Removing Mics and Making Titles

I have had "write an ethics statement" on my list of things to do for a while now, but after taking a brand trip last week and seeing how Marques' audience reacted to his latest sponsored video, I felt an urgency to get it done now.

If you had time to watch the video, I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Most importantly, I would love to know if you thought I left anything out.

Also, I would love to share a few behind-the-scenes moments from this shoot! So, first, let's start with a mistake I had to fix in post. I shot this video's whole stand-up, or A-roll section, with my mic in the frame. 🤦

mic in the frame on the left, mic removed from the frame on the right

To fix this, I took a screenshot of my stand-up shot, brought it into Photoshop, and used a combination of clone stamping and spot healing to remove the mic. I also tried using Adobe's Generative AI tool, but it kept putting a strange paper texture there instead of the mic. Then, I brought that image back into Premiere and cropped it to cover the mic. There is a fair bit of feather on that crop as well. So long as your subject never crosses this area or the light doesn't drastically change, this is an easy fix.

I also used this video as an opportunity to experiment with title sequences. AKA, I actually made some, haha. And I got Adobe's Generative AI tool to work for me!

paper texture with three layers of "brand trips" in Photoshop

First, I prompted Gen AI to create a "recycled paper texture." Then, I broke out my Wacom Intuos Pro and wrote each title three times on different layers, making the previous layer 35% transparent with each new layer so that I could make sure the letters were relatively close each time. I then returned every layer to 100% opacity, saved that Photoshop file, and brought it into Premiere. Make sure you do not merge the layers when you bring them to Premiere!

The paper texture is purple, the layers of "brand trips" are orange, and the X's are tan.

Once in Premiere, I separated the paper texture from the titles and put each layer of "brand trips" three frames apart from each other. Three frames can create motion without feeling too chaotic or fast. I also added three different "X"s that I made in Photoshop a few months back for style points.

And boom! You have a title with some motion. If you don't have a Wacom Tablet or the best handwriting, you could also use three different fonts for the same effect. I think you could also make this entirely in Photoshop by making a GIF of it. But I'm pretty terrible at Photoshop, so this is how I do it instead.

Ok, that's all! And again, let me know if you have any thoughts on ethics.

Happy Monday, bud. -B