Everyman (1977)

Concept and creative process

Opening titles for 'Everyman', a documentary strand covering a broad spectrum of issues, from the spiritual to the supernatural, to social and moral concerns, which impacted upon the lives of young and old alike throughout the world. The title sequence was animated and filmed on a rostrum camera. High contrast artwork of the head was prepared as a clear on black Kodalith. Artwork of the repeated ‘Everyman’ logo was created also clear on black, with bands of coloured gels on a separate layer. One pass of the camera move was back-lit and filmed single frame with a top layer of black card mattes animating on the lines of type from alternate directions. The negative already shot was then rewound in the camera and the layer of coloured gels was removed, leaving only the clear type. On a second repeat pass of the same camera move, the negative was double exposed as a percentage of white, again using black card mattes panning in alternate directions, but this time with slits the width of one letter cut into them, in order to create the highlighting of the text in rows, one letter at a time.