love at first sip

We all know it: some projects we put in all our heart's blood and then, for... reasons, it never gets to see the daylight. This project is one of those, which is why I removed the voice-over and any hint to the client so I can show it here.

Initially the film should serve the purpose to set the tone for a day-long learning-event and exhibition about coffee. It should spark passion and in the same moment give gentle nods in the directions of the topics to be touched during the course of the day.

So, we leaned into that passion, got those candles and the passion burning and wrote a love letter. As a fitting look to the story, while the letter was read by a whispering voice, images would start to fill with coffee - the ink to our words of love.

We ran several tests and came up with the strategy. After illustrating the shapes, they were divided into all the parts they could possibly be divided into. Then we projected those onto paper, making it possible to trace the exact same shapes over and over again.

Projector off, camera on. Now the ink was let into the shape with a pipette, creating the material later to be composed into shapes filling up with ink magically by themselves. It was amazing how nerdy one could get about the right angle & movement of the hand and, though being able to control it to a certain point, how different the results still would be turning out.

After a week of shooting, we finally had all our material and the final film was composed in After Effects to the piece it now is. What I especially love about this project, is the combination of live-action, illustration and compositing - a marriage of the digital and analogue.