Professional Pre-Production: Opening Sequence Feedback Editing

In receiving my feedback on my first fine cut opening sequence, I was given the following advice...

• Add 'AMC & BBC Present' to the sequence
• Make the cast names stand out more
• Make the end titles slightly zoom in
• Make the sequence have a slightly darker tone
• Potentially use online footage of my main character to relate the sequence to the show slightly more
• Remove the sections of the teddy bear as they do not fit with the rest of the sequence

Taking on board this helpful feedback, I made all of the above changes, along with deciding on my own extra effective changes, by doing the following...

• Removed the teddy bear footage from the sequence, leaving space for main character footage.
• As my actress (Tatiana Maslany)'s character Lauren Daniels has a similar style and body language to that of her character in the series Orphan Black, I searched through clips from the show for an appropriate piece of footage to use in my sequence.
• Deciding on a clip from the first episode of Orphan Black, where Maslany walks in slow motion in a dark scene with glimpses of light, I felt that this shot was greatly suited to follow my 'boot' walking shot, along with my maps shots - signifying the main character travelling somewhere. So I then used this in place of the teddy bear shots, colourised the footage to have more blue tones in order to match my own footage and editing style, and repositioned the cast names around her. I also feel that the actors playing her birth parent's names being positioned in front of her as she walks towards them also allows a representation of her being guided to her parents. Below is a screen shot of the edited footage, with the low opacity clouds remaining over the shot as they did with the teddy bear...

Original Tatiana Maslany Footage From:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrOYfbdOEbU

• I then lowered the volume of the soundtrack, realising that it was too high and causing it to distort slightly. The volume is now of better quality.
• Made the shot of two people holding hands slightly less vibrant. As I felt that compared to the rest of the sequence, this was a bit too colourful, and it now fits with the other clips much better.
• Added a slightly vignette effect to each clip, by making the edges of them slightly darker, making the clips have a more dark and moody feel.
• Made the sections of cloud footage become more obviously less vibrant by recolourising, this involved slightly lowering the saturation bit by bit along with adding more blue tones throughout. As can be seen below, start with the first clouds shot, and ending with the last...

• Made the end 'The Identity' and 'Created by Megan Waters' titles slightly and slowly zoom in, making them stand out more.
• Made the cast names more bold and prominent by enlarging the font, changing the surnames of the cast to be in bold for contrast and having them slowly move on the screen. I think this makes a very large difference in how much more noticeable and important the cast names feel to the sequence. Examples can be seen below...

• Slightly extended the opening clip to allow time to place the 'AMC & BBC Present' text. Then added this text in a similar 'stand out' style to the cast names. Giving the whole sequence the hypothetical credit to the producers and making the sequence more realistic and professional.

I feel that the advised and extra changes made to The Identity's opening title sequence has greatly improved the overall result. Below is my second fine cut of the sequence...