Given the subject matter of the show “Fringe Science” and the fact that Bad Robot (J.J. Abrams and Co.) were behind it, I felt like we needed to really try something different. I had the idea of melting and manipulating the logo of the show and I really wanted it to be in camera, limited CG. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out and I didn’t want to bring together a crew and a sound stage just to mess around.
So i went into my garage, after I went to Micheal's of course. I picked up candle making supplies and simple mold making materials. I also had a vendor of ours produce the entire alphabet in all caps Helvetica at 2inches tall. Then the fun started to happen. I built wax letters and painted them with black acrylic paint. Then used a heat gun to melt them. I also managed to build my own version of a macro lens for capturing the close-up stuff using the lenses from a pair of binoculars tapped together and put in front of the lens on the camera, it worked great.
Needless to say it was a lot of experimenting and fun. In the end we came up with a promo package that not only impressed the show runners but also impressed their musical friends. See below. At the end of the day the total cost for the package $450.00.
The track we decided to use for the sizzle happened to make some unexpected and amazing news. The creators of the show shared the piece with Trent Reznor who thought it was cool enough to remix his song that we used, just to be a part of something cool. The amount of unexpected press and exposure was icing on the cake for the package built in my garage.
Stills from the package show: Melting acetate, wax letters painted with acrylic paint. Melting foam and splashing ink. No Butterflies were harmed during the production of this package.