Text overlay on moving footage — names, locations, timestamps. Composited in post, never shot in-camera.
In the editing suite, you place the super — the text overlay on the moving image — in a separate track. This is not shot, not written on set, but composed into the footage afterward. Names of people, place names, time jumps, source references — all of this belongs here. The super is always positioned above the image content, never below or beside it, unless you intentionally need an unconventional placement for an effect.
Practically, you work with title software or directly in your NLE: text is rendered, defined with font, size, color, opacity, and duration. For feature films, you often need safe margins from the image edges — don't let it run all the way to the corner, but plan for approximately 10–20 percent buffer. This is also broadcast standard and prevents overscan losses on older monitors or TV outputs. The duration: at least two seconds for a name, longer if there's a lot of text — viewers need time to read. If the super fades in and out too quickly, it feels rushed.
Typical applications: The location name during a scene change (usually top left or center), the name of a character upon their first introduction, a date for temporal jumps. In documentaries, the super is used more frequently — interviewee name, title, location. In reports and news formats, it is indispensable. Pay attention to legibility: sufficient contrast to the background image, not too thin fonts, no text fluttering wildly. If the footage behind it is very bright, you need a shadow or a semi-transparent background block behind the text — otherwise, the super will disappear into the image.
The temporal placement is an editing craft: the super should coincide with a visual or acoustic caesura — after a cut, at the beginning of a new scene, not in the middle of an action. If a character is speaking, their name can be displayed immediately after their first spoken word. Common mistake: too many supers in a row without a pause — this tires the viewer. A rule: a maximum of one per 10–15 seconds, otherwise it becomes too graphically busy.