Sketchbook ‘Look’

We made this promo for our favorite brewery in the Chicagoland area, Sketchbook Brewing. It’s a fun mix of handmade elements, with some slick compositing and some 3D assets sprinkled in, here and there, for good measure.

CBVB - ‘Been in Trouble Before’

We had the pleasure of creating this music video for the band CBVB. We leaned into the song’s lyrics about trickery and lack of trust by creating scenes where you weren’t quite sure what to believe, where there were cuts (if there were any), when we were using motion control shots and when we were using doubles, etc. It’s a bit of an homage to magic and filmmaking and we loved how it all turned out.

CBVB - Behind the Scenes

Here’s a look at some tests as we were programming both the motion control moves and the lighting cues to work all together. It took a while to get everything in sync, but once we had it going, it all performed flawlessly.

Field Notes ‘Spade and Archer’

For this special edition for Field Notes, we wanted to recreate the opening of the classic noir, The Maltese Falcon. We built the set, complete with a matte painting street scene, then utilized our Cinebot to create the move through the door and onto the desk in a fluid, organic way. We lit it Old Hollywood-style and the results turned out just great.

Buona Beef - Roll Cut Studios

We had a blast working on this collection of shots for the Buona Beef restaurants via the always amazing Roll Cut Studios. Here’s a little Behind the Scenes of a rigged shot for a dynamic sandwich drop.

Solemn Oath Brewery ‘Stay Blue’

Our friends at Solemn Oath were preparing to launch a new line of sparkling water. We made content with our motion control robot framed for 9x16 for individual social clips, as well as 16x9 for a longer, dynamic edit, full of animation. Not only did we use the robot on this one, we also shot some 1500 frames-per-second slow-motion sections of cans dropping into a water tank, to capture the product in a fun, energetic way.

Lifeway ‘Pumpkin Spice’

For Lifeway’s limited edition Pumpkin Spice release, we wanted to create a fun tabletop setup evoking the autumn season, mixed with some great robot moves. We created both 16x9 and 9x16 finished pieces for the campaign.

Lifeway ‘Collagen’

We were tasked with making a series of :15 spots for Lifeway’s new Smoothie+Collagen drink, so we filmed all sorts of beauty shots of the bottles, as well as a ton of slow motion, dropping fruit into a running blender (it made a mess, yes, but it sure looks great).

Jack White ‘Buttons’

Our pal Matthew Jacobson does a lot of work with the musician Jack White and had recently put together a great poster and buttons box set that he wanted to show off. We spent some time at the studio, all on the same sweep, flipping posters, getting closeups with probe lenses, throwing buttons and shooting them in slow motion, and capturing it all with our Cinebot.

Lifeway ‘Watermelon’

For Lifeway’s limited edition Watermelon Kefir, we wanted to try a number of things with our Cinebot. Hero shots of the bottle and watermelon, absolutely, but we also stuck the bottle and the fruit on a motion controlled turntable, masked everything out, then reassembled it into some fun animations. Because we shot it all practically, it looks so much better than CGI (because it’s real!)

A short making-of for the Field Notes ‘Spade and Archer’ piece above, showing the build and the Cinebot in action.