Concept and creative process
Impressionists Les Dennis and Dustin Gee presented 'The Laughter Show', a series of fast-moving comedy and music shows. The title sequence demonstrated the versatility of the use of the rostrum camera as a production tool for producing animated back-lit sequences, directly in-camera under the control of the designer and cameraman. The title elements were produced from individual pieces of artwork, as Kodalith negatives of black on white lettering, images, shapes and lines, resulting in clear images on black cinemoids. These were placed on the back-lit area of the rostrum camera tabletop and lit by white light, with translucent coloured gels placed over different areas of the Kodaliths as required. By careful planning to a frame count derived from the music track, the different permutations of shape, line and colour could be orchestrated to create the animation by the use of mattes or pieces of card to cover and uncover parts of the artwork. The use of the camera to create the glow effects, light-scan streaks, moves and revolves was an additional important factor in creating this sequence.