Thriller Opening Sequence Test: Editing

Once we finished shooting the various scenes for our test-thriller, I imported all the clips into iMovie to start editing. I started out just by editing the reality scene, set in the school, like a normal shot by shot sequence with good continuity throughout. Then I muted all the audio for each shot as we weren't using a proper shotgun mic and there was background noise from around school. Once I had finished off the reality bedroom sequence, I moved on to adding in the small flashes of the burial sequence, while adding the negative colour effect...

During this process, I matched up the frames so that the body was the same size , and they were at the same point of a step for each clip. This increased the professional look of the editing while making the flickers cleaner so that the audience wouldn't be distracted by the change of scene, but only by the fact that he is suddenly carrying a dead body in the woods. (Note: Each flash was 0.2 seconds, as this was the shortest that iMovie would allow you to trim down to.)
When I got to the final dance sequence, I just did a long "zoom" transition into the woods version instead of doing an increasing amount of flashes. I then just played the clip of the dancing feet for 10 seconds and then added a fade to black. I then added the title, "MUD", in big jagged font.

When it came to editing the music/soundFX, I used my music production software called Logic X Pro. Here a synthesised an echoed, ambient pad, adding multiple different effects to give slight variation in the noise. This continued playing from the beginning. I added the echoed dirty noise sound for each quick flash using another synthesiser, with added reverb/FX/etc. And finally, I imported the song, "September". I Equalised the song at the beginning so that it sounded tinny and small, replicating the music coming from the headphones, and then I gradually took away that EQ to reveal the louder, full quality version, for the audience to hear.
The main negative of this shoot was that we didn't have enough time (or all the required props/cast/etc.) to include every "Switch" shot that the scenes flicker too - for example, the switch between scooping serial with a spoon and digging up earth.

If you struggled to understand everything I just attempted to explain, just see for yourself...

YouTube here...