You must edit a production made in connection with another film or video production unit. You must apply editing techniques to a technical quality that reflects near-professional standards, showing creativity and flair and working independently to professional expectations.
Opening Sequence - 'Marked'
I created my opening sequence for an original television series using Adobe Premiere Pro using my previous knowledge from Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Audition. I took my understanding of colour correction and grading, framing and composition from Photoshop and applied it to the creation of my opening sequence.
I started off by organising all my RAW footage, and in order to do so, I watched all RAW clips in one sitting, making note of all useful takes. I used the built-in labelling system on my Mac computer to label my footage with red, grey and orange in order to identify clips as very important (red), can possibly be used as a filler or B-roll (orange), or extra spontaneous footage taken during production. Once I had categorised all my clips, I sorted them into folders based on the day of shooting as filming took place over a course of a few days. I then imported these sorted files and folders into Premiere and set up my workspace by dragging and changing the sizes of surrounding panels, until it suited me: with the effects panel on the right, the timeline below the preview of my project and the media browser next to the timeline and below the Effects Controls panel. Although I frequently detached the media browser panel to change its position when choosing which clips to place when on my timeline. This method allowed me more creative fluidity. Since I had prior experience using the editing program, I was able to work with more ease and swiftness. If I had any questions or troubles during the process I simply went online to learn through video tutorials on YouTube or CreativeLive.com. Throughout, my editing was guided by my storyboards and script, and since my video had been filmed out of order, these plans gave me a good foundation and layout to start off with.
I downloaded the Netflix logo and imported it into my project in order to create a sense of realism. I furthered this approach by placing the title “A Netflix Orginal Series”. This caption is a common convention of original film and TV shows on Netflix. I used a gaussian blur effect over the title treatment at the start in order to connote the nature of the television program: the blurred details of Jack Overton’s death become clear and come to light as secrets are revealed. The startling change of the title from red to white with the sound of a shattering mirror was used to foreshadow and suggest that the real truth will come out into the open, thus setting the tone for my crime/drama series. I conventionally placed the opening credits after the title treatment in white and I had to place it quite strategically so that the words would not easily blend in with the background.
I started off by organising all my RAW footage, and in order to do so, I watched all RAW clips in one sitting, making note of all useful takes. I used the built-in labelling system on my Mac computer to label my footage with red, grey and orange in order to identify clips as very important (red), can possibly be used as a filler or B-roll (orange), or extra spontaneous footage taken during production. Once I had categorised all my clips, I sorted them into folders based on the day of shooting as filming took place over a course of a few days. I then imported these sorted files and folders into Premiere and set up my workspace by dragging and changing the sizes of surrounding panels, until it suited me: with the effects panel on the right, the timeline below the preview of my project and the media browser next to the timeline and below the Effects Controls panel. Although I frequently detached the media browser panel to change its position when choosing which clips to place when on my timeline. This method allowed me more creative fluidity. Since I had prior experience using the editing program, I was able to work with more ease and swiftness. If I had any questions or troubles during the process I simply went online to learn through video tutorials on YouTube or CreativeLive.com. Throughout, my editing was guided by my storyboards and script, and since my video had been filmed out of order, these plans gave me a good foundation and layout to start off with.
I downloaded the Netflix logo and imported it into my project in order to create a sense of realism. I furthered this approach by placing the title “A Netflix Orginal Series”. This caption is a common convention of original film and TV shows on Netflix. I used a gaussian blur effect over the title treatment at the start in order to connote the nature of the television program: the blurred details of Jack Overton’s death become clear and come to light as secrets are revealed. The startling change of the title from red to white with the sound of a shattering mirror was used to foreshadow and suggest that the real truth will come out into the open, thus setting the tone for my crime/drama series. I conventionally placed the opening credits after the title treatment in white and I had to place it quite strategically so that the words would not easily blend in with the background.
