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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

  • Melting point: degrees 85.57 degrees Fahrenheit (29.76 degrees Celsius)

  • Phase at room temperature: solid

This element melts effectively in warm water (almost too effectively)

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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 

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Shot with 25X Macro lens

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twist.jpg
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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.

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