The Last Day (1983)

Concept and creative process

The title sequence for the drama documentary series 'The Last Day', written and narrated by the jounalist John Pilger. The brief was to create a sequence with a photo montage of poignant iconic photos at the end, linking the title sequence with the start of the programme itself. Photographic Kodaliths (clear on black 20 x 16 inch cinemoids) were created from black and white artwork of the flags. These were filmed on a 35mm film rostrum camera with a ripple glass to create the movement of the flags. The splat wipe effect at the start was created by filming in real time black emulsion paint pouring onto a white background on the rostrum camera table, which created its own matte. The fast wipe reveal of the three flags was made by a similar process. The shots of the photographs were filmed separately and added on afterwards through a single frame animated revealing matte.

Concept, Design and Creative Direction - Liz Friedman.

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