The opening and the closing

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What a master does with them

• The intro and outro play as they are, picture and sound. The theme song is the intro’s own soundtrack, so put it in the clip.
• The series title is in the clips. seriesmith doesn’t draw it: put it in the picture when you make the intro (a title card, or lettering added in your editor).
• The episode’s title is drawn on by seriesmith, from the script’s = ep05 Title line, under the series title: it fades in on the intro and fades in and out on the outro. Every episode gets the same font, size, colour and place, so the titles match from week to week.
• The intro and outro are brought to the episode’s loudness (below).
• The cut’s picture is copied, not re-encoded; only the two clips are encoded to match it.

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Where the clips go

Porchlights\
  _titles\INTRO.mp4
  _titles\OUTRO.mp4
  ep01\
  ep02\

"publish": { "intro": "../_titles/INTRO.mp4", "outro": "../_titles/OUTRO.mp4" }

• One for the whole show: the _titles files, and nothing in publish.
• One per season: ../_titles/S2_INTRO.mp4 in the series config of each season-two episode.
• One for a single episode: a clip in that episode’s folder ("intro": "intro.mp4"), or _titles\INTRO.mp4 inside the episode folder, which is found before the show’s.

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The episode’s title: where and how it’s drawn

"publish": {
  "subtitle": {
    "font": "segoescb.ttf",
    "size": 0.058,
    "y": 0.56,
    "color": "#F4E6D0", "glow": "#[email protected]", "glow_size": 0.008,
    "intro_in": [-4.0, -3.0],
    "outro_in": [0.0, 1.0],
    "outro_out": [4.5, 5.5]
  }
}

• size and y are fractions of the frame’s height: the text’s height, and where its top sits, measured down from the top of the picture (0.56 is just below the middle). The title is always centred across. Line y up with the space the series title leaves. Series settings shows both as percentages (5.8 and 56).
• intro_in is when the title starts to fade in and when it’s fully on. It stays on until the episode starts. Negative times count back from the intro’s end: the default, [-4, -3], starts the fade 4 seconds before the end, so the title comes in at the same moment before the episode whatever the intro’s length. A montage intro of 40 seconds plays without it until its last 4. Series settings’ Episode title appears (seconds before the intro ends) sets it (4 is the default; the fade is a second long). Times of 0 or more count from the intro’s start instead ([4, 5]: 4 seconds in): use those to time it to the music, the moment the series title lands or a beat after.
• outro_in and outro_out are its fade in and fade out on the outro.
• font is a font file, given one of three ways:
  • its file name, georgia.ttf (or just georgia, any case): found in the font folders of the machine that masters (Windows’ own and your user’s, macOS’ and Linux’s). Series settings lists the ones there as you type and says which file it found, or that there’s none.
  • a path relative to the show folder (the one holding series.json), fonts/Title.otf: a copy kept with the show, so every machine that masters it has it. The surest choice.
  • a full path, C:/Windows/Fonts/segoescb.ttf.
  Without one, the default is Windows’ Segoe Script; on a machine without it, the master uses the first of Georgia, Arial, Helvetica or DejaVu it finds and says so. A font the series config names that isn’t there stops the master, saying so.
• The text is the episode’s title, from the script’s = line: change it there.

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A cold open

# sq01  diner_night
cold_open: true

• Set it from the timeline. Right-click the clip the cold open should end on: In the cut › Cold open ends here. Every shot from the cut’s first up to that one is marked in the script (a sequence’s # line when all its shots are in it, else each shot’s own line), and every other mark comes out. The old script is kept in the episode’s _history\ folder. No cold open takes them all out.
• It follows the cut. The cold open is the cut’s first shots, one after another. When you move a clip so a marked shot plays after one that isn’t, its band turns red, the timeline shows a red Cold open badge (hover it for which shots), and a master refuses until you fix it: Cold open ends here on the right clip rewrites the marks to the cut as it is, taking them off every shot and sequence after it.
• The intro goes in on a cut. A dissolve from the cold open’s last shot into the next is refused; take it out there.
• Music across the break is cut there, as the picture is. The timeline shows an across the opening badge when a music item of the mix crosses it, and the master’s log says which. End the cold open’s music on its last shot (a button on the cut is the classic way into the titles); the first-pass score keeps its cues off the break.
• The break is read from the file being titled. Every cut assemble writes (an export, a master) has its shot list beside it (<cut>_shots.txt), and the intro goes in where that list says the cold open’s last shot ends, so a take a frame or two shorter than its record doesn’t move it. Change the cold open after exporting, and export (or master) again.

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The intro’s and outro’s loudness

"publish": { "loudness": { "under_lu": 1.5 } }

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Making the intro: a montage as its own episode

1. Make the episode. New episode… in the show, with a short script: one sequence and a shot per moment of the montage. A shot’s dur: is how long it holds; the action says what it is (“Dale on the porch at dusk”).
2. Fill the shots with takes you already have. Every take is a video file in its episode’s renders folder (ep01\renders\sh040\sh040_t03.mp4). Drag one onto a clip on the timeline and it becomes that shot’s take. Drop one between two clips and the shot form opens there with its length filled in: write the action and Save. Nothing renders, so it costs nothing. Trim each clip on the timeline to the moment you want.
3. Add the series title as a held picture. Drop a title card (a png) between two clips: it becomes a shot on the Hold model, held still for as long as you drag it. A video model can’t spell the show’s name reliably, so the title is best as a picture you made.
4. Silence the clips’ own sound. The takes keep their dialogue and effects. In the sound lanes under the timeline (Sound), mute the Dialogue track (M), so only the music plays.
5. Score it. + Cue in the Refs tab’s Music section, over the whole cut, as a song with the theme’s lyrics, or as a score cue for an instrumental opening. Render its takes and pick one (SCORING.md). ACE-Step and MiniMax Music fit their length to the cue. YuE2 writes a whole song, often two or three minutes, so it runs past the cue’s end. The cue window shows the whole take, with the part past the out point hatched. Only the cut’s length is heard.
6. Export it. Export ▾ › Export (or Export 2x for the upscales) writes the montage as one mp4 with its mix. Copy it to _titles\INTRO.mp4, or point the series config’s intro at it.

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The song first, the picture after: a held picture

1. Make a scratch episode with a single shot on the Hold model (target: hold), any picture, its dur: as long as the song should be (dur: 60). It renders in a moment, on this machine, so the episode has a cut of that length.
2. Make a cue over it, as a song, render takes and pick one. The cue window gives you the whole song, with its tempo, sections and lyrics.
3. Lay the song under the real montage. Each take is a wav in the scratch episode’s sound\<cue>\ folder. Import it onto the intro episode’s Music lane and cut the shots to it.

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Changing it later

• A new intro for a new season: a new intro episode, a new file, and its path in that season’s episodes’ series configs. Masters made after the change use it.
• A custom intro for one episode: that episode’s series config, or a _titles folder in its own folder.
• Re-master to apply a change. A master already made keeps the clips it was made with.