Film Opening Sequence Post-Production Process - AS Media Studies

1. Matija Sekulic, Anastasija Nesic
Post-Production Process
AS Media Studies - Film Opening Sequence

2. Structure
For an easier process, I split
the video into sections
(titles, club and car,
bathroom, split screen,
Mindy’s ending). This
provided a more
manageable workspace with
only a limited amount of
clips used in each section.

3. Titles
The production company logos
were imported and sounds
were matched to them. In the
credits, the sound of street
ambience and neon lights were
used to give the overall image a
more realistic effect. The neon
credits were manually edited to
match the slightly retro look
throughout the video. The
flicker, sound effects, and
ground reflection contribute to
their depth and overall realistic
dimension.

4. Footage Selection
A rough cut was first created by
simply looking over all footage
and cutting away any loose ends,
unusable footage, bad takes…
Then I looked through all takes
and found the best ones that
matched with the continuity of
the movement and subject
positions. The aspect ratio was
determined at this point to
provide for best video quality.
Rough text and cut position was
added to provide and overview
and a good picture of what could
be done.

5. Colour Grading
After all footage to be used was
chosen, I played around with
colour grading possibilities for
a while, exploring all settings
and options, landing on final
ones for each set change. The
final settings were matched and
tuned to be the same in each
clip, creating a realistic effect of
the colours and seamless cuts.

6. Masking & Tracking
I created a mask around
Jack’s head to set a base for
the text to go behind it, and
tracked the mask’s movement
through each frame, softening
it at the end, and creating an
overlay with the original
footage, making sure to colour
grade the mask in the same
manner and sync its timing to
the surroundings to allow a
better blend.

7. Split Screen Timing
Jack’s tooth brushing was cut to match a base of two
minutes, providing more than enough time for Noah and
Mindy’s conversation to finish, allowing me to cut that
time down at the end. After taking notes on time stamps
of Noah’s lines, Mindy’s lines were edited to match this
time, with a few of them not fitting in properly, requiring
further editing on Noah to prevent overlap of dialogue or
too long of a silence. After going back and forth,
measuring time for each, Jack’s scene was cut down to
match the respective times of the other scenes, also
noting down timestamps for when each clip should start
in the overall split screen sequence, since Jack and
Noah have to close their respective door and tap at the
same time, creating time for Mindy to cut in with her final
line at the end. A test cut was made to ensure the timing
of the clips when put together.

8. Sound
All diegetic sound was recorded by me, including water
running, room tone, doors, ringtones, etc… Ambient
sounds such as street noise were obtained from
royalty-free websites, allowing me to freely use these
elements in our video. No sound apart from dialogue
was used from the original footage, and all of it was
added in, and then filtered and adjusted to fit in more
naturally. Sound bridges and other transitions between
editing sections were added in the final cut of the video.
Among copyrighted sounds are extracts from “Walk
Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles, and “Welcome To
The Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, however, we are legally
rightful to use them in this case under the ‘Fair Use’ Act
in relation to intellectual property, as we are not
commercially distributing or publishing this opening
sequence anywhere apart from our blog, which is
limited to classwork (educational or research
purposes). In order to publish our work as public on
YouTube or have our film distributed, we would need
rights and permission for use issued by the music’s
legal owners.
Afterwards, all sound was properly filtered and edited,
with proper adjusting of volume for good sound
quality, consistency, and flow, and sound transitions
were added. Music mixes were made to properly match
the dynamic of the overall sequence, and their
volumes and timing were matched to compliment
diegetic sound.

9. The Final Cut
In the final cut, all sections
were put together, timing
issues were fixed, some
footage isolated and sped up
to create a more dynamic
pace, sound and video
transitions were added to
create a seamless finish,
sound levels were stabilized
and split screen settings were
added and adjusted for a
consistent flow and pace of
the sequence. On top of this,
extra text and subtitles were
added and timed in the
timeline.