Concept and creative process
Titles for a series of modern television news bulletins which looked at the events of the week in 1939 that lead to WW2. Tom Mangold was the newsreader and correspondents and reporters were played by actors. The design of the animated opening titles paid homage to the iconic post-war Television News & Newsreel titles, with their circular sound and video waves emanating from the BBC transmitter at Alexandra Palace and the title revolving around the mast. These new titles were filmed single frame and backlit on a rostrum camera using a large clear on black negative (a Kodalith) and a coloured translucent gel. A sequence of opaque black sugar paper mattes uncovered the rings sequentially to create the animation. The transmitter was shot as a second exposure and matched the camera zoom on the rings. The final element was the ‘News ‘39’ logo printed in white on a black photoset strip, placed on a revolving drum and animated one frame at a time in order to superimpose the action over the other elements. The glows on the backlit elements were created by filters placed over the camera lens. The result was a contemporary reworking of an iconic image from the history of television.