Getting that thriller mood through editing

I feel the editing is incredibly important when trying to get across the thriller vibe, Without the vital colour correction and saturation adjust the thriller just wouldn’t look or feel the same.

What I do to create the perfect video effects:

1. Add colour correction, in the case of a thriller I usually dull the colours down to try and give a colder appearance to the video
2. Next I adjust the saturation of the video, this is where you loose most of your colours and if you get it right the image wont quite be black and white, but just loose enough colours to give that perfect thriller feeling.
3. Then I add colour curves, this basically adds shadows and emphasises the strongest black lines on the screen. Generally it gives it a much more subtle feel.

With these 3 effects added the video is immediately going to look more like a thriller.

Video example:



(Please watch in high quality - Click the button on the bottom right of the video then it offers HQ there)

Adding a few more effects like well timed blurs really give the video that cutting edge but one very important factor is the sounds, if you get the sounds right it can pretty much make a movie. “Always edit to the sound” is what I stick by, it really makes a difference.