Read My Thoughts: Finishing Touches

In this blog, I will be explaining the process of finishing the editing portion of my project and going through the issues and final details that have to be fixed. This blog will most likely be covering a smaller range of things since the main thing I have left is adding the credits and the title to my opening scene.

Planning:

The main thing I had to do today was the credits and the title. In the last blog I posted yesterday, I explained at the end that I had been trying to do some credits so I could get a feel of my editing software's Text format. So, although what I did yesterday wasn't a final draft at all, it definitely helped me reduce my time editing and getting comfortable with my software.

The first thing I thought of while trying to create my credits and title was where I wanted to put them. I do recall mentioning in earlier blogs that I was thinking of putting it in the running sequence, however today, I changed that idea.

I decided that the credits would look better and more appropriate if they went on the second half of the project instead. But before I chose where I wanted to put them, I still had to decide how the credits and title would look and how I would make them. Since I can't do two things at once, I thought starting on the credits would be an easier way to feel more comfortable with Adobe Premiere instead of starting with the title.

Font:

Before starting to mess around with any of the settings, I knew that the first thing I had to do was choose the font I wanted the credits to be in. Since Adobe Premiere has a big variety of fonts, I ended up having to scroll through all of them or almost all the fonts to make sure I had selected the font that fits the best with my story and plot.

Although I didn't have a specific font in mind, I did know I wanted one that stood out and felt strong, so after searching for a long while, I came across one font that caught my attention. It was named "Poor Richard" and after trying it out on my credits, I knew it was the perfect font - fitting exactly what I wanted and my criteria.

Although this font wasn't scary, or creepy, and didn't give any horror feeling to the film, I thought that the font fit exactly what I was looking for in strength. Basically meaning that the font was portraying an intense and strong feeling I was trying to reach.

Final Text Editing:

So, after making sure this font was the one I wanted, I went back through the text editing settings and changed some of the other settings to further accommodate the intensity. One of the things I did include making the text all uppercase through the "TT" button shown in the above picture to give the credits a bolder and more significant feeling.

The picture below shows an example of a credit after finishing editing it.

Once I had finished changing the font and settings of the text, I made sure to add all of the credits before changing where they are located or anything else. After adding all the credits I needed, the next step was to choose where I wanted to put them in my opening scene. For this, I not only had to make sure they fit correctly and were shown for a good amount of time, but I also had to make sure they weren't too big or blocking anything important that is on the screen.

After finishing placing all the credits in appropriate places, I still had to figure out a way to make them flow better with each other. I ended up putting a video transition called cross dissolve at the beginning and end of every credit clip to make them glide smoother in and out.

Title:

I kept in mind that I also had to do the title, so I went back to the fonts and scrolled more to find a good one for my title. After a while, I found a font called "Pristina". To be completely honest, I didn't love the font that much, however, none of the fonts really matched what I was going for, and "Pristina" was one of the closest to what I actually wanted.

I thought it would be cool also if I made the title red to represent blood and gory even though the credits are white. I also thought the red could pop out and separate the title and the credits through color.

After changing the color, making it uppercase, finalizing my title name, adding everything else it needed, and finding a spot and size for the title, I thought I finally finished. Keep in mind that I may do some last-minute changes next week and alter how the title looks, but for now, the title is staying the same.

Last Minute Sound:

I watched my whole opening scene before calling it a day, however as I was doing that, I felt like it was very stopped at the end and wasn't leading into anything. So, I decided that even though I was basically done by this point, I would go back and film one last bit - a phone call.

I thought that adding a phone ringing at the end with the visuals being a phone being called by an unknown called would be secretive and make the audience wonder who it could be and if they know anything. I also thought this would be a nice way to end my opening scene.