Video spot Château Rúbaň Grand ’17

In May 2021, we took on the task of creating a spot for Château Rúbaň in the highest possible quality, using our reliable member of the nefkus team – the ABB robotic arm.

Archival wine
The initial idea we started from is the product itself. This is an archival wine from the hands of the technological and gustatory grandmasters at Château Rúbaň. Interestingly, both the weather and natural conditions in 2017 were the best in the last 5 to 7 years for all red varieties. Thanks to this, Château Rúbaň Grand could be created in a limited number of 4800 bottles. The entire contents of the bottle were grown, harvested, processed and bottled in the village of Rúbaň, in the Strekov region, where of course Château Rúbaň is also located. This is an exceptional achievement that required an exceptional presentation.

Scenario
When preparing the script, we already worked with the variant of using a robotic arm for smooth shots in the first concepts. The main idea was to bear witness to the unique wine coming from the fertile soil of the Strekov area, which owes its richness to the many sunny days and the nutrients brought by the Danube River. Therefore, you can see in the result all the metaphorical references to the ingredients influencing the taste of the wine. Sun, soil, water.

Production phase
Setting up the scene required ingenuity and skill of all kinds especially because of shooting with real soil. For these needs, a table was made that could bear the required weight of clay. A hole in the centre of the table was covered with fabric and then covered with clay, we used it for the effect of a bottle emerging from the soil. Our colleague Tuko was hiding under the table and slowly pushed the bottle upwards.
Another challenging scene turned out to be the effect of pouring wine directly into the camera lens. We used a mirror set towards the lens. After a few experiments, we figured out at what angle and intensity to pour the liquid to make it behave as we wanted. However, the beginnings looked different and each failed attempt meant polishing the mirror and the surrounding scene again.

Robot
When shooting the spot for Château Rúbaň Grand, we used the aforementioned robotic arm. This is the ABB IRB 4600 type, which is used on a larger scale for precision welding in the automotive industry. Its safe handling is the work of enthusiast Martin Tománek. The robot, which we have nicknamed Ruby, has a working range of 2.05m, a payload capacity of 45kg, a speed of 2m/sec, an accuracy of 0.1mm and weighs 500kg. Its huge advantage over “handheld camerawork” is the ability to repeat the same shot without any change. You can see more spots and clips we shot with Ruby HERE.

Postproduction
In the post-production part we applied 3D animation. We used 3D tracking and composition of growing plants. Plants were modelled in C4D. The lighting of the 3D models’ environment was light-simulated exactly as the original scene was lit. The final version of the render was pasted on top of the colorized video, and at the end the whole image was “tinted” one more time to make the colors fit together and create a unified whole.

Music
The orchestral composition was a clear choice for us to express the uniqueness of Château Rúbaň Grand wine. At the same time, we struggled with the limited length of the video. However, we have highlighted important moments with the build-up to the conclusion during the label reveal. The operatic singing was an impressive detail that added depth to the piece.

Interview
At the end of the extensive backstage video, we interviewed the owner of Château Rúbaň, Vladimíra Ollé, who explained why Château Rúbaň Grand is an exceptional wine and why it is worth waiting for the perfect one. The full video with a video clip can be found HERE.

Enjoy the result of our work.