Modern Times (1995)

Concept and creative process

Titles for ‘Modern Times’, a long and varied documentary series about life as it is lived in Britain today. A zoom out from an extreme close-up of the glowing filament of an electric lightbulb, reveals it to be ‘m’-shaped and contained within a candle-shaped bulb. Generated with 3D CGI, the bulb wobbles like a candle in the wind and disappears, leaving behind the ‘m’-shaped logo glowing in the background. The place of the candle-shaped bulb is taken by a real snuffed-out smoking candle keyed over in post-production as the final detail in the sequence, wittily encapsulating the creative concept and the programme branding in a single image.