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“HONEY…I BROKE TAIWAN”? / the deep dive
“Honey I Broke Taiwan” is a VFX first short film which traverses through a heightened reality through the perspective of a wandering traveller.
FROM IDEA TO EXECUTION. BOUTIQUE FROM START TO FINISH.
Directed by Ryan martin
A COBALT ORIGINAL
Much like the city itself, our creative process underwent a transformation of its own…
early interpretations
What began as a passion-led cultural selection of short videos evolved into a more ambitious visual study of discovery, translating the feeling of encountering a vast, unfamiliar and constantly evolving city into something heightened, surreal and immersive.
Rather than simply capturing the architecture, we wanted to exaggerate its scale, density and geometry, turning the character of the city of Taipei into something heightened. BY DOING THIS, WE WANTED TAIPEI TO FEEL ENERGETIC, OTHER-WORDLY AND CONSTANTLY MOVING. A JOURNEY THAT VISUALLY DEMONSTRATES THE DISCOVERY OF SEEING AN surreal PLACE. this idea matured once filming began & the vision began to evolve.
the Post-capture decision
The more transformative shift happened in post-production. With the footage captured, it became clear that the original concept wasn't enough on its own. The creative challenge became how to make the audience experience the scale and density of the city rather than simply observe it.
SO THAT THE FILM DIDN’T BECOME JUST ANOTHER DOCUMENTARY STYLISED MONTAGE ON THE SIGHTS AND SCENES OF A CITY, Creative intuition led us to rethink the material, therefore pushing it further into a more stylised, surreal interpretation of Taiwan's urban character, that now mimics the transformative, fluid nature of the city.
stage 1/ structural primaries
An initial cut was drafted from a selection of identified video & audio snaps so that narrative & flow mechanics of the film can be established. this gave us an additional layer of primary-level experimentation so that we can establish the canvas in which to build on with vfx composited effects.
stage 2/ vfx composites
We wanted to generate some visual rules going forward: The VFX wasn't designed to look like VFX. It was designed to make reality feel slightly wrong. With this motif, we decided a more hands on approach to VFX, by using a 2D compositing and rotoscoping process. Individual elements within each frame were isolated through rotoscoping, allowing effects to be applied selectively before being rendered as Pro-Res layers and composited back over the original footage.
This process was repeated across multiple elements and sections of each frame, gradually building the final composites. While technically straightforward, layer-based compositing gave us precise control over each element, allowing the original footage to be pushed into the heightened visual style of the final film.
stage 3/ final sync
with all vfx composites completed, we adjusted structure where necessary, IMPLEMENTED final visUal effects, sound design & text effects.
“I look back with a great deal of nostalgia at the project. The love for Taipei, having got to experience it, and the joy of creating something whilst I spent my time there.
For me, with no external brief, the film was conceived, shot and developed internally, almost on the fly, with creative direction carried through every stage of production and post. It was a labour of love. and a labour of CONTINUALLY adapting ideas. That’s what made this a benchmark project for myself, so early on in my career”
-Ryan.
RAW VS FINAL CUT
RAW VS FINAL CUT
BOUTIQUE FROM CONCEPT TO COMPLETION.
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watch the full short film
watch the full breakdown
