Before you read any further, watch The Americans on FX.
It’s only five seasons and I’ve consistently stood by the fact that it is the best acting on television (at its time).
I tried watching Hunters on Amazon Prime (which is arguably similar in content and storytelling elements) but it just didn’t meet the bar that Americans had set. Hunters is made for High Schoolers while The Americans is made for adults. The show takes itself seriously and focuses more on the struggling connection of the leads than even the act of espionage itself. Which is what all good stories should do — drive with character, not plot.
But if you don’t have time (which I know you do cause its Corona time) then just watch the intro.
Since the show premiered on FX in 2013 I’ve been enthralled with this opening title sequence. Okay, enthralled is too much. I’ve been enthralled with Keri Russel’s haunting performance and Mathew Rhys’s ability to slip from sociopath to Dad to soldier in an instant.
But you gotta admit, it’s hard not to mention the 30 second intro as being the best part of the show.
I’ve been wanting to make this piece of video for years. Now, not only do I have the time, I also have the evil/idiotic state of the country to mock and make a statement of.
Trump is a disaster. But he's full of striking imagery
Some of the online community didn’t receive this video well. I agree, I did use some trigger words like Tyranny and hypocrisy. But honestly, if I didn’t want to start an argument I’d have nothing to say at all. Trump is a fucking disaster. Anyone who continues to support him is either not paying attention, is being paid off, or doesn’t give a shit about the country to begin with.
A majority of the Trump imagery is un-doctored. I didn’t make him mock a handicapped reporter for laughs. I didn’t photoshop it to look like he’s staring straight into a solar eclipse. I didn’t CGI him throwing a roll of paper towels at desperate people who’ve just lost their homes and loved ones. I didn’t photoshop it to look like he’s hugging and kissing the American flag like a boy who’s undressed his first sex doll. I did, however, use a photoshopped image of his hand shrunken down cause it’s hilarious.
So if you’re offended by this, then either A) Fuck off or B) It’s a piece of art so calm down.
Free MAGA Hat PNG
Will this help boost my SEO for Trump voters?
Also, if you’re offended by this then you might have a reason for this perfect PNG image of a cartoon MAGA Hat!
So, How did I make this?
Well, first thing I did was download the original sequence and study it.
Most of my editing was between Final Cut Pro X and After FX. Unless I specifically say After FX. You can assume I’m in Final Cut. I also created my graphics using Photoshop and Illustrator. The Adobe subscription pays off. Trust me.
I slowed the sequence down to 50% and I clipped out every new piece of material. Then I went in and labeled them all. I had them categorized as either Image, Video, or Graphic. As I took them down I also thought of what I would do to replace them. You’ll see some of my notes also have the option I might use later.
Once I did that, it was on to sourcing the material. I spent literally an entire day doing this. Then I placed the new material on top of the old.
I had a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster for a timeline at first. All these choppy bits of new material were just stacked on top of each other. No transitions. No FX. Nothing. Just timeline.
Then I exported it and watched it. Again and again. Especially on my phone, in bed, alone, at night during the Covid Pandemic where I was exceptionally lonely and all I wanted to do was crawl under a blanket and die.
It’s important to watch your work from different points of view.
Then it was time to create.
I had to decide what I was going to build in After FX and what I was going to build in Final Cut.
I knew I didn’t want to do the whole sequence in AFX. It was unnecessary. Final Cut is simpler, it takes up less RAM and it’s a surprisingly versatile tool (fuck Premiere Pro).
I do a lot of short video work professionally so Final Cut is my go to video editing software. Simple video clips could stay here. Add some color correction maybe tweak one of the built-in effects. Perfect. Once everything was in place, it was time to build out the graphics.
I had to make fake posters. I had to make images look like they weren’t downloaded from Google. I had to make a fake oil painting and texturized bars. I have a folder of different textures that I’ve gathered over the years. Most of this work was done by finding the right texture and the right blending mode and metrics to get it looking just right.
I knew right away that I wanted to use Brett Kavanaugh. To me, the worst part of Trump’s presidency is the affect he’s having on our judicial system. So, despite the obvious story of Russia invading US through Trump, I wanted to make a video where the story was Trump turning America into his own personal Russia.
Which is where a lot of important decisions came in. Do I show the good side of America? Or would that be too confusing? I had a nice image of RBG and another of Bernie and AOC. Do I use any of them?
The original theme was Russia VS America. They placed Russian propaganda beside American propaganda to show the stark contrast. But without knowing the inspiration piece (The Americans show), I was afraid it would confuse an audience. How can I put Bernie beside Trump in a video piece that seems to focus more on the bad than the good? It was a tough decision, but for the sake of audience retention I thought it best to stay simple. This video is only about Trump’s America and how it came to be. The new propaganda being the MAGA hat or the oil painting of Trump on Rocky Balboa’s head.
