Concept and creative process
For the titles of a dramatised documentary series about Wilberforce and Clarkson's fight to abolish slavery, I used Josiah Wedgwood's seal for the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade as a background for the maintitle. The historic seal was copied and modelled in bas-relief in plasticine by John Friedlander in BBC Visual Effects Department. I shot film of an actor in shackles to match the position of the kneeling slave in the Wedgwood seal and make a smooth transition into the title shot. I edited this with detailed close-ups of contemporary drawings and a slave sale poster to complete the title sequence.