RECLAMING THE SCREEN

BRIEF

Reclaiming the Screen is 1 out of 3 launch videos for Minara Media. This piece was designed to be both confronting and hopeful, showing how online hate can overwhelm but also be dismantled. The project used a mix of sound design, colour grading, and VFX to build tension through hate comments before resolving into calm clarity with the Minara Media logo. I was responsible for editing the piece, bringing together visual effects, typography, and pacing to match the emotional journey.

PHASE #1: THE LAYOUT

I began by organising the footage and building a rough layout of the sequence, without sound or VFX. This stage was about understanding the rhythm of the video: where tension should build, when pauses were needed, and how the comments could emerge naturally within the pacing. By mapping this out early, I was able to visualise the role of each shot in the emotional arc and ensure there was space for the sound design and VFX to have an impact later on.

PHASE #2: 3D CAMERA TRACKER

The next step was adding the comments. The first one was straightforward in Premiere Pro, since it appeared next to the phone. The 360° shot, however, was more complex because the comments needed to float around the subject in 3D space. My first attempt was masking the subject frame by frame and adjusting opacity however, it looked messy and was too time-consuming.

After exploring different approaches, I found a YouTube tutorial on the 3D Camera Tracker in After Effects. This tool tracked the camera’s movement and allowed the floating comments to move naturally within the shot. At this stage, the comments were still appearing over the subject, but the effect was already cleaner and more dynamic.

PHASE #3: ROTO BRUSH TOOL

To make the comments appear behind the subject instead of on top, I used After Effects’ rotobrush tool, which masks the subject once and then automatically tracks it through the footage. I created a separate masked version of the subject and layered it over the composition, giving the illusion of comments surrounding the character in real space.

For the ending, the original plan was to show the Minara Media icon on the phone, but this shot wasn’t filmed. Instead, I problem-solved by reversing the final clip to zoom in rather than zoom out, and used opacity keyframes to make the comments glitch and flicker away. I then duplicated and cleaned up the clip to show a clear frame before slowing down the final second, where the subject lifts his gaze.

Timeline example

PHASE #4: AUDIO

Sound design was key to carrying the emotional journey. I layered four main elements: city ambience at the start to ground the scene, heartbeats and notifications that escalated as more comments appeared, and glitch effects to amplify the collapse. As the tension peaked, the heartbeat slowed and resolved into stillness when the subject looked up from his phone.

The ending voiceover, recorded by a colleague, gave the piece its final grounded tone and tied the narrative together.

PHASE #5: THUMBNAIL

Alongside the video, I created a thumbnail for YouTube and Instagram. I had a couple of concepts for this.

The first concept was a cutout of the subject with the background being red. I used some blending options in Photoshop to achieve this. The second concept was to have a still from the video with the comments visible and to add a gradient at the bottom so that the red brand element was visible but not too bold.

The final thumbail combined both concepts.

Concept #1

Concept #2

Final Thumbnail

VERSION #1

The first cut of the video got the main ideas across, but needed some edits to enhance emotions. The feedback I received was:

  • The video could be shorter to be optimised for social media

  • The first comment on the phone could be zoomed in more so that it is clear where the viewer should look

  • The comments could pop up faster in the 360 shot

  • An ending line needed to be added so that there was something to tie the video off

  • A flash needs to appear before the logo

  • Darken the mood with lighting once the comments start coming up

FINAL VERSION

This was the final version for YouTube and Instagram with all the incorporated feedback.