The Battery - Video Shoot

We are proud to have been asked to take part in this video project that took 3 days of intense shooting. The project consisted of creating 9 separate videos to individually be played simultaneously on 9 flat screen monitors over The Battery's fancy Bar. The trick was to make these not look like monitors and from first glance appear to just be the shelving above the bar. So we made a custom tank matching the dimensions of the Screens that can be fitted with a shelf. The tank has to have a life support system, but not be visible in the shoot.

To create the illusion, a background was made to match the venue. Reclaimed wood was used to make 3 different backgrounds, to be swapped out between shoots.

A full Crew and a truckload of props were brought in. We used anything between alcoholic bottles, skulls, antiques, toys, statues, and even an Iphone for props. We can safely say that Iphones are truly water proof.

Staging each shot, acclimating the fish was a done very carefully to ensure the health of the fish.

Many top shelf bottles of alcohol were destroyed because we had to top them off with tap water to make them not float!

Bottles and props were carefully placed in the tank. To further create the illusion of that these were just shelves, we placed glass boxes within the tank and put fish in them. This created the appearance that there were small fish tanks on the shelves! Little did they know that 10 minutes into the shoot, we opened these boxes with a string cleverly tied to the door and slowly the fish swim out!

We did this with 9 different setups for 9 different shots. Here are a few of them.

Many of the fish and animals are on their way to new homes. The final product will only be view-able at The Battery in San Francisco once it is completed. Stay tuned for an update!