Concept and creative process
The brief for this new BBC One drama was to design and art direct a title sequence featuring all of the main protagonists. Designer Steven Aspinall recalls his work on the title sequence. “Originally this was meant to be a straightforward sequence revealing the actors one by one, but it just didn’t work. When we did the shoot on the ‘Judge John Deed’ set on location at The American College in Hertfordshire, I noticed how dominant the red of Martin Shaw’s Judge’s robe was. It seem to signify great power and authority. I lay the robe down on the floor and got Tim Green, the Director of Photography, to shoot slow panning shots over it. This formed the background to the sequence, over which the shots of the actors were introduced in clean smaller frames. I’m really happy with the typography on this, which was a little bit inspired by the work for the record label 4AD of Vaughan Oliver, who had sadly recently passed away.” Steven Aspinall edited the sequence himself in the Quantel HAL suite at BBC Television Centre.