The pressure of an opening

I was tasked with coming up with an idea and subsequent board for the opening credits of Mr. King. The one catch was that it needed to be 30 seconds in length. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem as most opening themes today are on the peppy/high energy side. The plan for MR. King however, was to be a series that had a quiet type of energy. I also wanted to steer clear of an opening that had lyrics. " Mr. King, yeah, Mr. King, yeah, he's so remarkable...that Mr. King, yeahhhhhh."

Booo...

I've always loved the opening musical theme to Babar. Thought it was sweet, pretty, and beautiful. And recognizable. Norm Beaver, one of the heads of our music department, cast the net and we received 10 submissions of various themes. Long story short I chose a piece, the rough version you'll hear in the attached video, from Erica Procunier. Now that I had the piece of music the boarding could begin. My initial thought was for the opening to have a series of backgrounds representing each of the characters homes, pop up like a pop up book. One BG swinging toward camera only to be replaced by another. I tried this first and determined it didn't work. Back to the drawing tablet I tried another version where each location would" paint on. Again this didn't work as there were too many characters homes to show. I then tried a different approach entirely by having Mr. King paint his castle home as each character came to watch. Though it kind worked time wise I finally determined that no one, the audience most importantly, would know what the heck was going on. I grew increasingly more frustrated and also knew the clock was ticking as far as deadlines go.
On a Wednesday night, a week ago from this posting, I decided to just throw in the towel and stop. I'd have to ask for some sort of extension in the morning. Went to bed. The next morning I arrived at work and decided to open the very first pass/attempt that I had boarded. I stared at it for about 30 seconds then decided to cut my first background, which was Mr. King's house. This was all it took and it timed almost perfectly to the music. Obviously I had to climb a mountain to fully understand what I had at the base. Thankfully it has been well received by our group of commenters and I am happy to share the leica for the opening, with rough temp music, below.
Looking very much forward to the final product.