice over to cover the action and move the plot along quickly. The editor also used split screen to cover to scenes at once where you see Brad and Janet enter their separate rooms and then be enticed by Dr Frankfurter in drag.  

Overall the film feels much more whole and understandable with these edits and it makes the film feel more fun to watch. Using techniques like cutting in motion, the kuleshov effect it has enhanced the film and taught the student how editing techniques can make a film better for the audience to watch and a more pleasureable piece.

This was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.