the grab bag

from concept to creation: ebc pop-up history January 29, 2010

Not blogging much these days. No good reason, just not. But I have wanted to post a few projects from last year and include some notes, thoughts and pics on the process. Consider this a series of “behind-the-scenes” looks at some of my favorite recent projects.

I’ll start with EBC Pop-Up History.

We produced this in August of 2009 for Eagle Brook’s Not Without You campaign. Our team was given the open ended task of creating a project that simply told the history of EBC in a creative way. In an initial meeting with our Motion Graphics guy, Nathan, I decided it would be fun to actually do something with more of a low-tech feel.  Of course, all the while maintaining excellence.  Nathan had seen the pop-up book concept done by a band (I will not mention their name here as to keep my ‘G’ rating). I loved the idea and we decided to go for it. Little did we know how much work it would turn out to be. Here’s a basic rundown on the process:

First, I did a ton of research on the history of the church and gathered as many visuals as I could, including pics, VHS and a commemorative plate.

I then put together a storyboard that included ideas for how the elements and pages could work. Side note: this was the first time I used power point to storyboard. Worked really well to combine image and text.

Nathan then designed the elements and pages in photoshop and printed them on a heavy card stock.

Since this book actually had to work, each element had to be cut, fit and glued exactly. We were also dealing with actual layers. We rigged up a poor man’s light table to help with this.

Once the book had been built, we set up the shoot. Lighting was a challenge due to shadows but otherwise it went smoothly. After about 10 takes, we started to get  hang of the choreography. Good thing, too. We were on our last couple of confetti poppers.

There were obviously a few little details handled in post by Nathan. Oh, and I should also mention that the music was custom scored by our very own Dan Lukas. He’s super nice. And very talented.

So there ya go, a custom built pop-up book of Eagle Brook’s history…from concept to creation.