The Long Search (1977)

Concept and creative process

Titles for a series in which Ronald Eyre looked at the world’s religious experience. The optical, step and repeat printing on the out of focus titles, combined with a continuous camera track and pan out, created a mystical coloured background for the titles themselves, which faded in as the coloured effect faded out. The world globe was manipulated in a similar fashion, giving it a sensuous and almost stroboscopic appearance as it tracked back to its end position, and the successive images collapsed into one to make a whole image, now in focus beneath the maintitle. As the title faded out the camera tracked fully in on the surface of the globe and faded to black before reaching the end of the tracking movement. A complex but simple-looking and nicely choreographed sequence.