Superfad for Phantom

Everything is more dramatic is slow-motion. That’s a given. Mundane acts like sneezing and laughing become epic adventures in physiology. A bullet piercing an apple becomes some kind of sensual metaphor. But instead of stringing together a bunch of unrelated, clichéd shots showing off Phantom high speed HD cameras, Superfad decided to go the extra step and weave a loose narrative in this amazing promo produced for NAB.

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There’s something mythical about the story. It has just enough suggestion of a narrative to keep you going: a protagonist (the woman in white), an antagonist (the dog/ink splatter) and god-like figures that watch over everything (the birds). But honestly, if this was shot at normal speed, it wouldn’t have worked at all. Superfad seems to understand the peculiar way that slow-motion implies narrative in the simplest of acts.

This didn’t give Superfad license to be sloppy, though. The piece is rife with beautiful (though slightly unorthodox) compositions that underscore the dramatic tension set forth in the music and editing. It’s lovingly crafted and full of detail.

I don’t mean to make too much of it. I’m sure many of you will scoff at my mini-dissertation above. Something about this film, though, snared me, and I don’t think it was accidental.

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

12 Comments

bambaclot

That piece is way tight. Yeah don’t forget about Will Hyde….The OG CD of Superfad….Cool stuff. Superfad Seattle is the shit. I think it’s the dongles they have on their workstations…….

najork

I can understand wanting to be middle of the road advertising something as general as a camera. A better grade would start getting away from what the camera actually does. It’s pretty, but hard not laugh at a bit.

The same company let Ramon Bloomburg make an experimental short with their gear, with more inspiring results IMO
https://ramonbloomberg.com/popup.php?video=https://ramonbloomberg.com/rb_media/green_web.mov

monkeymagic

Nice but agree its a bit tacky and could be executed with a bit more polish. Seems a bit under developed to be honest.

Looking at the specs it seems the Xsight (MACS) camera systems are more advanced even at their somewhat less developed stage. I believe that system was used for an Ident series for SBS Television Australia in 2004 with amazing results.

dom

hmmm. I wonder what would be left of this if you were to substitute the woman with an anorexic male dressed in white loin cloth.

monovich

Well, I liked it. Some moments were definitely stronger than others, but it was soothing overall.

Brett

I can’t imagine how much data goes onto that card in one second. These use solid state hard drives apparently? I am looking forward to that becoming a bigger thing, since apparently the write time is unbelievably fast.

pizzaface9000

A little slow for my taste

tiekwan

That was a beautiful piece. Nice time remapping before the fluids hit the actress. It created a seamless dog to liquid transition. That my favorite moment. Thanks for posting this Justin.

beta_test

some nice shots. But I don’t know why it made me think of the exhibition “ashes and snow” woman, animal, nature etc.
But on a different level of course.
https://www.ashesandsnow.org/
for those who don’t know what is it, or for fun.

JoshBertrand

This was super gorgeous at NAB in HD on a BIG plasma. Glad to see a link to download it. Thanks.

bolo

NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

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