CHAPTER 44

TITLES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TITLES

Although every film acquires a working title, its final title is often plucked late from an agony of indecision because it must be short, special, and epitomize the final version's identity. Remember that your film's title may be the only advertising copy your audience ever sees, so it should be informative and alluring. TV listings and festival programs rarely have space to describe their offerings, so the title you choose may be your sole means of drawing a potential audience.

Titles, especially when film rather than video is involved, are a minefield of trouble. Here's a short guide to avoid blowing yourself up.

Style: Form follows function. Emulate by finding models among films of a length and budget commensurate with your own film and see which approach to titling you like. There are plenty of examples available on TV or for rent in the video store. Some of the most artistically ambitious films use brief and classically simple white-on-black titles. You could do a lot worse.

Over-laden titles: A sure sign of amateurism is a film loaded with an egocentric welter of credits. The same name should not crop up in multiple key capacities, and acknowledgments should be kept eloquently brief. An actor unknown to the general public should never be introduced with “Starring Sherry Mudge.”

Contractual or other obligations: If you have used union actors, they have assuredly come with contractual specifications that may affect the size and wording of title credits. Obey these scrupulously or live to regret you were ever born. Because many favors are granted filmmakers in return for an acknowledgment in the titles, be sure you honor your debts to the letter. Funding or college degrees also may have a contractual obligation that you acknowledge them in prescribed wording, so this and all such agreements should be carefully checked and double-checked before titles are locked down.

Font, layout, and size: Choose a font for clarity and size, and avoid small lettering. Anything too small or too fancy disappears on the television screen, where so much work is first seen. When spacing adhesive letters, note that some letters can be put close to each other, while others need some space for the word to look balanced. There are plenty of manuals to help you.

Spelling: Spelling in titles and subtitles should be checked scrupulously by at least two highly literate and eagle-eyed checkers. The spelling of people's names should receive special care because a misspelling indicates for all time that you care too little about them or their work to give their correct names.

Title lengths: Decide the right duration for a title to remain onscreen by reading the contents of each card (which represents one screen of titling) one and a half times, out loud. If you are shooting titles for film, be sure to shoot at least three times as much as you need. This allows for a title to be extended if needed. Crawl titles, if long, are run fast, or TV just chops them off.

Titles for film: If your film is to compete in festivals, reserve some of the budget to shoot the best titles you can afford because professional-looking titles signal a high-quality film. Here is the procedure:

1. Make up title cards ready for shooting. You will need to get adhesive letters and lay them out scrupulously on black card. This must be done meticulously because even small inequities of proportion and straightness show up badly and make titles look amateurish.
2. Title cards are best shot on an animation stand with a known field of view.
3. If you shoot your titles using a regular camera:

   a. First, do a viewfinder field test using a grid to check that what you see is what you are putting on film. If titles come up misaligned, suspect your camera's viewfinder. Judging alignment through a film viewfinder is hard anyway because the image is so small.

   b. Shoot using high-contrast film or else black won't be true black but gray. Run tests with standard lighting to determine the best exposure. Light titles on black are easy to overexpose, leading to a puzzling loss of definition that gives your lettering an out-of-focus look.

4. A/B roll titling—that is, shooting complete titles on film then fading them in and out before the film begins—is low-cost and very serviceable. However:

   a. If you want lettering conventionally superimposed on an image for background, you can only superimpose black titles on that image if you use a negative-to-positive printing process. This is because black lettering produces white lettering on the negative, which lets through a fully exposing light that prints black on a positive print. Few topics benefit from black titles unless you specialize in graveyard comedy.

   b. If you try to superimpose white titles using the negative-to-positive process, white lettering renders as black in a clear negative. Light then passes all around the titling, burning out the image meant to be the background.

   c. For white titles on a moving background, the printing elements must first be converted into positive form, then contact printed to a new negative, which is then cut into the appropriate place in the film printing negative.

   d. If you are making composite prints (one shot superimposed on another) be aware that registration in 16 mm is none too steady, and expect some jiggle between lettering and background. Do a camera steady test first (shoot a grid, rewind the film, move the camera slightly and shoot the grid again, then process and project to see how much movement is apparent between the two passes).

   e. Colored or fancy titles probably have to be shot using an optical printer. First-rate opticals are done in 35 mm, at astronomical cost.

