Concept and creative process
For the opening titles of a series telling stories based on characters and incidents in 'A Shepherd's Life' by W. H. Hudson, Alan Jeapes demonstrated his ability to create an evocative sequence with limited means. A sepia tinted still photograph, filmed on a rostrum camera, takes the viewer from an establishing shot of the shepherd and his child to an extreme wide shot in one continuous zoom, leaving the pair just visible as specks on the horizon. The move revealed a lowering sky of heavy cloud that was created by an airbrushed overlay, which dissolved, as the camera reached its final position, to a series of airbrushed cloud effects panning behind the superimposed titles. A simple, elegant and evocative sequence.