The Outpost
Creative visual effects
and animation
and animation
The agency Vechtlust together with Director/Photographer Leon Hendrickx invited us to co create the new campaign for the Dutch Kidney foundation, focussing on children with severe kidney related illnesses.
The kidney Foundation (Nierstichting) is committed to invest in groundbreaking research to gain insight into kidney disease. The goal of the campaign is creating awareness and requesting donations with the following core message: Without any intimately visible symptoms, it can be challenging to explain how physically and mentally taxing having a kidney disease is for these children; Their wish is to be able to do all the things a healthy child is able to do, whether it is playing with friends, going on vacation, cycling to school or playing sports. But these kids are go-getters, they do all of that and having to work twice as hard doing so.
The campaign is titled “Jonge Helden” translated: Young heroes.
Concept, art, copy by Vechtlust Communicatie.
Together with Director Leon Hendrickx we wanted to show the duality of the life that a child with kidney disease faces everyday. We came up with a technique commonly used in photography, but not as often used in film, called “multiplicity”. It allowed us to visually capture the opposing sides of a child in a powerful way. Every shot would contain the same child twice. On one hand, the active and playful side, and on the other the worn out feeling and recovering period that comes along with it.
After nailing the concept down, the actual production was set in motion by our internal production team. They swiftly put together a kick ass crew and made sure everything and everyone was taken care of. Thanks to them it was a smooth ride and we were able to wash this puppy in no time at all!
To keep a film shoot as efficient as possible, we create a so called previsualization (previs). This helps to lock in the camera movement and timing before we even start shooting. It lays bare any challenges that would otherwise only show up on they day itself and allows us to tackle them before hand. It also gives everyone involved a clear guideline, more then just a script or storyboard ever could.
The key to pulling of the multiplicity effect was a piece of camera equipment know as a Technodolly. This computer controlled camera crane, can be pre-programmed to make the same camera movement over and over again. As it follows the same predefined path we shoot the kids in different positions. This allows to overlay and stitch the shots so we end up with the same child twice in one shot
We relied heavily on compositing to create a seamless transition of the two different camera shots. This meant loads of rotoscoping and clean-up work to get to the coherent and polished film you see before you.
The film was finished of with a color grading session to guarantee a consistent look an feel for not only this film but also the entire campaign.
"The Outpost is a fully-fledged production house that opts for the best possible results. They were involved in this project from the concept phase to the delivery of the broadcast copies."
Jochem Wilbers | Vechtlust
Nierstichting
Vechtlust
The Outpost
The Outpost
Leon Hendrickx
Olivier Ballast
Koen de Mol
Sjam Soedin