6 DIGITALKITCHEN

STUDIO PHILOSOPHY

DK is a full-service production design firm. DK fuses live-action, visual effects, graphics, and editing to tell brand stories in groundbreaking formats. Major brands, TV networks, and advertising agencies call upon DK director/designers to navigate the confluence of branding and entertainment.

The company’s slate of award-winning projects encompasses the emerging arenas of rich video and nontraditional advertising as well as motion graphics, design, filmmaking, commercials, and network branding. An indispensable creative resource for major ad agencies on campaigns for Budweiser, Target, and Coke and for clients including Nike, HBO, Showtime, Sundance, AT&T, Microsoft, and Screenvision, DIGITALKITCHEN is a vital force in the world of advertiser-driven production.

MINDQUEST VIDEO

Creative and Production Process MindQuest is a space-cult-inspired recruiting video complete with horrible compositing and bad 3D. Its function is to lead potential employees to Microsoft’s recruiting site, hey-genius.com.

The agency, Wexley School For Girls, interfaced directly with Microsoft’s HR department, which meant we were able to bypass the usual chain of command. We seized this opportunity to represent Microsoft with light-hearted self-deprecation, something we felt the target audience of hard-core coders would appreciate. We did some healthy self-referencing of our own, turning away from the photo-real, ultra-finessed status quo of the VFX industry.

To recreate the cutting-edge video production values from the late ’80s, we used all the effects that are usually forbidden fruit: find edges, posterize, dancing dissolve, etc. A nod was given to the early days of 3D raytracing with the ubiquitous checkerboard floor and reflective primitives. For the finishing touch we dumped the video to VHS (multiple times) on a $5 VCR from Value Village.

Tools Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Softimage XSI 6.5, Adobe After Effects CS3

Credits

Executive Producer: Mark Bashore

Creative Lead/Director: Brad Abrahams

Talent: Arnold Kay

Lead Designer/Animator: Cody Cobb

Original Concept and Design: Ben Grube

Animator: Jayne Vidheecharoen

Modeler: John Foreman

VHS Machine Operator: Dave Molloy

Producer: Carrine Fisher

Original Score: Danny Wolfers

TRUE BLOOD MAIN TITLES

Creative and Production Process True Blood is a series for HBO about vampires set in contemporary small-town Louisiana. We created a title sequence that puts the audience through a crash course on sex, violence, religiosity, and the supernatural they are about to dive into. The project used a mixture of in-camera effects, practical effects, and postmanipulation combined with a variety of film and video formats to create an emotional journey.

Instead of the typical tightly storyboarded approach, we developed a visual shot list that represented the general metaphors and tone we were aiming to create. Armed with these, a small team traveled to Louisiana and Chicago in addition to shooting around the Seattle area. The footage was purposely shot with a mixed bag of cameras including Super 8, 16 mm Bolex, 35 mm Arriflex, and Pro-sumer HD cameras.

We purposely steered away from any high-end VFX treatments, relying instead on capturing our moments in-camera. However, we did create effects based on analog techniques, including the multi-step process of reshooting images with Polaroid film and transferring the emulsion to Plexiglas so that we could use canned air to create the “sloughing skin” look. Among the incamera effects seen in the title was the streaked footage that we captured using a shutterless 16 mm Bolex. The footage of the Pentecostal worshipers was shot using HD for convenience. However, we wanted it to feel archival as if

shot with an ’80s consumer video camera and degraded the footage in After Effects to achieve this.

Ultimately, we wanted the raw, visceral, unvarnished subject matter to bubble up rather than be overly processed from camera to screen.

Tools Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Illustrator CS3, Adobe After Effects CS3, Avid

Credits

Concept: Rama Allen, Shawn Fedorchuck

Creative Director: Matthew Mulder

Designers: Rama Allen, Ryan Gagnier,

Matthew Mulder, Camm Rowland, Ryan Rothermel

Editor: Shawn Fedorchuck

Compositors: Ryan Gagnier

Live Action Direction: Rama Allen, Morgan Henry, Matthew Mulder, Matt Clark, Trevor Fife

Producers: Morgan Henry, Kipp Christiansen, Keir Moreano

Executive Producer: Mark Bashore

Executive Creative Director: Paul Matthaeus

THE COMPANY MAIN TITLES

Creative and Production Process We were asked to create a 30-second main title that metaphorically conveyed the dark world from post-war espionage to the fall of Communism. Based on the novel by the same name by Robert Littell, The Company is laced with references to Alice in Wonderland. Our intent was to include some of this aspect in the titles without directly filling it with characters from Wonderland. Ridley Scott was enamored with a certain cross-hatched style of illustration that we adopted as we brainstormed concepts.

Our intent was to create a symbolic microcosm of a secret underworld that represented the dynamics in this epic story. Instead of just moving a camera across illustrations, we developed a nervous cross-hatching animation style to create a creepy storybook tone that added an uncomfortable psychology that fit with the whole spy story. Before moving a pixel, we invested a great deal of time in getting the illustration style just right as well as working closely with Ridley Scott to firm up the main title screenplay using traditional hand-drawn storyboards and rough cuts made directly from the storyboard frames. This “cinematic” approach ensured that we would create a story arc for our hares as they run from the initial rocket blast to disappearing down the rabbit hole, which in turn sets us up for the climax of the atomic explosion that becomes the Mad Hatter’s toadstool at the very end.

The biggest challenge was how to develop a production technique that simulated a cell animation look without actually doing the work via traditional cell animation techniques. We didn’t have the time, manpower, or expertise for that. Our solution was to create this world in 3D using XSI. Parallel to this effort, a separate 3D team modeled,

rigged, and created run cycles for the two hares featured throughout the sequence. Once the scenes and characters were merged, we rendered several passes of the entire sequences. These renders were split into the various shots to then be taken through series of custom procedurals in After Effects, which gave the basic crosshatched look. To achieve the final look, we then literally drew on top of the frames to create a better sense of the randomness of the cross-hatch stroke and to emphasize more shadow an highlights throughout. In the final shot the show creators wanted to seamlessly transition to the shadowy figure walking down the street. So we recreated the bookstore pullout in 3D from the original live action element so that we could essentially dissolve into the walking action at the end of the title sequence.

Tools Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe After Effects CS3, Softimage XSI 6.5, Autodesk Maya, Avid

Credits

Executive Producer: Mark Bashore

Creative Director: Matt Mulder

Designers: Cody Cobb, Noah Conopask, Ryan Gagnier, Matt Mulder

Animation: Cody Cobb, Ryan Gagnier, David Holmes, Pete Kallstrom, Matt LaVoy, Davyd Chan

3D: Cody Cobb, Igor Choromanski, Gordana Fersini, Thiago Costa

Editor: Dave Molloy

Producers: Colin Davis, Jill Johns