Providing and Withholding Information

Providing and withholding information is a very important strategy used by the editor to keep the viewer engaged. It is a very good effect in genres such as horror and thriller, where what an audience knows or doesn’t know about what is happening in the physical space that the action is situated in is of crucial importance to their emotional response. Information is provided by the employment of cutaways or cut-ins or withheld by the absence of these shots.

Example:
The editor of a horror scene where a character is being hunted by an attacker may elect to use footage shot from the former’s point of view. In the right setting, enormous amount of tension can be built by an audience seeing the events occurring unfolding through the eyes of the character.



 

This is a clip from The Woman in Black. This short clip is withholding information as the protagonist is looking outside the window he sees a mysterious figure, and the information being withheld is that you cannot see the figure's face. This is mainly done because of the shot and angle being used, it is too far away to even get a facial outline of figure with is very important within this clip. On top of that the weather and lighting is a huge factor within this clip because again it is too dark to make out the face of the figure and also that the rainy weather makes it difficult to make him/she out.