eyeball Visualises Audio in Stunning Film for Master & Dynamic
Creative strategic design agency eyeball recently completed a :90 brand film for luxury headphone manufacturer Master & Dynamic. Since the brand produces beautifully crafted audio devices for the modern workspace, the concept of the film had to reflect the richness of its products and creative philosophy: sound is an essential creative element that transports and inspires the mind.
Collaborating with ad agency NSG/SWAT, early in the planning stages, the team agreed the best approach was to create a film that would visualize an abstract expression of sound.
“The Master & Dynamic brand is about excellence in the replication of sound,” says eyeball Creative Director and Director Jesse McGowan. “We felt it was important not to confuse sound with any specific genre of music, instead focusing on the key elements of music within sound.”
By taking a black-and-white photographic approach to capturing extreme closeups and slowed-down visuals of liquid and solid materials reacting to sound, eyeball was able to visualize sonic elements, such as rhythm, tonality, distortion, harmony, dissonance, timbre and volume. As the brand film explains: “Sound is movement. Sound is vibration. Sound is emotion. Sound is space. Sound is what you make it.”
“Coming up with a visual for something invisible was an interesting challenge,” says McGowan. “Working in such a creatively abstracted space imposed a need for a certain sort of discipline that's often lacking in commercial production. Thankfully, [NSG/SWAT Creative Director] Miles Skinner and his team were always open to creative conversations. They brought a lot of knowledge about the product to the table, and their inspired and collaborative take on things helped us all get on the same page creatively. This project was virtually driven by the creative, which is quite rare and very exciting.”
To execute the project, eyeball built out a modified amp and subwoofer that could be covered with different materials and filmed in-house. Since they didn’t know how each of the materials would react or which sounds would make for the best results, eyeball had to to be creatively open and adaptive with the live-action shoot. A lined-in synthesiser allowed them to produce a variety of frequency tones to test, and they combined this with as many different materials as they could get their hands on, from iron fillings, to magnetic powders and paints.
Since each of the materials required different photography styles, from being slowed down to capturing magnified details, eyeball shot on different cameras to achieve the best results, using a RED Epic, armed with a 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens for their main gear, and a Sony NEX FS700 for the shots done in extreme slow motion.
“With a traditional script, the structure is already there, and one can focus on its realisation,” concludes McGowan. “But with a concept dedicated to a lack of anything more detailed than the broadest of structure, our own need for creative discipline was challenged -- in the best and most rewarding way possible.”
