Animation BA Honours students have produced the title sequence for this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures hosted by the BBC as part of Westminster’s Lumiere 125 scheme.
The Christmas Lectures Title Sequence is one of the projects enabled by the Lumiere 125 scheme. Working within the restrictions of lockdown, a team of Animation BA students have produced the title sequence for the three programmes in the series. They had just ten days to create the animation.
Every year the BBC hosts the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and with an audience of two million, the lectures are something of a Christmas tradition. Apart from a four-year break during the second world war, the lectures have been held every Christmas since 1827, when renowned scientist Michael Faraday delivered the first one from the famous lecture theatre of the Royal Institution.
The links between the Royal Institution and the University of Westminster go back a very long way. In 1847, Professor John Henry Pepper became the first director of the Royal Polytechnic Institution, which was the antecedent organisation of the University, and began delivering his own series of scientific lectures to the working people of London, from the Royal Polytechnic on Regent Street.
Our professor is probably best known for his stage illusion “Pepper’s Ghost” – which is the origin of the modern stage hologram. Michael Faraday took a great interest in the Ghost illusion, and Pepper gave him a behind-the-scenes tour to explain its secret. Pepper’s Projection Theatre is now the University’s Regent Street Cinema, which, incidentally, hosted Britain’s first film screening in 1896.
Both Institutions have continued in their mission to educate, inform and entertain to this day, and to that end the University is currently celebrating the 125th anniversary of the birth of British Cinema, through its “Lumiere 125” scheme, aiming to offer students a variety of exciting enrichment activities, with the generous support of the Quintin Hogg Trust.
This year, the Christmas Lectures will be hosted by Helen Czerski, Tara Shine and Chris Jackson. Over three lectures, the presenters will be focussing on Earth, Oceans and the Atmosphere respectively, exploring the science behind climate change and what power humans have to affect it.
The Christmas Lectures are produced by Windfall Films Ltd for BBC Four. Filmed in the iconic lecture theatre at the Royal Institution, they are broadcast on three nights between Christmas and New Year.
Talking about the project, Animation BA Honours student Alice Siniscalchi said: "It was great to have the opportunity to experience a real live commercial project, and we all got an appreciation of how quickly professionals are expected to work. I was amazed at how our team pulled together and got so much done in such a short time. I am looking forward to seeing our work on TV during the Christmas break!”
Windfall’s Series Director, Henry Fraser said: “The title sequence for this year’s Christmas Lectures is stunning. It pulls together a huge amount of content from all three lectures in a coherent, dynamic and visually compelling way. For a subject as big as the Earth this was no mean feat. We are extremely grateful to all the hard-working students who contributed to the animation and hope you can all enjoy it on your tv screens on BBC4 over Christmas!”
