Have you ever wondered what it looks like behind the scenes of your favourite video or just how the “magic” is made? I gave a short interview where I shared my experience from shooting the ident video of our company 
Level Up Pictures - Magic Unleashed. Hope you enjoy the read!

P.S. You can see the final product at the end of the post.

How did you develop the concept for the video?

Stoyan: Magic Unleashed is a branding video for Level Up Pictures. Together with my business partner Thomas-Bo Huusmann we decided that there is no better way to show what we are good at than simply doing it. We wanted to brand Level Up as a high end video production company with core focus on powerful stories. And what a better way than using magic?

Idun Making Magic

The emphasis of the piece had to be on simple and straightforward storytelling. And with Nordic hint to it. We took a few concept generation meetings, collected the ideas and sent them to a seasoned screenwriter from Disney. And he kindly translated it into a screenplay. The story is inspired by the Nordic goddess Idun, the keeper of the golden apples, which gods had to eat to remain young and beautiful. Nice Scandinavian angle we thought. Hurray for Denmark!

Despite her looks and surroundings, that also changed the pay off - from a crystal ball initially to a golden apple. That stood well as a great end product – “tailored just for you, happy future clients”

The Golden Apple

Was it difficult to create a Harry Potter-like Universe?

Stoyan: It was fun! And it was a long days of hard work. But we had an amazing team. Honestly - if it wasn't for them, this video won’t be what it is now! Huge thanks to everyone!

The Magic Box

Once the script was locked we had to make sure everything fits together. Our director Henrik Clausen, who is also a very strong VFX artist, wanted a Viking Looking Hut as a main location. We had to scout many places and finally, we came across a stone-aged village – Hvolris (close to Viborg). A wonderful museum ran by very kind people. (You should visit! :)

The team did a couple of location scouts. And that was really helpful. We got a good sense of the space and shooting possibilities, so we can make a proper storyboard and shotlist.

We've been collecting props and set decoration from basically everywhere. The book of spells and the magic box were a little more special, so our art director Lyuba Halacheva took the lead and hand-crafted them. I think they look awesome. Same counted for the costume that Dorte Pedersen kindly tailored for the shoot, as a combination of old-viking style and the look of goddess Idun.

And of course the protagonist. The beautiful blond fairy. We were very happy that we found Katrine. A talented actress that fits great with looks and style.

Tell us more about the visuals and the technical side

Stoyan: The visuals and the practical effects are a must in a video like this, so we spent a lot of resources and effort in them. We needed to represent a boiling cauldron. We used dry ice on set, which gave as a good base for the post production. The technical department decided on the lighting solutions. To enhance the vision – we rented a diffusion hazer and a flicker box to recreate the fire effect. We filmed on Canon C300. It gave us advantage in the mobility as the camera is very light compared to the RED models for example.

Opening Scene Before and After

We needed a powerful opening shot (the money shot). When something doesn't exist you have to create it in the post. To stay consistent with the light and atmosphere, we decided to shoot it at night. The director wanted soft lighting. So we took 4 AREA 48 soft – LED lights. They have batteries and are pretty strong. We didn't have a huge green sheet to cover the shot, so we brought a big white surface and lid it. And then did a crane shot. It was fun! Well maybe not in 4:00 am after a whole day of shoot, but now it’s fun!

Did you experience any challenges on set?

Stoyan: Hehe. It was a challenging production.
First of all the location was far from our city. And we had 15 people on set. According to the original shooting schedule the production time was separated in two consecutive days. But due to technical difficulties we had to compress all in one and we shot the whole night.  So we ended up wrapping up at 8:30 am on the next day. I remember our technical head Torsten came to me stone-faced and said “Well…that was a fair stretch”. Good times!

Another challenge was it was winter and well ...we live in Denmark. So we had to literally film the whole day below 0 degrees (C). It was a crazy production. I can make a feature film about it. But yea it ended really great.

How did the post production go?

Stoyan: Well the post production took the most time of course. We brought in a team of seasoned professionals with backgrounds from major Hollywood productions (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, The Expendables 2. etc). And also local professionals. Mixing experience with fresh blood usually works very well and I think you can see that in the final cut.

The Magic

Our director Henrik Clausen, who is also an experienced VFX artist suggested we keep the effects as far from the computer as possible. Great advice. Sometimes one could get really into “let’s shoot on green and we fix it in post”. But if you can shoot it real - just do it. For this production we still had to do a lot of CGI. But I think we managed to keep it to the minimum. 

To lead the viewer into the magical universe, sound plays key role. The fantasy music genius Sean Beeson joined us to create the score working from his studio in Ohio.

Our sound composer - Sean Beeson

For the sound effects and mixing - we trusted the locally based Kristopher Paterson and Christian Tronhjem. We did foley sound effects for the magic sounds. Well they did. I just nodded in acceptance!

Are you happy with the final result?

Stoyan: I love it! It was really worth it and we are looking forward to creating more and more awesome productions.

Any comment or feedback strongly appreciated.