[Gabriel Tougas]

Since I posted, I’ve been doing exactly that kind of thinking.

I expect to use the footage to mostly punctuate and serve as a transition between beats. I’d say the mood is “mildly dramatic”. The footage and its content isn’t inherently dramatic, but this is one of the more high-profile things our subject has done, and the way he summarizes his work for the senators is quite compelling. Basically, he’s in the spotlight.

Some kind of subtle faux-TV effect, slightly desaturated and distorted, to accentuate the very public nature of this testimony? I’m trying to find some successful examples of this, because I know I’ve seen them, but it isn’t easy to search online for “faux-tv effect used on archives in popular documentaries”.

[Gabriel Tougas]

How familiar are you with After Effects?

You could start by importing the footage into your project and then simply putting the sentences in using a Text layer. Play with the font, size and placement until you like what you see.

Then, there’s a whole host of things you could do, but a good start is to use the Glow effect on the text. All the parameters are fully customizable and key-frameable, meaning that they can change over the course of clip (glow brighter, dimmer, whatever).

After that, if you want to make the words look like they’re behind your actor, you can create a Mask to hide the words where your actor is.

Googling all these different things (adding text, effects, and masks) for your version of AE should be fairly simple.

If you have any more questions or if you can find a clip of something you had in mind, feel free to post them and I’ll see what I can do to help. I’m really not that experienced, there are some real pros here that could do quite a bit more for you too.

[Gabriel Tougas]

Thanks guys!

I forgot to mention that I added a little Camera Lens Blur to the skyline, to the tune of 3,0 blur radius, does that seem appropriate?

Ridley, merci! I was leaving the colour-correction until later, but your comment made me realize that my background was already at the level I wanted it, so I needed to correct the foreground. Here’s how it turned out: I think it’s really popping now. 😀 I threw a mask over the desk lamp to keep it from blowing out, because I like the shade’s texture. Was that the right decision, you think?

Ryan, that is a very astute observation. I’ll attempt adding a frame tonight or tomorrow at some point and let you know how it goes. (I’m probably going to try to draw something up in GIMP/Photoshop and then import it into AE. The shot is locked off, so it should be relatively straightforward. Just wondering, would that be your approach too?)