I have been collating the titles for the end crawler. This presents a number of practical problems.

First off is just how do you format it so that you can easily use it in other programs once all typed out in MS Word? The big thing is to NEVER use tabs. Just write the test down in logical order.

Second and more of a problem is remembering EVERYONE who was involved and helped out. That’s why it’s important to get working on the end roller ASAP, so as to give you plenty of time to update it and check spelling (you will remember people at the strangest of times). There is nothing worse than someone important coming up to you at the premiere and saying, ‘I helped you out for free and you didn’t even remember to credit me…’

Also, getting hold of logos can be a pain as everyone uses different formats. All you really need is a single Hi Res JPEG of their logo, with minimal compression. But I have bumped into TIFF’s, PDF’s, even EPS files which for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone uses nowadays! You will need the ‘know how’ to convert these files to be compatible with the ones for your end roller (colour depth, compression and physical size in pixels are all important).

To make life easier in the final conform, I am going to make a HUGE, long graphics file which they can then import and add a simple camera move to, thus creating a roller. This is the bullet proof way of making sure nothing gets changed in the final mastering process, and it’s easier for them too.

So the long haul of title collation has begun.

Onward and upward!

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
mail@livingspirit.com