Goodbye Cruel World (1992)

Concept and creative process

Opening titles for a drama about love and grief, starring Sue Johnston and Alun Armstrong, written by Tony Marchant. The title sequence depicted the two leading actors dancing together on a crowded dance floor. It was digitally edited into a continuous panning sequence of seven separate takes from the same event. Each incoming shot was matted into the outgoing shot so that the joins appear soft and imperceptible as the eye is constantly drawn to the couple entering frame. The whole montage was contained in a letterbox vignette which gave ample black space below for the elegant typographic title credits. The vignette faded in from black on its leading edge and out to black again on its trailing edge.