Led by Creative Directors/Partners Jonah Hall & Kevin Lau, the creative team at Timber has designed and launched its very own digital app, the Timber Marker. Available via the Apple Store, the Timber Marker was designed to aid Visual Effects Supervisors and/or production teams on-set to replace screen content.
“We created this application for our own team to use,” explains Timber’s Jonah Hall. “But we decided to make it free to download and install for whomever feels a need. It’s available for tablets and phones using Android or IOS. Replacing the content on a screen can be very simple if shot properly, but certain challenges exist during production,” continues Hall.
“Often on-set the question is asked ‘What do you want on the screen?’” adds Timber’s Kevin Lau. “More often than not, the answer is some kind of color (green, white, red, black, etc.) and something for tracking (tics, dots, markers, lines, etc.). Aspect ratio is a concern. Just loading an image is unusable because the talent is often instructed to touch the screen. That causes the home screen to pop up, which you don’t want.”
After listening to clients and shooting themselves, the Timber team decided it was time to build an application that solves the issue with ease. The Timber Marker™ app allows users to choose and customize their own background. Once users have a background selected and have applied, it will remain persistent, meaning the user can touch and swipe to their heart’s content without the display changing.
Timber Marker also can record motion, so that an animated or static guide appears for the user to follow. With this tool, the Director can tell the talent to swipe or tap a certain way and keep the selected move as a looping animation, which is easy to see and follow during filming, ensuring that the motion is what everyone agreed to.
Since Timber’s win of MTV’s coveted VMA Award for “Best Visual Effects” for Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” music video last Fall, the Timber team has been on a creative roll. Just this year for 2018, they have already contributed to Grammys premiere of “The Middle” for Maren Morris, Zedd and Grey in partnership with Target, 3 Super Bowl spots, and a groundbreaking Maroon 5 music video, featuring front man Adam Levine, entitled “Wait.” Timber is currently in the midst of a series of projects that will launch this spring
About Timber
Timber was founded for the sole purpose of creating compelling content for clients. We put design first and strive to look at each project as a unique opportunity to make something memorable. From design and illustration to visual effects and finishing, our collective experience draws from a wide range of disciplines. Timber’s talented team honed their skills at some of the most respected design and postproduction companies in the industry, including Superfad, Digital Domain and Mirada. Our goal is to help our clients fully realize all their creative endeavors.
