Sloss Festival
Promotional Video
Task
Sloss Festival is a music and arts festival in Birmingham, Alabama, anchored in the industrial past of this city. The goal was to redesign the previously illustrative promotions for the festival. I wanted to maintain the integrity of the historic blast furnaces while reminding viewers of the high energy of the cast iron process.
Process
*aka the meltdown
Combining the motif of turning scrap metal into liquid, I wanted to emphasize the process of cast iron. In previous years, the lineup has been popular alternative rock bands, such as Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Young the Giant, etc. I knew the background track needed to be simple yet match visual impact, and with a location that carries this much history, I wanted a soulful heavy bass.
Gallium
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Melting point: degrees 85.57 degrees Fahrenheit (29.76 degrees Celsius)
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Phase at room temperature: solid
This element melts effectively in warm water (almost too effectively)
I placed the metal on a plastic bag to dry, and some interesting shapes formed as it solidified. I took pictures and did some motion tests with displacement maps on 3D layers to create a sense of depth. Each layer moved at different speeds, and I was trying to push the displacement until I felt it lost it's credibility so I could know when to draw it back.
Shot with Canon DSLR
Shot with 25X Macro lens
Result
After taking these pictures, I was confident I could give off grit, magic and mystery to the audience while still paying an homage to its metallic past.
I took multiple images of the gallium as it melted to give it a stop motion effect, recorded time lapses to show smoother progressions, and time-remapped movements to create high energy.
In total, this was a sequence of 6 images and 2 time remaps adapted to the motions that initially inspired me. My pace for the movement was to start slowly, crescendo and decrescendo for the final announcement.