BLADECLUB APOLLO / by Mansuo Zhang

 
BladeClub.jpg

CASE STUDY

As a part of the brand promotion, the BladeClub Apollo film comes with a utopian theme in alignment with the core brand identity with a storyline which illustrates two rollerblade astronauts escaped from a disastrous world to the moon. The subject of the film draws a comparison between a broken reality and a fantasy, demonstrating the pursuit of freedom in an ideal world that is safe and free.

 
 

 
 

THE THEME

The film mainly focuses on depicting the contrast between reality and utopia fantasy, expressing with an undertone message that humans (portrayed as two astronauts) are tired of a troublesome world and more expecting a place that is free from wars, agonies, and conflicts. The message is communicated from rollerblade players perspective with a promotional purpose for the brand. Instead of being negative, the narrative of the film speaks in a positive tone with a bit of sense of humour in confronting the conflicts.

 

THE COMPOSITION

The storyline that depicts the contrast is visually presented with both inserted real-life footages and the actual film work, creating a story thread that traverse the key message of the film and cohesively showcasing the transition from the realistic world to an ideal world.

 

 
 
 
 

VIDEO PRODUCTION

Key footage was shot on green screen in studio using Alexa Mini. The main part of the video production was done on the digital platform mainly using After Effects and Final Cut Pro including tasks such as green screen cutout, color correction, director's cut. Due to the limited space of the studio, some figure movements were virtually done on digital.

VFX, special effects, used as explosions in the film, were done using digital assets from ACTIONVFX

 

SOUND PRODUCTION

The soundtrack was exclusively written and produced for the film, integrated with necessary sound effects. The arrangement of the sound was done on both Garageband and Final Cut Pro.

 

PROJECT TIMELINE

-Script planning
-Film shooting on green screen
-Scene selection and delete
-3D environment composition
-Video fix/edits
-After effects editing
-Sound/music
-Producing

 

 
 
bladeclub

CASE STUDY/THE THEME

SOUL GRIND is a short teaser film to promote the BladeClub brand with an aim to elevate the aggressive rollerblade culture in an explicit style of visual on a metaphysical level. Comparing to the Apollo film, SOUL GRIND primarily promotes from an advertising perspective. With an aim to highlight the culture of aggressive rollerblades, the visual theme looks to create a linkage between aggressive rollerblades and BladeClub’s products by integrating the two with street sport aethestics. The film showcases several product lines such as the BladeClub Wax and T-Shirts.

 
 
 

VIDEO PRODUCTION

The film was shot in-studio using Alexa Mini. The main part of the video production goes onto DaVinci Resolve while colour correction and adjustment is the key edited visual effect in order to produce a heavy-industrial and mysterious style of visuals.

 

THE COMPOSITION

With an advertising approach, the theme of the film is demonstrative instead of storytelling. Showcasing BladeClub as an aggressive rollerblade brand, the subject of the film focuses on presenting the brand culture from the performative perspective. The visual style of the film is inspired by underground metal and rock culture with a heavy-industrialized feel.