Originally I wanted to paste Trump’s family onto an Obama family photo at the end, but it wasn’t strong enough. He’s not just the new president, he’s the new enemy. He’s fundamentally changing this country and I wanted to reflect that in these quick 30 seconds. So I chose to use a photo of the Supreme Court. Before Scalia passed away. Because again, nothing is more detrimental to our country than the uneven rule of law Trump is creating.
I needed to make each photo look like it came out of someone’s pocket. Especially this one.
I also had to choose the more visually striking images over the mundane ones.
For example) I originally had the Access Hollywood Tape as part of the video.
My thought was that everyone would recognize it. They would know I’m calling out the moment where our President says he likes to grab women by the pussy. Yet when the edit came to pass, it wasn’t visually clear enough. It was jarring, in fact. Your brain couldn’t put it together quick enough.
So instead I extended the WWF piece a little further. These sequences play well into each other.
Jumping into After FX is always my favorite part.
I knew I was going to do all the title pieces there. I wanted to give them a stop-motion feeling. The original show didn’t have that, but I knew I wanted it because I just learned how to do it for my last personal AFX project. I created them as separate elements in AFX and placed them over my timeline.
I was going to do the Passport Flips and other FX elements separate as well, but when I got into AFX I loved it so much that I just kept going. It was much easier to continue the pacing of the final sequence in AFX rather than trying to match it up later in FCP. The sequence starting with Putin’s Statue and ending with half of Obama’s face is all done in AFX under a single export (with multiple compositions obviously).
To get the Glitch effect I reverted back to my old Youtube Video days and mimicked what I had learned and used in one of my old personal reel animations. The video is here, and it’s incredibly helpful. Also the stop motion effect I originally learned from this video here. I would recommend subscribing to both of those channels.
The title at the end is one of my favorite parts.
The Americans on FX used the image of a reversed Soviet Union Icon for the letter C. I could’ve done that, but it wouldn’t have worked as well because I didn’t use the icon earlier. I’m not placing Russia against America. I’m showing the growth from America pre-Trump to post-Trump. I did, however, use the MAGA hat already. Bringing it back was obvious, but dropping it on the letter I was a last minute decision that made so much sense. I love how it looks.
The most intense section is also the quickest. Annoying how that works out. It’s only two seconds but it’s a pretty important two seconds. (Perfect metaphor for its affect in real life).
The Mueller Report.
Since the report is readily available online I went to the source and grabbed a few important pages. I used the tile page, another page with an exceptional amount of redacted info, and a final page that literally says “Russian Hacking” so I could circle it with my virtual red marker. I added some light effects, animated a camera, and circled the important pieces with a simple shape layer in red. I thought Hypocrisy fit well here because of the amount of flack Trump gave Hillary for her lost emails. Trump was found to have hidden emails himself, and he refused to let people testify or provide the documents requested by congress.
There’s an extra few seconds at the end where I add my personal touch.
I did this because I wanted to bring back the idea I started on. This is now Trump’s America. Where does that ultimately lead? Destruction by nuclear bomb? Maybe. The image of a nuclear explosion was already prominent in the original Americans video, but I chose to replace that portion with images of COVID instead. Trump’s mishandling of the Corona Virus is destruction enough without throwing nuclear war in the middle. Yet, if I’m going to go as far as using the word Tyranny to describe this new America, why shy from the nuclear bomb?
The nuclear bomb is just so distressing of an image that I didn’t want to not use it. I also just love that moment where Trump walks off stage at the G20 summit.
The end falls on the line of “The person you are trying to reach is unavailable.” America is unavailable because no one is at the desk running the country like she deserves.
I hope I went into enough detail to make this blog worth reading. At least if you were glossing through. I’ve got some good links to good tutorials in here. I can’t, however, give away ALL my secrets. Most of them are that I’m just making this up as I go along. I’ve had After FX at my disposal for almost three years now and I’m still learning new techniques. Yes I have paid work that keeps me moving forward, but it’s personal projects like these where I learn all the cool new techniques.
One thought that bothered me while making this…
I was oversaturated with material.
In searching for bad things Trump did, I often found myself having to choose which bad thing I wanted to use. I had so many options. Yet, I was restricted by a visual need. I can’t use half of the retarded shit he says on TV because it’s not visually captivating. But I didn’t really have a problem. There’s too much material. I often found myself saying “What was the terrible thing he did last year? Oh yeah, he was impeached.”
What the fuck, America?
If people are going to continue to vote for him and support him then they need to come to terms with what they’re doing. They’re developing a leader with tyrannical rule. You can’t ignore Trump’s failings and suck his dick at the same time without getting onto your knees first (unless he was lying down and you were lying down… you’d still be on your knees though. I doubt he’s doing a reciprocal thing).
This President does not give a shit about you.
Sure, most of the government is corrupt and the rich get richer and yada yada yada, but until now all those evil people were working toward sustaining the idea of America. Even if it was an illusion. But now the illusion is gone and this guy could not care less.
I hope this video goes somewhere. It meant something for me to make it. Hopefully it means something for you to watch it. And for God’s sake, go vote this election year.
Yes those are Trump’s famous hands