THE EXPERIMENT

Watch the case study video: https://vimeo.com/127260485

Five VFX artists with different creative influences and various skill-sets were intrigued by the idea of collaborating on a design project with no planned outcome. If they created separate VFX shots using footage from the same shoot, then cut it back together, would the result be creative or disastrous? They had no storyboard, no script, no boundaries and no restrictions.

They initially agreed on the rules of the experiment. Firstly, they would require a “blank canvas”, or in this instance a single location with non-descript background features. Secondly, a couple of subjects to inspire creativity at the “experimental” stage, in this instance, a goat and a bikini model. The two men wearing hazmat suits and gasmasks was a late addition to complement the experimental theme.

With no storyboards or shotlist, the artists approached the shoot with no predetermined ideas of how they would utilise the footage.

After the shoot, the artists independently selected shots from the raw footage that inspired them. Then the experimenting began. Sometimes it would take weeks to decide what to do with a shot. Other times an artist would spend days working on an idea only to scrap it and start again, or abandon it only to combine it with new idea weeks later.

Once completed, the shots were given to an editor who hadn't previously seen the material. He was also working without a brief and was free to experiment with the edit, taking inspiration from the individual shots, resulting in a creative, visually interesting piece with no planned narrative.