Concept and creative process
‘Moviedrome’ was a film strand which launched in 1988 showing cult movies, often as double bills, with a detailed personal introduction by the presenter. For the first nine years this was film director Alex Cox. The programme still has its own dedicated website ‘Moviedromer’, which lists chronologically the details of every movie screened in the 12-year series, together with cast lists, posters and the introductions written by the host. In the main-titles and end-titles of the first series, designer Bob Cummins played with the viewers perception of what was real and what was not. In the opening title sequence, we appear to be in an American diner awaiting the arrival of the first customers of the day, as curious passers-by peer through the windows and the glass door. The camera pulls back along the empty bar stools and the counter to discover a movie camera, a boom microphone and lights, waiting for the cast and crew to arrive to film the scene. As the camera continues to crane up, we discover that the ‘set’ was actually a relatively small model of the diner, set within a large studio. This scale change is emphasised even more in the end-titles, when a stage-hand comes into shot and sweeps up the main studio around the model set, revealing it to be no taller than his knee-caps. An amusing conceit filmed live action in a studio, using a motion control camera fitted with a snorkel lens.