Entry #14: Endless Editing

Mood: Swamped

Wow, there is only one week left until the deadline for this project. I've got to admit, that prospect is a little scary because I want our film opening to properly reflect our skills, so Srish and I have been working diligently to ensure that the scenes are cut smoothly and that the sound is well-adjusted. As I've touched upon in previous blog posts, the main issue with sound has been adjusting the ambient sounds within each clip. Some clips have the sound of an airplane flying overhead while some don't, so we've had to lower the sound level in order to make smoother, more natural cuts (which ultimately is the objective).

Oh, and I almost forgot to blog about it, but our credits sequence is complete! Since opening credits are a common convention in a drama/mystery films, we knew that credits had to be included somewhere. I've never had to create credits for anything before, so I referred to this video again for tips on the process. Because I felt extremely limited while working with iMovie's credit options, I decided to use Keynote. For example, the titles in iMovie could not be moved from their fixed positions, and one text box could not contain multiple fonts. On Keynote, I had a variety of options at my disposal.

To create the sequence, I added several slides, each with a neon green background; this was so that the credits could be inputted directly onto the scenes of our film using the green screen/blue screen option offered by iMovie. It took some time to create the sequence because I had to figure out a good length for each credit, how long the sequence should last, and where I wanted to put them; eventually, I found what worked by playing with the timing and placing the credits in different segments.

As of now, each credit shows on the screen for about 3 seconds. Instead of using a bunch of fancy transitions, we decided that it would be best that our credits were simple, yet bold, popping up on the screen and abruptly disappearing afterwards. To make the credits stand out, I made the title (i.e. production company, "Starring," etc.) a dark red and the names a contrasting white, which I think looks good.

Gabrielle Marie. “Drifting Text Effect iMovie.” Online video clip. YouTube, 30 Dec. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.