Concept and creative process
Opening titles for ‘See Hear’, a weekly magazine programme for the deaf community with a wide coverage of community, entertainment, education and sports news. It is broadcast entirely using sign language, voice-over and subtitles, making it accessible to hearing as well as deaf viewers. It had been on air since 1981 and is still broadcast today, making it one of the longest running programmes ever. Designer Morgan Almeida deliberately set out to create a more dynamic, contemporary feel for the show. Working with a limited budget, the concept was simply to portray hearing through seeing on TV i.e. with sign language.
In order to make the title sequence a diverse group of deaf actors were videoed against green screen, each signing key elements about the show. Then background footage was created by videoing extreme close-ups of a TV screen featuring their eyes. The screen's pixel texture made for a distinctive digital background. The actors were then composited over the backgrounds using a Quantel Henry, the first digital multilayer compositing system, which had just been released in 1992 and quickly established itself as the industry standard for commercials and motion graphics. Cut to the visceral beats of the show's driving music theme, finally the text overlays were added to emphasise and explain each signed word to non-deaf viewers.