City Lights (1986)

Concept and creative process

Titles for a Scottish sitcom set in Glasgow. Gerard Kelly stars as bank-teller Willie Melvin – a man with grandiose dreams. It was a BBC Scotland production which aired for 6 series from 1984-1991. The sequence depicted the city at night in the rain with the lights of vehicles and neon signs reflected in the urban environment. For the programme logo the word ‘LIGHTS’ built up letter for letter in red capitals with the word ‘city’ animated on like yellow spray paint above. The typography was animated and filmed on a rostrum camera and combined with the live action background in a film optical.