Major Project: Edit 001

The last two days I've been working the first 'edit' of my film. I didn't feel like I could keep calling it a pre-vis since it has all of my final footage in it. In this initial edit, I experimented using glitch effects as transitions, although at the moment they do not have sound effects to accompany them so they may not feel as integrated as they will further down the line. I also tried to keep in some other transitions (ex. dip to white on the rare occasion or a straight cut where there is a light flicker) so it wasn't all the same and I alternated what type of glitch effect I used to transition so it wasn't repetitive. Here are some things I've noticed immediately that I want to change or things I'm wondering/want to be cautious of:

• Overusing the 'glitch' effect - I try to use the effect only when transitioning between CGI and live action as well as occasionally during a very negative entity. I want to be careful I'm not overusing the effect therefore weakening its impact. Or, I also don't want to use it too little where it doesn't feel like it 'fits' in the film.
• Re-compositing of shots is needed. I want to go back and strip out certain effects such as the vignetting and film grain so I can overlay that on top of the entire edit rather than individual shots. I noticed that during some transitions the dark vignette ring appears and it looks odd. I also hope doing this will help glue the shots together and will also allow me to animate the vignetting during the VFX stage if I want to bring attention to something (ex. focus on the bubbles and not the background) while keeping it all unified. I think this also will help merge the live-action into the rest of the film. I also want to make the overall colour correction more uniform throughout. 
• Some room/flicker shots I want to move around. For example, I think I may move a shot where the light is flaring to where my grandfather's footage comes in so it feels less aggressive and to add more variation too that part of the film. 
• I tried to keep a 'dip to white' effect as transitions for certain shots such as when I see hospitals I feel dead. Would effects such as RGB splitting be effective here?
• I'm rendering out an additional shot that focuses on the bricks to give some more variation as well as a few extra frames of the gem shot so I have a few more seconds of the gem once it has spiked out if I decide it would be useful.
• I may remove the VR digital glitch effect from the footage I use during when I think of my family I feel longing and I may have that glitch effect disappear from the first shot I use around when I think of happiness I see autumn leaves to show that those are positive feelings.
• Some live-action shots still need some more re-filming work to make them feel more 3D. 

I'm sure there are other things I want to change but I cannot remember off the top of my head what I wrote down in my notebook yesterday during editing. While I'd love to add some more shots to space certain parts of my film out more, I'm trying to not increase the duration of my film too much until I know what the music will be like and where/if I can extend the music.

This still requires a lot of work and changes, but I feel more comfortable with where this is going seeing how I can integrate the live-action into the CGI space. Also after this test I'm excited to see how the sound effects will further embed the glitch transitioning effects and bring the entities to life, although I do think I may reserve the removal of other audio/music effect for just the gem to indicate it's importance and sinister character.