Three Up, Two Down (1986)

Concept and creative process

Titles for a comedy sitcom about in-laws forced to share a flat below their children, who have just become the proud parents of a baby boy. Iain Greenway’s ‘Three Up, Two Down’ programme logo, developed out of a witty arrangement of the type sizes and words of the title, and cleverly symbolised the domestic situation. 
This simple opening sequence was created by preparing typographic artwork on transparent photographic acetates and then filming them on a rostrum camera. A dope sheet (written timeline instruction) was prepared for the animation sequence that specified the length of holds and speed of dissolves to capture the piece in-camera, fully finished and to length. The smoke was animated and filmed in the same pass utilising a cycling series of animation cells.