The Story Of English Furniture (1978)

Concept and creative process

Titles for a series, ‘The Story of English Furniture’, presented by Hugh Scully, that spanned six centuries as Arthur Negus expounded on his favourite subject - furniture. A gilt oval frame was cut out, mounted on a clear acetate cel over stills of the room settings and filmed on a rostrum camera together with an oval matte and master. This enabled the live action footage of furniture making and restoration to be vignetted inside the gilt frame in a subsequent film optical at the laboratory. The credits were hot foil blocked in white on cels and filmed with the oval frame over an illustrated background.