A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery (1987)

Concept and creative process

Title sequence for a 1930s period drama series done in the style of illustrative posters of the time. Much research was done on the styling of the period. A few animators were commissioned to pitch for the task, as it was important for the illustrations not to look like cartoons but more like high-end illustrations. The style chosen was extremely time consuming in terms of hand drawn animation. The entire sequence was shot live action on 35mm film using the two leading actors. The footage was rotoscoped i.e. traced frame by frame, by Richard Purdum Productions and drawings were created in a poster style of the period. At the end of the title sequence each episode had an episode subtitle in the same illustrative style as the maintitle, which mixed into normal live action once the episode title had faded out.

Live Action Direction and Creative Direction - Liz Friedman.

Primetime Emmy Award Winner.

A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery book covers and press materials