I made use of J-cuts and match cuts to create a montage out of a small collection of clips filmed using my iPhone to give the impression that these memories were genuine and not staged, that they were true moments of unfiltered and unadulterated happiness; this also helped me introduce the characters: Cynthia and Jack. I juxtaposed these clips against a sad musical score that gave the video scene a nostalgic and melancholic tone, suggesting the possibility of tragedy, loss and grief, and finding joy and happiness in memories of the past. This conflict foreshadows the protagonist’s inner turmoil, which as we find out later, may or may not have something to do with her friend’s death, which might not have been an accident. This raises enigma codes that would carry most of the tension for the entirety of the show, until the climax. Towards the end of this montage, I used an L-cut and used a reverb effect on Cynthia’s laugh, which also coincidentally sounded like a gasp. By adding a reverb effect to the last small section of the audio her laugh seemingly got turned into a gasp of pain or horror. This transformative contrast successfully helped to create the mood and atmosphere for the rest of the scene. I used several different elements in my storytelling by placing a photo of Jack, alongside clips of Cynthia looking at emails with the subject lines “Funeral Arrangements” and “Therapists in Muscat”, indicating their connection with one another and implying Jack’s death. However, there still remains a sort of ambiguity about his character, which is later resolved further when Cynthia says to him “I didn’t want you to die”. The character’s silence throughout this opening sequence implies his silence in death. During the scene in which Cynthia turns on her bedside lamp and, I used the Lumetri Colour Effect to colour correct and grade the mid shot. I decreased the blacks and white in order to create a sharper contrast and the overwhelming expressionistic yellow to connote the character's declining mental health.
When the lead character gets a message on her phone, I faded in a high-pitched ringing noise that helped create a sense of discomfort and disorientation, mimicking the emotions of the protagonist. This was followed by a jump cut to black that broke the tension, yet still kept this recent discovery fresh in the audience’s mind. I layered the diegetic dialogue of Cynthia refusing to eat the food with the non-diegetic music in order to enhance the emotions in the character’s voice. During the scene where Cynthia is shown walking on a road looking lost in her thoughts, I layered the same clip upon multiple copies of itself and pushed each one back by a couple of seconds so that they would all be out of synch with one another. Then I lowered their opacity and made some adjustments to make sure of the disjointed feeling in the sequence, and to create the impression that the protagonist was out of sync with herself and feeling isolated and lost.
When the lead character gets a message on her phone, I faded in a high-pitched ringing noise that helped create a sense of discomfort and disorientation, mimicking the emotions of the protagonist. This was followed by a jump cut to black that broke the tension, yet still kept this recent discovery fresh in the audience’s mind. I layered the diegetic dialogue of Cynthia refusing to eat the food with the non-diegetic music in order to enhance the emotions in the character’s voice. During the scene where Cynthia is shown walking on a road looking lost in her thoughts, I layered the same clip upon multiple copies of itself and pushed each one back by a couple of seconds so that they would all be out of synch with one another. Then I lowered their opacity and made some adjustments to make sure of the disjointed feeling in the sequence, and to create the impression that the protagonist was out of sync with herself and feeling isolated and lost.
I used the sound of birds chirping as a motif for Jack’s voice. Since his character has died, he has become one with the natural world as his body has decayed and become part of the Earth. Therefore he chooses to communicate with Cynthia through the natural world, and this introduces a supernatural element to the scene and the series, as it seems that only she can hear and see his ghost. Although it isn’t clear yet if this is truly a supernatural occurrence or if it is simply the protagonist’s coping mechanism to deal with the trauma of losing a friend. Thus, when someone interrupts Cynthia’s monologue, the chirping birds sound disappears and is replaced yet again by the metallic ringing that indicates discomfort and danger. In the last short sequence, the audience sees that Jack is haunting Cynthia as the long mid-shot of her studying alone cuts to a mid close up of her looking to her left, cuts to what she is looking at, which is nothing in particular. However, when the camera cuts back to her mid-closeup and then to the long-mid shot, we clearly see Jack sitting next to her. Their eye contact creates tension and foreshadows conflict and implies intimidating confrontation which is a common convention of crime/drama series.