Editing Production- Putting the Clips Together & Working On Logos

Introduction

Hello everyone, it’s me, Sherjil. Now that we have finished our film opening reshoots and are happy with the results, we are moving on to editing all of our clips together. For our editing software, we decided to use iMovie. We chose iMovie because I am already familiar with it, and it is much easier to use while still allowing us to edit our film in a professional way, similar to software like Adobe Premiere Pro.

Organizing the Clips

For today’s editing session, I started a new project draft and placed all of our clips in chronological order. We wanted to make sure every scene was organized properly before making any major edits.

Once the scenes were in order, I began working on the logo for the film opening. From my research, I learned that many film openings begin with logos that introduce the distributors, so I wanted to include that in our own project. I also looked at how these logos are usually presented so I could make ours feel more realistic and professional.

Creating the First Logo

In today’s blog, I am going to discuss how I created the logos and what effects I used to build suspense for our horror opening. First, I added a background using one of the many templates available in iMovie. There were different options, such as solid colors, gradients, and patterns. I decided to use a pattern background because I wanted it to look more creative and fit the overall theme of the film. The pattern I chose had a white background with red stripes, which stood out well and matched the horror-thriller style we are aiming for.

After adding the background, I changed the color effect to “Silent Era,” which is one of the editing features in iMovie. I found this feature by clicking the color settings in the bottom right corner. I chose this effect because I wanted the logo to immediately give the audience a sense that the film is going to be dark, suspenseful, and unsettling. This helps set the tone early and prepares the audience for what is coming next.

Designing the Text

For the text, I made the title say “RRG Presents.” The letters stand for Red Room Group. We created this logo to represent a production company that is known for making films that are creepy, cinematic, and unsettling. This helps give the audience a sense of credibility and makes it seem like the film was created by a team that understands the horror-thriller genre.

After that, I used the “Focus” transition on the text so it would blend in smoothly with the background. As the words were typed out, they slowly faded onto the screen, which made the logo look more professional and added to the suspense.

For the text itself, I changed the color settings to make it more visible. I adjusted the grid to a light red shade and changed the spectrum so the words would stand out clearly. Then, I used the sliders to strengthen the color values. I increased the red level to the maximum, 255, and adjusted the green to 83 and the blue to 40 so the text would have a strong red appearance. This helped improve the visibility while also fitting the horror theme. 

Lastly, I changed the font to Chalkduster because it gave the text a darker, more threatening feel. Its rough and uneven style made the logo look eerie, which fit the horror tone of our film opening better.

Here are the final results for this logo:

Creating the Second Logo

For the second logo, I used a video effect that I found on YouTube. I wanted the background to have a real VHS-style distortion effect. I used this for the “Surge Productions” logo. I came up with this idea because during my observation of Five Nights at Freddy’s, I noticed that one of their logos used distorted VHS visuals and sound effects to make the opening feel more intense and unsettling. I wanted to create a similar effect in my own film opening so the audience would immediately feel prepared for the horror atmosphere. This adds more tension and creates a stronger beginning for the movie.

 VHR Logo that was utilized for the opening: 

For the effects, I made the title open using a split transition and applied a red font color so it would match the distorted VHS clip. This made the logo fit the horror style more effectively and helped it blend well with the unsettling visual effect.

Here are the results of the second logo:

Conclusion

Although this may not seem like a lot of progress for editing the full film opening, it was still a great first step. In this stage, I was able to apply my knowledge and create the logos for the beginning of the film. I wanted to take a more creative approach by adding a title sequence instead of abruptly starting the opening with a black screen. This makes the introduction more interesting and builds suspense while also creating a smoother transition into the film itself. I am glad that learning from my research where I studied the color theory and the film opening, I was able to apply these techniques in my own opening. I guess research really does give you inspiration on how these horror films come to light.

For now, this is all the progress we have made. We also combined the clips together, which helped me understand which scene will be edited first and for what purpose. Until next time, I will discuss more of what will be developed during the editing process.

See you guys in the next post!