Concept and creative process
A series of six documentaries, where the stories of the lesser-known partners of the famous were told. The title sequence was a very simple idea of two rings locking together, which then became a frame for the couple of the week. The sequence required an idea which could allow six versions to be made easily. The technique used was slit-scan, sometimes called light-scan. The artwork consisted of outline drawings of two interlocking rings, created on a computer. This was reversed out photographically, producing clear-on-black Kodaliths, which were pegged as animation cels. Coloured cinemoids (gels) were taped together and panned underneath the Kodaliths on the back-lit area of the rostrum camera, which was programmed to pull back from the centre of the circles throughout the frame-by-frame animation process. The photographs were top-lit and double-exposed in the black area on a separate run. The lettering was also Kodalith artwork, shot back-lit with gels and the slit-scan light effect, and wiped on as the camera pulled back.
Rostrum camera - Colin Hancock.
Graphic designer - Liz Friedman.