It was hot, too hot. The motion control studio resembled some kind of mad professor’s lab. Various concoctions were poured, mixed, studiously observed, set up and filmed using sophisticated time lapse and motion control techniques as we searched for “the one”.
Hours turned into days and after numerous experiments it was clear that recreating the process that turns the inside of showers into miniature recreations of the Blue John Mines, as limescale slowly but surely suffocates the mechanism was not going to be easy.
But that was our task. Mira Showers have patented Clearscale technology that inhibits limescale. To show it, you need to actually make, erm, limescale. Our solution? Something called “expandable snow”, talc and dishwasher crystals, all topped with a little salt and ground white pepper.
To make our limescale “grow” we filmed multiple identical passes on the motion control camera rig (18 to be precise), with subtle adjustments in between each pass to create the finished animation. Think Wallace and Gromit, but with powder instead of plasticene.
The result is a gradual but relentless build-up of “limescale”; something you could never see in real life, but with a bit of imagination, a resourceful stylist and one of the country’s most experienced motion control crews anything’s possible.
Agency: HOME
Limescale Stylist: Alexa Hartle
Motion Control: Stalwart Films
Director: Andy Porter
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