Appendix 1

Titles for Digital Video and Film
reversal fi lm, or a black fi eld with picture in the letters if the title was shot on negative fi lm. While
picture in letters can look good as an effect, it is not generally the goal of superimposed titles. Black
letters over picture can work, but more often they tend to blend into the background image and are
hard to read. White letters over picture often look better, but this requires more steps in the process.
An example of each can be seen in Figure 8.8.
Figure 8.8 A and B rolled titles
Optical Printing
If you are not A and B rolling and doing fades and dissolves as opticals, a superimposed title can be
made with the other opticals (see Chapter 5 on fi nishing on fi lm and optical printing). In this case,
you shoot negative black-and-white titles, the negative producing clear fi lm with black letters. Now
the title negative is “bi-packed” on the optical printer with the picture negative.
The title is placed in the optical printer in front of the image, the black letters keeping this area from
exposing the print. The resulting positive print has white letters over picture (see Figure 8.9). As this
is a positive (interpositive), it needs to be printed once more to produce a negative (internegative)
that can be cut in with the camera original. This is a rather complicated system, and it involves
working with the camera original on the optical printer, which is always avoided. There is a better
and simpler way to go about this, but it’s important to understand how this works.
Figure 8.9 Bi-pack optical titles
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