Concept and creative process
A generic title sequence was required for this long-running series of monthly television dramas by major authors. The producer David Jones had come from the Royal Shakespeare Company and was keen for the sequence to epitomise high theatrical drama. The idea came about of using a ‘Black Rod’ character to strike the floor and magic on the shaft of light that symbolises the actor highlighted on stage. An actor was auditioned and chosen for the part. The live action shoot took place on a stage at Ealing Film Studios. A ‘brute’ light was sourced and hired specially, as this was the biggest and most powerful light available. The studio was filled with smoke in order to pick out the light. A solid circle of white was painted on the studio floor to enhance the image. Unfortunately, the first day’s shoot went badly, as the cameraman allocated had never used a 35mm camera before for what was a very difficult shoot to light anyway. This was hurriedly rectified the following day by the allocation of ‘Butch’ Calderwood to the shoot, who was something of a celebrity cameraman, who had just flown back from a job in the U.S. and managed to do a great job. The illustration at the end was done by Fen Field and represented the idea of ‘month’ in the title sequence through the signs of the zodiac. This was done in the style of the beautiful blue and gold illustrations of the 15th century manuscript ‘Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry’ and similar to the paintings on the ceiling of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London. The artwork was shot on a rostrum camera and then matched with the white circle and inserted as a film optical at the film laboratory.
Live Action and Art Direction - Liz Friedman.