Elwood’s Ark

Water is something that everyone can relate to. Yet we rarely think about where it comes from, and how far its ancient molecular cocktail has travelled, to be here with us in this small moment – or how it will exist long after we’re gone. For Elwood’s Ark, we wanted to create a short film that would approach the subject of water’s journey, and our fragile relationship with it, putting into perspective human existence in the vastness of time and space.

The towering brick arches and Noah’s Ark-like appearance of St Bartholomew’s church seemed a fitting setting for this story. It is an ever-present feature of our daily lives at Tilt – a vast solitary relic from a flattened Victorian neighbourhood that is now the heart of Brighton’s blooming digital community. The huge interior – the largest nave in England – offered an amazing opportunity in which to grow a digital lightening storm, released from the hands of a child.

The film is shot in 6k RED cinema to obtain film industry standard image quality at high frame rates (for slow motion). We played with FumeFX and Elementacular for Maya to produce realistic evolving 3d rain clouds, used Optical Flares in AfterEffects to give it an epic anamorphic look, and graded the footage with DaVinci Resolve.

The film has picked up two awards from Film Shortage and Reel Thirteen.