The Art of Glassblowing

DC production company Cocklins Digital filmed with the Sony PMW F5 in 4K SLog2, color corrected using DaVinci Resolve. Titles made using After Effects.

The Project

Glassblowing: skilled artisans combining their craftsmanship and artistry with brightly colored glass to create handmade works of art. The ancient art of glassblowing is alive today, at the Art of Fire in Maryland. We found ourselves surrounded in their studio with a visual extravaganza with colors of all kinds in handmade vases, bowls, stemware, whimsical animals, ornaments, hanging ornaments and more.

The Content

Working inside the artisan’s studio with Todd and Foster, we followed the process of glassblowing from raw glass through the melting and shaping process. We felt the roar of the glory hole (furnace) at 1,900 °F and filmed our artisans working with the hot, molten glass. We watched as the glassblowers took glass and shaped it into almost any form by swinging it on a rod and controlling the temperature of the piece while they blew short puffs of air into the molten glass.

The Theme

The studio, a former dairy barn, has a wall of windows along the southern side flooding the studio with natural light. We used the natural light streaming in from the windows along with our Kino Flo lighting for the interviews. The footage was shot in 4K Slog-3 with our Sony F5 camera and prime lenses. We used an assortment of gear we have on hand (tripod, dolly and slider) to vary the shots and added movement to the scene by combining tripod shots with hand held. Footage was also shot in slow motion from 40/90fps.

The Results

We edited the footage using Avid Media Composer and, as it was shot in 4K for 2K, we had the ability to reframe scenes in post. DaVinci Resolve proved highly valuable as a tool to emphasize and change color. Masks were created around the artwork and color was keyed matching the movement of the artisans; outside the mask color was reduced. After Effects was also used to create the amazing graphic video open. We used Fractal Noise to create the heat and word character effects and Trapcode Particular for the sparks and burning fire which interact with the text.

Dolly Shot For Glass Blowing Video