Rowan tasked Steve and Danny to build the sequence’s narrative around Savile’s gravestone and detailed epitaph. The gravestone and its destruction were recreated in CG so it could be used as a metaphor to depict the scale and nature of Savile’s betrayal of a nation.
Created by 72 Films and directed by Rowan Deacon, the documentary series utilizes archive footage and interviews to examine how the disgraced television star Jimmy Savile managed to conceal his crimes for over five decades.
Posted on Wednesday, April 6, 2022 · Leave a Comment
“The challenge was to create a piece that was both cinematic and narrative-driven using only the gravestone as our subject so the pre-production process was quite involved.
Coffee & TV’s Steve Waugh and Danny Boyle have co-directed the title sequence for Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story which launches on Netflix today.
Watch the director’s cut:
From the release:
[embedded content]
Client: 72 Films
Series director: Rowan Deacon
Series producer: Laura Watts
“We carefully highlighted certain phrases from the epitaph that now in hindsight bore double-meanings with regards to reality we now know. We made it so the gold glinted but wasn’t polished and we destroyed the grave, not in a dramatic explosion, but in a sad crumble. We wanted everything we did to convey the content and tone of the documentary.”
Danny Boyle: “We really wanted to vividly portray the story of Savile’s reputation using his gravestone as a metaphor, from the grandeur and stardom he achieved in his life right through to the collapse of his ‘national treasure’ persona under the vast weight of evidence surrounding his awful crimes.
Production: Coffee & TV
Director: Steve Waugh, Danny Boyle
CG supervisor: Richard Coley
CG: Josh George, Rich Coley, Ben Cantor, Alessandro Costa, Adam Lindsey
2D Comp: Dan Ruiz, Ozgur Tapari
Colorist: George Neave
Producer: Lydia Evitt
