Concept and creative process
Opening titles for a drama series in which crime novelist and amateur sleuth Paul Temple solves mysteries aided by his wife, Steve. The titles for the drama series consisted of a 4-way split-screen of the leading actor Francis Matthews, optically merging to form a close-up portrait of his character as a background to the series title. The actor’s turn to profile carried the lead actor’s credit and a further turn away from camera initiated a chequerboard wipe to the first frame of the production. The wipe was shot on the rostrum camera to create mattes and masters with which to realise the film optical, either on an optical printer in the film laboratory or by using an aerial image Oxberry camera setup with physical mattes.