Let Your Itch Be Heard

On this particular project we undertook important R&D prior to the shoot to ensure that the process and approach was water tight, as well as helping hone the creative alongside the agency to ensure the patients voice and story was portrayed from their POV.

Taking a audio recording of the words “Speak Out, Speak Up’ we extracted the sound waves of the sentence as a visual that acted as our base artwork to create the tattoo scratch. On approval of the talent, we got close up photographic reference of their skin within the position the tattoo would be applied. This allowed us then to customise the pigmentation, and bleed of each sound wave to ensure the registration and illegibility was perfect.

To ensure we had flexibility with framing, we created variations of tattoo sizes to assist on the day. These were then carefully applied directly to the talents skin by special effects makeup artists to ensure the skin detail and integration was flawless. To assist with the storytelling, scratch marks and abrasions were applied directly to areas of the body. Removed and then reapplied in alternative areas to give us additional flexibility and options in post production.

When filming the video it was crucial that we achieved a continuous take. Due to the time constraints and the quantity of content we were looking to achieve within a 1 day shoot we opted to film on a 12k camera that allowed us to create the camera move in post production, giving us additional control when it came to the compositing of the sound sound wave. To assist with the comping of the sound wave we placed a grid of small tracking markers directly onto the shoulder area of the actor. Using specialist tracking software these markers gave us useful data to assist with the movement, stretch of the skin and integrate the generated animated scratch onto the footage.

Kitting the concept together and driving home the patients situation, the sub-titles were animated into the scene driving home the patients science and giving a voice to the effects of the continue itching they are inflicted with.

INCIDENTALS