Using Text, Titles and Graphics

Effects Comments (3)

So you’ve become familiar with your non-linear editor.  You’ve got a good grasp of how to get material into bins, loaded video into your preview/viewer monitor and got things down to the timeline.  You’ve learned how to trim your audio and video.  You’ve learned how to blend your audio.  You’ve added a few dissolves here and there.  Now what wipes?  No.  While wipes have there place in storytelling they are not as important nor will you use them as much as text and graphics.

Both Avid and Final Cut have fine basic text generators that allow you to do some pretty cool and simple text work.  I’m not talking about the Marquee tool in Avid or LiveType in Final Cut.  I’m just talking about the basic text tool that comes with the programs.  I think it’s important to learn these tools first.  Most of the time if you use these tools if you try and make it look to slick, it ends up looking cheesy.  So keep it simple.  Just get your information across.  Remember it’s about storytelling.  Corporate, Documentary, News, try to add text only if it helps the story and ultimately helps the viewer.

Investigative stories are a good example of stories that often use text and graphics to help tell a story.  Often in investigative stories you don’t have well composed pictures because the team is undercover.  You also don’t have a lot of natural sound to play with either.  This is story lacking both of those key storytelling ingredients

The story were are going to use for this post is Hi Sheriff! on my YouTube page It’s an investigative about a sheriff’s misuse of prisoners.  Time is going to be a factor in this story.  So you’ll notice me telling the viewer what time it is relative to the video.

The first time I use text is at [:14]

I put the time up in the top left corner.  How did I achieve this effect.  I put the time on two layers. I did this in Avid but you can replicate it using Outline Text on the 2nd layer in Final Cut.  Then I just made the text bigger and slowly dropped the opacity.  The reason I did the outline text is simply I wanted something to grab the viewer’s attention to they see the time.

The next time I use text there’s a lot more going on.  The mugshot and the stack of arrest records were created in photoshop then imported into my non-linear editor.  They are at an angle.  With a story like this everything is very flat.  I’m going to create depth whenever I can.  Once your files are in you can use 3D PIP in Avid or basic 3D in Final Cut to make the paperwork look 3D.

I’m keeping it simple for the most part.

Notice also the text I’ve generated is moving slightly.  As well as the arrest records and mugshot.  I’m a big fan of movement in stories.  So even if it’s just still I like to put a little motion on it.  I also pull out the arrest record slightly to imply they are coming from those papers, which they are.

Also notice in the upper left is a cutout of the prisoner.  This was also done in photoshop.

You see a cutout of a prisoner more prominently in this shot.  See him in the middle of the screen?  This was also accomplished in Photoshop.  It’s very easy to do this with little training.

I do the same thing here again.  Bringing mugshot and arrest record.  Notice you also see Thaddeus in the background.

So, just in this simple graphic I have 8 layers of video.

1. The shot of the 3 prisoners all blurred

2. a cutout of the prisoner the reporter is discussing

3. The Mugshot

4. The text of the prisoner’s name

5. Layer of arrest record

6. Layer of arrest record

7. Layer of arrest record

8. Text highlighting convictions

In all three of those the position of the mugshot and arrest record is simply so you can see the cutout of the prisoner in the background.

I use time again here.  Same idea as before.  Keeping it simple.

I didn’t create this graphic.  Graphic department did.

I did create this graphic.  Again time is part of our story.  I do a simple stretch of the titles (very easy to do in Avid and Final Cut).  The times comes in the same way as I’ve been doing the whole rest of the package.  I blur the left side of the screen.  Why?  Prisoners are on the right side of the screen and the left side is a good place to put the text.

Exact same thing here.  The SUV is of interest and nothing else.  I blur the right side of the screen and use that as a base for the text.

One last thing I want to talk about in this blog.  I created this wipe as a transition. Why?  I’m not a big fan of the stock wipes in any NLE.  So I decided to create my own.

Thanks for reading.

shawnmontano @ February 27, 2010