Humble Gumball | Build

Artist Keaton Newman commissioned us to create a short film showcasing Humble Gumball, his brand of hand-crafted film art pieces. The challenge he wanted to address, was how to bring to life these objects that really only make sense when you see them in 3D, and show the ‘hand of the artist’ in their creation.

We’ve refined a process of creative development for projects like this (the film for Luna Customer Experience was made in a similar way) that is very efficient, and therefore quite affordable. So we kicked off with a long conversation with Keaton all about his art and the Humble Gumball brand, and used that as the raw material for editing the voice track. In our experience, mic-ing an informal chat – no cameras – gives far better results than interviewing on camera, or scripting something and trying to get it delivered it in a way that sounds natural (and therefore convincing, authentic and trustworthy).

Keaton and Brad shot the process of building a Humble Gumble one afternoon in StoryPartner’s studio. Brad shot most of it with a Blackmagic Production camera in 4k raw and finished in 4k. (4k is like 4 HD screens put together to make one big image.) Most of it was shot at 55mm using a Canon 17-55mm lens at f2.8.

The south wall of our studio is 80% glass, so even on a dull day there’s a reasonable amount of light, and it’s usually possible to shoot entirely with natural light. The studio is actually split in two, with a bright white section for filming, and a 50% grey area for post-production, designed as a colour-calibrated grading and sound mixing studio. It is like the force: it has a light side and a dark side.

On a separate day we went to Lilford Gallery in Folkestone to talk to David Lilford, and we also filmed Keaton and his family (with Bruce the dog who stole the show) near their home in Whitstable. When it came to the final edit, though, we realised that the footage worked better as two separate films than as one. So we made a second film. It doesn’t relate so directly to the Humble Gumball artwork, but it’s a sweet piece of film content, that’s branded and gives an insight on the artist, for Keaton to use as he wishes – to promote his work further or just keep as a memento of the day.