Concept and creative process
‘The Education Debate’ was a series in which academics, educationalists and politicians put forward their personal views on the state of education in this country and how it affected the economy and society generally. The title sequence was designed to symbolise the stages of teaching from early school days up to university. This was done by creating one simple move across a table top with various items representative of those stages. The items were hired from the BBC prop department with the odd one coming from me personally, such as the school bell, the recorder, pencil pot, pen tray, ink bottle etc. A few items were accessed from the BBC costume department. The shoot was done in a studio at Stewart Hardy Films in Borehamwood and lit by cameraman Doug Adamson. The shoot was with a 35mm live action camera on tracks. The reason for tracking was that you got more depth of field with a track than with a pan, which was more linear. The end shot where the book came into frame was difficult to shoot in terms of lighting as the lettering was gold and therefore reflective. Anything metallic could not have directional lighting (ie a light shining directly on it in order to light it), as this made the subject go black. Generally reflective or bounced lighting worked better. We therefore had to light the book differently to the rest of the shoot, even though it was positioned in the foreground of the set-up.
Graphic Designer and Live Action Direction - Liz Friedman.