Concept and creative process
‘Tomorrow’s World’ was an entertaining popular science show which ran from 1965-2003, giving the viewer a glimpse into the future. It was a weekly live studio-based show with two host presenters. They would invite experts into the studio for interview or to demonstrate prototypes, as well as showing pre-recorded video segments of other presenters in the field. Sometimes ‘Tomorrow’s World’ focused on one subject in depth but more often covered several topics. Bob English recalls the making of his 1995 titles:
“I was very aware of the significance and longevity of this BBC show when I was approached by its producer to create a new title sequence in 1995. He requested something iconic, memorable and distinctive. At that time, I was a senior partner of the design company English & Pockett. It seemed like a challenging brief. In the end things began to click into place when I thought about an unborn baby and its future. Adding two similar or different images together often creates energy, tension and purpose. The iconic image for my concept for ‘Tomorrow’s World’ is a couplet. The world is a womb for the baby and we can imagine the baby seeing into the future. So, what will the baby see? A series of couplets that in a subtle way speak of advance in technology and science: a foot in the sand to a man on the moon; we can see through a hand to a moving skeleton; a peapod that does not reveal peas but ball bearings; nano technology is suggested by the ant carrying the mini computer chip; the final image is not so much a couplet but more a vision of an extreme future with no need for humans at all - just robots!
The project began with trying to find a baby who was happy under the water for a few moments. We were able to find one from several babies who were born underwater. We hired an indoor pool and we created a blackout background. Our experienced under-water cameraman lit and shot several babies, but only one was completely happy under water. He was amazing and we ended up with great footage. He loved to move toward the camera and reach out to touch the lens. So how did we make the baby appear to be inside planet earth? Post-production with two layers, the front and back of a computer-generated rotating world, which we were able to put behind and in front of the baby in post-production.
Next we needed to shoot the couplet scenarios. The foot in the sand and the astronaut’s moonboot were filmed live action in a studio set. The ant was a large model and was filmed animation style, one frame at a time. The piano scene required a live shoot of hands and then a computer animator to build a model skeleton matching the hand movements, so that in post-production the CG work could be blended seamlessly with the live action. The peapod was a large model with a pull mechanism to open the pod revealing the ball bearings. The final scene required a full life-sized operating theatre set and mechanical robotic arms, with the laser beam finally added in post-production."