Italians (1984)

The titles for a ten-part documentary portrait of Italy as seen through the lives of ten different Italians. The production wanted to use their footage in the sequence, so a graphic device was needed. The idea of using the flag seemed appropriate. The computer-animated logo was created as a wire frame outline at Middlesex University by John Vince. The computer plotter printed this out in black onto clear cels which were backpainted by hand using coloured cel paints. The sequence was shot single frame on a 35mm rostrum camera. The lighting effect on the front face of the logo was created by exposing a back-lit white light just to that section on a separate run in-camera. The wipe effects were created by a series of mattes used to drop in live action optically at the film laboratory. Each week a different town or city was pinpointed on the map.

Concept, Design and Creative Direction - Liz Friedman.

• BBC Programme Index/Genome