Springwatch '06

CBeebies's Springwatch was launched in 2006 and consisted of a 40 minute daytime show for the under five's.

Working in collaboration with designer / director David McCue, we were asked to create four individual title sequences, the overall brand for the show and the graphics.

We wanted to create a tactile and engaging world which was handmade and full of fun.

We built a multi-functional set, which allowed us to rearrange the props thus creating the four separate sequences.

All four were based on a left to right pan to suggest a sense of narrative and also to make best use of the depth and parallax of our set.

In the bottom right of this shot you can see a grey box which housed an old gramaphone clockwork mechanism which was used to pull the camera at a steady rate - a sort of motion control - with a few squeaks.

We attempted to capture as much as possible in camera so for this shot we mounted the magnifying glass on the dolly and created a puppet caterpillar which was operated from below.

This was a hugely satisfying project, I learned a huge amount about lighting and camera work and just how important space is when you are working on this scale.