International Masterclass 2024

The Pleasure in Fear – Editing Thrillers

© Lilas-Mae Njoo

Simon Njoo

Tutor Masterclass 2024

Simon Njoo has received numerous awards and nominations for his editing of successful and critically acclaimed films such as The Babadook, The Nightingale and The Stranger, including the prestigious Australian Screen Editors Accreditation in recognition of excellence in screen editing and outstanding contribution to Australian screen culture in 2019. He began his film editing career in France in 1995, where he spent 12 years learning the craft as an assistant to some of France's most distinguished editors, working on independent films d'auteur, studio films and documentaries. Since returning to Australia in 2005, Simon concentrates on pursuing film projects that challenge the conventional and explore film language in surprising and engaging ways.

The Pleasure in Fear – Editing Thrillers

The ability to create tension is key to the success of an edit. Reveal too much and the audience is ahead of the film. Reveal too little and we are left struggling to understand what’s going on. Finding the balance between clarity and opacity is at the heart of every successful thriller.

Rather than being a ‘genre editing’ workshop, the Masterclass will examine how to concentrate a film around the psychological dimension of the story, in order to better allow the edit to expand into a multilayered description of a character’s psychology.

Using scenes from Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and The Nightingale, Simon NJOO will examine editorial ideas around suspense, fear and repulsion in order to give a sense of pleasure to the audience – one that has a psychological resonance that ultimately delivers a meaningful cinema experience.

The second part of the workshop will see participants given access to a shooting script and rushes from Thomas Wright’s The Stranger: a film about violence where no violence is depicted, which presented particular editorial challenges in the creation of meaningful tension in the film. Participants will be given the opportunity to work closely with Simon to bring their own understanding of “Fear” and “The Pleasure in Fear” to these scenes and to deepen the discussion around their own work.

Friday, 11.10.2024
10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
location: ifs internationale filmschule köln
Schanzenstraße 28
51063 Köln

Prices
regular 270 €
reduced 230 €

The participation fee is reduced for members of our cooperation partners: BFS, aea, sffv, bvft, Filmbüro NW, VeDRA, AG Dok, LaDoc, Dokomotive, WIFT, as well as participants of the IFEF.

Registration

To register, please download this form, fill it out digitally and send it as an email attachment to akademie@edimotion.de. After the binding registration you will receive a confirmation email with the payment details.

By sending the registration you accept our cancellation conditions:

For cancellations 2 weeks or more before the event we charge 50%, for cancellations 1 week or more before the event we charge 80%. Cancellation prior to this is free of charge, but a handling fee of 20 € will be charged.