I (almost) literally hate ImageSpaceModifiers, because I can never get them to do what I want :/

I spent the better part of an hour yesterday messing with one, and I just cannot seem to get it to work the way I 'need' it to for my Mod. What I basically want to do is have three ISM--

1) One that gradually turns the screen grey over say 3-4 seconds;

2) One that then turns the grey screen to a nice, crisp black (the same black you get when the Titles come up on a new game)

3) One that then gradually turns the whole screen a shade of red.

Things aren't working out...

I ended up with the screen going instantly grey, and then instantly to a dull, grey-black with lines over it; I've tried using animated and unanimated, multiple ISM and Scripts, and nothing I'm doing is working the way I want it to. The closest I've come is one that ended up turning the whole screen bright-white...

Can anyone help me out about what settings I need to change to make each shader work the way I want?