The Third Degree: Powerbrokers - The Legacy (2004)

Concept and creative process

'Power Brokers - The Legacy' was a documentary in the BBC Three strand 'The Third Degree'. It told the story of how Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev transformed Britain and the Soviet Union during their time as political premiers. The title sequence was an inventive evocation of the 1980s by means of a cut-out montage dioroma depicting key political events, personalities and fashions in a continuously panning and tracking shot. It parodied the style of a title sequence from the 1980s, filmed as if on a multi-plane model set, cleverly re-created in post-production with digitally cut-out images and virtual camera moves.