Combining Footage and motion Graphics
Gareth Edwards directs a gorgeous title sequence for the BBC series How We Built Britain (2007). As far as the creative process, he proposed eight different concepts, which didn’t quite win the client over. By the end of the meeting, with an increased understanding of the scope of the project, Gareth pitched the winning idea: designing the letters of the show’s title as buildings spread across Britain’s landscapes. The letters would showcase the architectural styles explored in the series that spanned a thousand years of British architecture: medieval castles and churches, Scotland’s buildings, Georgian houses, Victorian buildings, and modern skyscrapers.
Gareth sifted through BBC’s aerial video footage and selected some shots that would be appropriate for the concept. He tracked the footage using Boujou and composited on it the modeled and textured giant 3D letters he created with 3D Studio Max.
Figure 1.2a Title cards from "How we Built Britain" (2007).
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The sequence begins with a view behind a Jeep starting a journey on a desolate road. As the orchestral score builds and the cuts begin to be synced to music, we see a wide shot of an odd castle. Just to clear any doubts, the camera cuts in to confirm that what we are seeing is indeed the letter B. All other letters, R-I-T-A-I-N, are slowly revealed across the landscape in a variety of architectural styles that increasingly become more modern.
Throughout the piece we do not lose touch with our Jeep, which, as a narrator, is guiding us to explore all these landscapes and buildings in first person. The use of point-of-view shots from inside the Jeep reinforces the feeling that it is indeed the viewer who is the hero conducting the journey; this technique projects the audience into the story—not as a spectator but as the story’s hero.
The final shot reveals the entire title BRITAIN, composed of the individual letters/buildings arranged neatly in a British skyline, while our Jeep crosses the screen, revealing the director’s credit.
Other notable title sequences that employ video and motion graphics include Run, Lola, Run (Tom Tykwer, 1998) and Stranger Than Fiction (Marc Forster, 2006), created by MK12.
