Schulz & Friends developed a concept which revolved around simplicity and minimalism. Director Ole Borgmeier and DoP Maciej Rolbiecki utilised it with harmonic camera moves and a soft organic colour palet underlining the clear shape of the product.
We provided motion control services, high-speed videography, SFX on set, camera and light equipment and the studio.
One of the biggest challenges we faced during pre-shooting was keeping the moves shake free. The 24mm probe lens from LAOWA creates great visual results when combined with ALEXA LF systems. On the other hand, such a long optical device and the large format sensor favour the appearance of shaking. After a series of tests and post-production adjustments we solved the issues and DP and director were very satisfied with the results.
Clearly the highlights of the session was the flying-capsules-shot. We custom build a pneumatic bash-table which can shoot objects vertically. Our motion control software triggers both camera and bash-table enabling all components to work in a synchronised mode. We spent time adjusting the harmonic interaction between the camera and the capsule’s motion.
Under the supervision of DP our 2nd unit took care of the shooting while the robot arm was used on the main set.
Even though the setup looks easy to do, the background work is enormous. Each take required 60l. of fresh liquid but with our SFX know-how we built a drainage system in our studio and things got more efficient.
For all liquid shots we provided a system of pumps on set to nearly eliminate the stops between takes speeding up the workflow.
A 2 seconds film take, when shot with 1000 fps on a Phantom Flex 4K, becomes a 3,5 minutes long sequence. This gave some work to our DiT department as we edited directly on set and were able to show the results to the client.
The client insisted on a natural look and we used only real products. The final pack-shot required multi-passes which we did with each individual coffee type and merged them in post-production directly on the set. As a result we could eliminate any unwanted reflections and battled the challenge of capturing freshly made coffee drinks as setting up six cups at the same time was nearly impossible.
The end result speaks for itself – a well balanced stylish visual presentation which definitely makes you want to have a tasty cup of coffee.