For elaborate film titling, you will have to talk with the customer representative at one of the few surviving film labs to see who specializes in making up and shooting titles. They may use either the traditional, optical-printer process or one that is computer-generated. Because the bulk of such work is for feature films, check prices very carefully, preferably when sitting down in case you faint. If you go ahead, meet with the person who will be making them and get all prices and everything else you discuss in writing. Be sure that any further charges for reshooting are fully defined.

Never leave film titles until late in the process and assume that all will be right on the night. They are tricky to get right, especially if you are at all ambitious and want fancy effects. Titles, like troubles, are sent to try us, so give yourself plenty of time in case you must reshoot.

Titles for video: Most editing software comes with excellent titling capability that includes a large array of typefaces, drop shadow, movement, crawl, and other exotic behaviors. Resist the temptation to exult in your new freedom; keep titling classically simple—unless, of course, your film's topic and treatment call for something more. The blessing with video is that you see immediately what you are getting and can make changes until everything looks right. Superimposed lettering, whether colored or white, is more legible with a black outline.

SUBTITLES

Often when you submit your film to a foreign competition, the festival asks for a subtitled print in a particular language. This is now easy (if time-consuming) to do using video. Here are some guidelines:

1. Pick a clear typeface in yellow with black edging. You want your subtitles to be visible no matter how light or dark the background. Use a size of font that can easily be read on a TV screen and place subtitles well into the TV safe area, so nothing gets lost on a poorly adjusted set.
2. Make an abbreviated transcription of dialogue that you want to appear as a subtitle. You don't want the audience to be too busy reading to see your film, so abbreviate words to absolute essentials.
3. Get the text translated by a literate, native speaker (not that friend who took several Spanish classes) and have it typed up with all the appropriate accents.
4. Make video subtitles using yellow lettering with black edging superimposed, and place them in the lower part of frame. Many TV sets cut off the sides of the image, so do not place your titles too low. The software may already indicate the TV safe area, as do many film camera viewfinders.
5. Place every sentence within a continuous shot because we read the title all over again if it hangs over the following cut. This is very irritating and unnecessary.
6. Break any long sentences into short sections, indicating anything that is run-on with triple periods (…) as in this example, spread out over four shots:

Copyright: At the very end of the titles, remember to include your name and the © symbol, with the year as a claim to the copyright of the material. To file for copyright in the United States, write to the Registrar of Copyrights, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20450, and ask for current information on copyrighting. If you reside in another country, be sure to check the correct copyright procedure with professionals. If and when you come to sell your film, any legal omissions can be costly or even paralyzing.

Once your film is completed, you can enter it in festivals. To give yourself the best chance, you will need to prepare a publicity package to help you market your work. At last you get to experience the ultimate rite of passage: seeing your film in the company of your true masters—a paying audience. This can be a thrilling or a chastening experience. Whichever comes your way, it's the final reckoning and represents closure for the filmmaker.

Now, what film will you make next?

CHECKLIST FOR PART 7: POSTPRODUCTION

The points summarized here are only those most salient from the previous part. Some are commonly overlooked. To find them or anything else relating to post-production, go to the Table of Contents at the beginning of this part.

Editing in General:

• Interesting discrepancies of information drive the audience into an active, problem-solving relationship with the film, instead of the usual passive one.
• Every call you make to their imagination or judgment is an acknowledgment of the audience as equals and an invitation to participate in discovery.
• Are there dramatic advantages to be gained from disrupting the subject's natural advance in time?
• Cross cutting between two stories allows time to be telescoped or stretched and heightens comparison and irony.
• The operative word of dialogue falling on each new shot helps us interpret the image's meaning.
• Changing the juxtaposition of words and shots can imply different meanings.
• It is easier to shorten a film than to pump substance back into one prematurely tightened.
• If an edited version is different from what you expected, see it again before commenting.
• Stay away from the cutting room and preserve your objectivity.

Viewing Dailies:

• Avoid taking your attention away from the screen.
• In the dailies book, note chosen takes, special comments, and any ideas and transient impressions; they will be an important resource later.
• Note moods and feelings evoked by scenes or individuals.
• Nothing outside the dailies is relevant to the film you can make.
• The director should discuss intentions for each sequence with the editor and encourage an early, loose assembly of the whole film.

