The Case
For a very first time, National Geographic decide to put personal stories in the highlights. They wanted to reach out to some of their most extraordinary explorers and promote their work in an attempt to inspire the next wave of local heroes.
The Solution
We teamed up with National Geographic to create the Spark - a series of short, intense bio films centered around extraordinary people and their impact on the world.
We traveled 4 continents, in snow and deserts, beaches and labs to decoct breathtaking imagery, bold ideas, vivid visual techniques and deep inspiration into insightful portraits of the inner and outer journeys of our characters into greatness.
4 explorers, 4 continents
Yukinori Kawae, Japan
Egyptologist
A martial arts specialist turned egyptologist. Yukinori-san’s team is responsible for creating astonishing 3D models of the pyramids of Giza, unraveling the mysteries of their creation. Our job was to create an awesome video about his story in the midst of the pandemic, with all borders closed, making this feat particularly challenging. We had to direct shooting sessions 5K miles across. We had to shoot Ancient Egypt without having our protagonist on the set, and we had to put together a massive bulk of different materials while keeping it coherent and relevant. Did we make it? You'll be the judge of it!
Albert Lin, USA
Scientist
Albert Lin is a bionic scientist, entrepreneur and philanthropist with such an amazing range of skills and interests that making a 3 minutes film about him was the hardest thing we ever faced. We spent three days with him in a multitude of amazing places ranging from the desert sands of Salton Sea through the playful waves of San Diego’s shore line and his own living room full of musical instruments from all over the world. We fell in love with the guy, his restless spirit , the depth of his knowledge and the vivid approach to live that drives the very fabric of the universe around him.
Asha De Vos, Sri Lanka
Marine Biologist
Asha De Vos is a renowned marine biologist from Sri Lanka, one of the most influential nature conservationist and a true whales hero. But above all, Asha De Vos is one of the most genuine and amazing people we have ever had the honor to meet. In the course of the two weeks, we spent on this tropical paradise in the Indian Ocean, we had the rare chance to film whales, jungles, busy cities, and picturesque landscapes but the most wonderful encounter we had was the warm-hearted and authentic story that open-minded Asha shared with us.
David Lang, USA
Entrepreneur
David Lang is a vivid entrepreneur and strong supporter of the citizen-driven science movement. He spends most of his time in a spacious storage hall in Berkely quietly building underwater drones and proving that it is never too late to change course and follow your dreams. David has been a true inspiration for us and people all over the world that true exploration is not dead and amazing things are waiting to be revealed. And the most wonderful part of that is that anyone can do it!
The Process
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Pre-viz
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Final
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Pre-viz
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Final
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Pre-viz
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Final
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Pre-viz
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Final
Preparing for remote shoots was the key for the success of this project. When you combine the intricacies of a docu run-n-gun shooting on a tight budget, with the difficulties of operating in different countries with different cultures and systems, you just want to get things down to the minutest details possible.
So with each shoot we had to coordinate a complicated, three-fold operation.
1) Scripting the mainframe of the story but keeping details open for interpretation once we get on-site.
2) Directing, and acquiring the talent footage within the constraints of availability and locations.
3) Putting everything together in our facility in Sofia, Bulgaria and adding an extra layer of animation, motion graphics, archive footage and reenactments to support the story in the best way possible.
Here are some excerpts from the process of shooting the Yukinori Kawae piece. Which had this entirely new level of complexity due to the pandemic lock-downs and the fact that our Egyptologist was stuck in Japan and Egypt was stuck in... well... Egypt.
We had to do a meticulously detailed pre-production process for a shoot that we can't actually attend. We relied on a local crew in Nagoya to get our footage right and had to direct them over a call, 5K miles away, at 2 am in the morning. It was fun!
Then our own crew traveled to Giza in Egypt to do some extensive b-roll and compositing plates so we can recreate as close as possible Yuki's actual work.
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Pre-viz
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Final
The Elements
We aimed to develop a unique visual language for The Spark series, crafting a distinct look and feel that would instantly transport viewers into a different state of mind. To achieve this, we combined a variety of elements and techniques, including animation, editing, double exposure portraits, and reenactments. The result is a fresh and unforgettable signature experience that has become synonymous with the series.
Animation
As a pre-production and IP development studio, we possess impressive design, animation, and compositing capabilities. We take great pleasure in applying these skills to our documentary projects. This approach not only makes the films more engaging and immersive but also serves as a cohesive element for documentary footage, particularly when there is insufficient material to fully convey the story.
For The Spark series, we aimed to incorporate both 2D and 3D animation to depict historical reenactments or visualize the character's inner journey. This method naturally allowed us to establish a metaphorical distinction between real-world events and the more abstract, philosophical aspects of the storytelling presented on screen.
Editing
As a pre-production and IP development studio, we possess impressive design, animation, and compositing capabilities. We take great pleasure in applying these skills to our documentary projects. This approach not only makes the films more engaging and immersive but also serves as a cohesive element for documentary footage, particularly when there is insufficient material to fully convey the story.
For The Spark series, we aimed to incorporate both 2D and 3D animation to depict historical reenactments or visualize the character's inner journey. This method naturally allowed us to establish a metaphorical distinction between real-world events and the more abstract, philosophical aspects of the storytelling presented on screen.
Double Exposure Portraits
The double-exposure technique has its roots into classic film photography where one exposes two different scenarios over the same strip of film to combine them in an imaginative way.
Inspired by iconic True Detectives opening sequence we wanted to introduce a similar effect in motion in order to visualize both the outer and the inner worlds of our characters.
For each of our explorers we did an entire shooting day of green screen footage that could later be used in the compositing to create a wide variety of interesting combinations.
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Reenactments
To stay true to Nat Geo's DNA we had to go the extra mile and do a proper reenactments from our explorers' past and present. But, of course, there should have been a twist in that as well.
We wanted to reenact past events in explorer's lives as a metaphor for their spiritual ascendance. So we did seek some historical accuracy on one hand but on the other we wanted to add some artistic twist to it.
The Mongol shaman from Albert's episode is the perfect example of how we implented reeanctemnts in the mix.
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The Results
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Yukinori Kawae, Japan
Egyptologist
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Albert Lin, USA
Scientist
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Asha De Vos, Sri Lanka
Marine Biologist
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David Lang, USA
Entrepreneur
continents
4
countries
5
shooting
days
25
1000+
shots
hours of
compositing
1.5K
2m+
views
