Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
To launch PartyLite’s new GloLite Jar Candle they approached us to produce an out of the box, dynamic 30-second spot.
We developed the idea of a stop motion animated commercial where the candles would dance across the screen.
The main challenge with the concept, is that stop motion animation takes a long to do.
A 30 second commercial actually takes 6 days to shoot. So over the 6 days, if we lit the candles they would burn down and melt.
To add a further layer of complexity, the amazing thing about the GloLite candle is that when you light it – the light travels down inside the candle and the whole candle glows.
So we need to figure out how to make them glow from within as if they were lit and get this shot, without lighting a candle.
So three weeks before the shoot, we began the design and creation of the 35 candles we’d need.
They’d sent us the jars separately with a hole drilled in the bottom as we requested and the plugs completely separate.
Now the challenge is these plugs don’t fit in. So we need to get this plug into this jar perfectly to look like a factory candle.
Essentially there are two components - effects we can do in-camera, and things we have to do digitally.
After a month of testing different lighting and prop building techniques, we know we have to shorten the wicks...
...colour them black to look as if they are burnt and paint little pools of resin on the surface to look like melted wax.
We then we drill a hole through the wax plug, put a special order LED light inside and it glows.
It’s a ton of work for 30 seconds of video, but the little details are what’s going to make the finished video look awesome.
- It’s a pretty yellow colour temperature right now. - Yeah, we’ll we’re on tungsten right now.
That’s the challenge. You know when you have LED blub lighting, you have movie lighting, it’s just the matter of finding the right balance.
I think it looks like a dance floor. I think it looks like a beautify spotlight. I think the low depth of field really works.
You’re constantly checking between where your last frame is and your current frame.
That’s our last frame and this is our current one.
So if we want to spin it and keep it in the same spot, you know I would spin it and try and keep it there. And then we would look at it…
…and that’s pretty good but if it’s over here you can tell right away right? So you just keep going back and forth, keep adjusting until it’s perfect.
I’m not sure what the math is but it’s a lot of back and forth. I’ll bring the computer closer so that it’s not so far to go every time. It’s the nature of the beast.
Start slowly. So these are the two heroes. Instead of right away spinning, I would do one like this, and one like that and then that one starts spinning.
- Okay. -So that way in the easing up, they’re doing this.
There’s so much you can plan for this. You know, you think of all these variables but when you actually start doing it you find new ones.
It’s just a matter of working together, collaborating with Evan and like in you mind always keep that you want a good result and doing whatever you can to get to that within the time allowed and budget. That’s pretty much it.