Preparing to Start Editing:

• Time spent making a consistent, intelligent log is time liberated for creativity later.
• From dailies, mark up script to show actual coverage and number of takes for each angle.

Editing Procedure:

• When cutting film, never forget to put aside three frames minimum between adjacent lengths of film to allow for cement splices in conforming.
• Assemble film workprint sound as one track containing main dramatic elements (dialogue, atmosphere, or music). Later you will split these tracks apart.
• Assemble video tracks, especially dialogue, in checkerboard fashion to allow early premix with equalization.
• Leave spaces in dialogue for featured sound effects.

First Assembly:

• Make first assembly long, loose, and simple using master shots and a minimum of intercutting so you get an early view of the whole film.
• See first assembly without interruption and make a quick list of what was memorable.
• See first assembly a second time and see if your impressions are confirmed.

Rough Cut:

• Work on each sequence to make use of all material, but still keep pace slow and cutting simple.
• View the whole film and pay attention to material that is not working.
• Tackle only the top level of problems in each pass and see new version before addressing a further level of problems.

Diagnostic Methods:

• Make a flow chart of the whole movie to spot invisible anomalies.
• After re-cutting and viewing, check results by making a revised block diagram of the film.

Fine Cut:

• Where necessary, alter performance rhythms of action and reaction to allow the appropriate time characters need to process particular information.
• Use eyeline changes and reactions to alert us to those moments of special awareness that yield access to a character's inner life.
• Where you have multiple-angle coverage, experimentally rebalance subjective and objective angles so the sequence feels right.
• Try counterpointing visuals against speech to suggest a person's subjective vision.
• In dialogue sequences, examine coverage for its balance—showing either the actor or the acted upon. Frequently the character acted upon adds more dimension to the exchange.
• Introduce overlap cutting to set up a visual cutting rhythm that is separate and meaningful in contrast with speech and sound effect rhythms.
• Tighten transition cuts where action flows from one composition to another.
• Examine sequence transitions for sound-overlap or sound-dissolve possibilities.
• Put the film aside for a week or two, and see it again before deciding the fine cut is final.

Evoking a Trial Audience Response:

• You can't please everyone.
• Tell your audience the film's title and warn them of what is missing (music, sound effects, atmospheres, etc.).
• In a trial showing, exert maximum control over sound.
• Direct audience attention to issues for which you need information, but ask nondirective questions and listen carefully for what is really being said.
• Do not abandon any central intention without long, hard thought.
• Do not rush into changes of any kind.
• Expect to feel depressed about the film: that it's failing, etc.

Sound Effects and Music:

• Choice of music should give access to the interior of character or subject.
• Music can signal the emotional level at which audience should approach the scene.
• You cannot know that music works until you try it against the picture.
• Decide what, if anything, needs post-synchronizing.
• Start looking for sound effects early; they are part of your orchestra.
• Plan featured sound effects to go in dialogue gaps (or vice versa).

Working with a Composer:

• Develop music cue list.
• Show film to composer.
• Discuss why music is desirable and what sort of music you'd like.
• Be open to suggestions from the composer.
• Leave open framework for music to work; don't tighten the film around dialogue so there's no space for the score.
• Be ready after music is fitted to move cuts and extend or shorten to fit music.
• When cuts must appear to happen on the beat, they must come three frames before the beat to look right on the screen.

Sound Mix:

• Premix and retain control over balance of important elements until last.
• Soften ragged sound cuts by tailoring the louder to the quieter.
• When mixing foreground speech with background (music, sound effect (FX), atmosphere, etc.), err on the side of caution and separate foreground widely from background.
• Check completed mix against picture at end without stopping.
• Make at least one sound mix safety copy and store it separately.

Titles:

• Keep credits short and few.
• Each title card should be on the screen long enough to be read aloud one and a half times.
• Choose a legible, clean typeface that goes with the period and style of your film.
• Double-check all spelling, especially people's names.
• Don't straddle subtitles across cuts.
• Use legible, yellow print with black edging for subtitles.
• Contract text when you subtitle or you'll exhaust your audience.
• Include acknowledgments, funding sources, dedications, etc. exactly according to contractual obligations.
• Copyright your film with the Library of Congress or appropriate national authority and put © sign and year at end.