Adobe Releases Original Video Series Made Entirely of Stock Assets
The brief was simple: create an original video series made exclusively with Adobe Stock assets. Simple, but not easy.
When San Francisco-based design & moving picture company Skycar Creative received the assignment, they were skeptical.
“Our first thought was, cool! We get to make an original content series for Adobe. Our second thought was, with Stock…. Wow, hopefully there’s enough in this library to make it work,” shares Skycar Director & Co-founder Jane Selle Morgan. “During the concepting phase we spent a lot of time in the library making sure we could pull off what we were pitching.”
To bring the project to life, the agency reached out to artists and designers from around the world and asked them to share a story from their creative journey. Then Skycar brought the stories to life by producing short films inspired by the artists made with hundreds of Adobe Stock video assets.
The result of this collaborative effort is Depth of Field, a three-part web series that showcases the breadth of the Adobe Stock collection and features original narration from filmmaker and photographer Foster Huntington (Washington State), vector artist and illustrator Robert Generette III (Washington, D.C.) and graphic artist Kahori Maki (Japan).
In one video, Generette (known to fans as Rob Zilla) reveals how he handles the frustration of having an idea strike during his day job. In another, Huntington shares the liberation of quitting his day job to become a full-time artist. In the most emotional of the three, Kahori Maki reveals the impact of the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake on her creative process and output.
“Looking through new images that I haven’t seen yet took me to a place that I haven’t been and showed me a new landscape. For me, it is like being in a zero gravity world,” says Maki.
Creating a video composed only of stock assets that is as unique as the story it tells is no small feat. Using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, Skycar Creative reversed, sped up, slowed down, colourised, merged and otherwise manipulated the raw files to produce original works of art.
“We wanted the audience to have a personal glimpse into pivotal moments and processes from real artists. We also wanted them to experience the visual possibilities with stock and feel inspired to go out and make something cool,” says Skycar Creative Director and Co-founder, Aaron Barry.
The sum of the series is much larger than the individual parts. Each video has the ability to touch you, transport you, or make you forget.
As Rob Generette says, “Although I told the story, the video felt new.”
You can enjoy all three episodes below, or view the series playlist on YouTube