Pride and Prejudice (1979)

Concept and creative process

This dramatisation of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride & Prejudice’ was by Fay Weldon and was lauded by the critics at the time as “an excellent production in every way”. The director wanted to emphasise the caricature aspects of the protagonists, so it seemed fitting to create something which resembled somewhat the style of the British caricaturists of the period. Illustrations were developed to portray elements of the episode to be seen. The illustrations were hand drawn in a style of the period, reminiscent of the caricatures seen in printed matter at that time. The drawings were created on a length of white cartridge paper about 30 cms high. This was shot on a film rostrum camera with the bench panning the drawings in single frame mode under the lens. The lettering was made using reversed out white on black photo prints, the two title captions were hand drawn. These were double-exposed over the illustrations in-camera.

Illustrations - Rod Jordan.

Creative Direction - Liz Friedman.