Clemens Habicht has directed these channel idents for a rebrand of UKTV Watch.
They are a collection of charming films that typify Clemen’s crafted approach. By using a “troop” of characters dressed in black and shooting everything in reverse the everyday scenes come to life as all the disparate elements, characters and props are brought together. They work so well as idents as they demand repeat viewing in order to take in all the detail and understand the process.
Some of the idents were shot at high speed to make the most of elements that flew through the air. This further complicated the shoot. Actors, troop and camera crew had to be choreographed to perform their actions in perfect order and on queue over the course of ten hectic seconds that in turn were destined to be reversed. It’s testament to Clemens cool approach that he pulled it off over two days of shooting.
Our job primarily was to grade the idents and set a level of legibility for the troop. We created the balance between the troop appearing overly obvious and perhaps distracting to what’s going on, with the need to understand them as a fun and creative element of each film. We also were tasked with animating in the endboards on three of the four idents to make them feel like they were physically on set and shot at the same time as the rest of the action. Lastly there was a sizeable amount of cleanup throughout to get such a pure “out of black” look.
Director: Clemens Habicht
Prod Company: Nexus Productions
Prod Co. Producer: Isobel Conroy
Agency: HarrimanSteel
Creative Director: Julian Harriman-Dickinson
Agency Producer: Beth McQueen
Designer: Stina Smith
DOP: Nick Bennett
Production Designer: James Hatt
Editor: Dominic Leung (Trim)
Time Based Arts
Flame: James Allen, Mike Skrgatic, Sheldon Gardner, Timo Huber