I don’t go to the movies very often. With three kids on a single income, its often hard to come up with cash to cover the tickets and the treats. But, when I go, I really like to watch the credits. Sometimes I wonder what a gaffer is (I’ve heard its an electrician) or a grip. I figured out the grip part when I had the opportunity to work as a grip for a production company out of Dallas, Texas. Basically, I hauled lights, c-stands, cables, extensions cords and stuff like that around all day. So, I decided grip is short for workerbee. But, I digress. I do watch the credits because that is where you get to see the names of all the people involved in the production of the film.
In my work as a videographer and editor, I feel like the video I am editing doesn’t end with the last frame of the actual story. The film ends at the end of the credits. The credits is one last chance to use a particular piece of music or some picture and video overlays to continue to set the mood or feeling of my video.
I am a Final Cut user for editing purposes. In the past, I’ve used the stock Credit Scroll that comes with Final Cut to make my credits. The challenge is that it only allows one font, one font size. While it works for credits, I was looking for something with a bit more flexibility. I found the Boris Title Crawl that comes with FCP but had trouble understand all the options and couldn’t get the look I was hoping for. Recently, I ran across a FCP developer (@alex4d) on Twitter who shared a tweet about a credit scroll product he created. On this blog (http://alex4d.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/final-cut-pro-my-free-closing-credits-plugin/), he talked about his tool to create credits. In his blog he says, “My Closing Credits plugin doesn’t have all the options of Boris Title Crawl, but it is almost as simple as Scrolling Text with a few more useful options.”
My motivation here is simple, I’m looking for a way to wrap up the story and I don’t see credits as an after-thought but as an extension of the story. I want to give everyone involved in the production a chance to toot their own horn but I see the credits as my last chance to get the tone or mood I want to leave with the viewer. I’ve used @alex4d’s closing credits plugin and found that it gives me more than the FCP title crawl without a great deal more work. The additional fonts and colors allow me to say the credits are important. If you get a chance to use @alex4d’s closing credits plugin, I think you will find it a useful tool.
Thanks, alex4d.
