| How and when
did Seven first approach you to design the credits? |
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Zspace was approached to pitch for the
design of the title sequence in August 2003. We were one
of a number of companies bidding for the chance to design
the new opening titles. |
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| What were
Seven's original Guidelines? Was there anything they specifically
wanted / didn't want in the Credits? |
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The titles had to reflect the feel of the
show with the number one pre-requisite that it needed to
feature the cast very prominently. Seven wanted us to look
at a colour change and shorten the titles to give them more
pace. The titles had to keep the same Home & Away logo and
had to be flexible to cope with various cast changes. |
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| Did you research
past Opening Titles to get an idea of what Seven and the
viewers might want? |
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A lot of research and development goes
into the development of a new idea as such. With any project
it’s always better to have a look at what has been done
before to try and “shake things up” a bit. |
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| How did your
team set about choosing the style and design of the Credits? |
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Zspace senior designer, Emile Rademeyer
came up with the look and style of the whole package with
Creative Director, Jean-Christophe Danoy keeping a watchful
eye over the whole process. Emile’s idea came from the research
he did, wanting to bring a fresh, new and organic identity
to the show. Zspace’s design philosophy is to create work
distinct from what is currently on television. Challenged
by the brief, we set out to present the audience with a
tempting glimpse of what the upcoming show has to offer:
It’s all about setting an exciting and appropriate scene. |
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| How was the
sequence created and recorded? Did using a mix of CGI and
real shots present any problems? |
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Under Zspace supervision, the wonderful
Home & Away crew filmed all the backgrounds at various locations
around Sydney and the North Coast. A big thanks to our Design
Producer, Sam Hall, trying to predict suitable weather for
the filming 3 weeks in advance! The location shots were
combined with the studio shots of the cast, filmed against
a massive green screen at Seven’s studios. The shots were
then composited together, some consisting of up to 2 background
plates, the frame-shot and the cast. Matching the lighting
of the exterior and interior plates as well as working in
High Definition were the main challenges. It came together
remarkably well in the end and since the original titles
we have filmed the cast twice over with new backgrounds
and new frames! |
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| What were
the cast like to work with? |
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The cast were fantastic. They had to cope with their
normal filming schedule as well as our demands on top of
it all! They were literally being shuffled from set to our
shoot and back again – talk about exhausting! Even when
our visual effects shots became fiddly and time consuming
they kept a smile up and kept us laughing on set.
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| In the Credits,
Dani and Scott's shot remains the only one not to feature
a distinct Picture Frame theme. Was there a specific reason
for not making this shot in the same theme as the rest of
the Credits? |
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No, we just felt that it worked best like that. There
is another one of those coming up soon....
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| Before the
2004 season begun, Seven ran a promo featuring various shots
from the new credits - different to the ones actually used.
How many variations of each shot were actually created -
and whose decision was it over which one made it into the
final cut? |
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It’s always a bit of a group effort on which shots make
the cut. We have our favourites and the guys at the Home
& Away have theirs. We usually agree. There were a fair
amount of background shots that did not suit the set-up
and were too busy. Hence some of them have been used for
other things.
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| The Credits
have been updated numerous times since they were introduced
in January. Does your team work on designing and shooting
these new shots when needed, or was all creative control
passed over to Seven after the original design process? |
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No, it’s an ongoing relationship and process. |
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| Looking back,
what aspects of the Credits are you most and least proud
of? |
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To be able to have matched the look conceptualised
in the original storyboards accurately is always very important.
To try and emulate the original idea as best as you can.
That we have made a set of titles that is genuinely liked,
is always something to be very proud of. |
