Val Meets the VIPs (1974)

Concept and creative process

Valerie Singleton, the former ‘Blue Peter’ presenter, talked to people who had earned the title 'Very Important Person'. An audience of children joined in and put their questions to the celebrity VIP of that week. In the first series a back-lit rostrum film technique had been used, whereas this sequence was top-lit. For this second series of the programme the approach was to create a different look and feel to the first sequence, despite the music track being the same. The idea of purely animating the logo remained the same. The background for the titles consisted of a sky effect, which panned through the screen. The animation of the logo in outline was created by hand, as this was the time of pre-computerised animation, and was filmed top-lit on a rostrum camera. To do this kind of animation without a shudder was incredibly difficult and involved perfect accuracy. The animation was by Freddy Shackell. The idea required a series of different endings to be designed and shot separately.