Inequality By The Gallon

How much water goes into a single supermarket product? Enough to fill the entire store. That's the premise, and the only honest way to show it is to let everything explode.

Each product bursts open into the volume of water used in its production, until the shelves are bare and the aisles are gone.

Studio Birthplace brought us in at the start, and we spent several weeks in previs developing the digital cinematography with the directors. That early involvement was the real reason a four-week sprint with a small team was even possible.

The approach was built around designed constraints. A splash library instead of per-shot simulations. A handheld camera that made the operator's fear of each explosion plausible cover for any moments we couldn't push further. And for the finale, a virtual camera operator who drowns, breaking the waterline repeatedly so the instability of the frame hides the technical joins while telling the story better than a clean shot ever would.

When you're in from the beginning, every limitation becomes something you can plan around. We did.