Behind the Scenes with Cocklins Digital

The Project

A behind the scenes look at a video shoot at the Art of Fire, skilled glassblowers creating handmade works of art. What does it look like when Cocklins Digital films on location? What gear is used? Why shoot in 4K? What difference does it make? What about editing the footage and creating the graphics?

The Content

Arriving at the artisan’s studio we loaded in our gear (Sony F5 camera and prime HD lenses, tripod, slider, dolly, mics, mixer and lights) and put our two artisans, Todd and Foster, at ease. We went over what they wanted to accomplish in the video and how we could best deliver that to them.

The Theme

We had them each create 2 identical pieces from start to finish so that we could obtain as many shots as possible (wide, tight, dolly, slider) for the edit. We mixed up the shooting style between tripod, handheld and dolly/slider shots. Using the Sony F5 camera with prime HD lenses we shot in 4K Slog-3 Cine EI at 23.978fps. Many of the hand held and dolly shots were recorded between 40 and 90 frames per second.

The interviews were simply lit using soft light on the interviewee while working with natural light streaming in from the windows. For the final shot presenting their diverse artwork, we draped a table with a paper background and used the dolly to pan across their beautiful handmade pieces of glass.

The Results

We edited the footage using Avid Media Composer and, as it was shot in 4K for 1080, it gave us improved picture quality, the flexibility to reframe any scene and extend the shelf life of the footage. In post the log interviews were delogged and color corrected in DaVinci Resolve.

After Effects proved highly valuable as a tool to focus the viewer on whatever object Todd was making. By creating a mask around the object we added color to the piece inside the mask and outside the mask the color was subtracted, frame by frame. The viewers eye is drawn to the color and the focus is placed on the piece as it is being formed. The shape of the mask changes to match Todd’s movement.

We love After Effects as it is incredibly versatile in creating complex graphic images. We used it to create the amazing graphic video open which resembles the glory hole (furnace) where the molten glass is kept. 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.