Made by Long L, Sam De Armas, and Dror Margalit
In the park on a Sunday morning stroll, on the way to work, in a small, cozy cafe, or pretty much everywhere else, we enjoy the most popular beverage in the world. Yet, despite consuming it everywhere, I find myself thinking very little about where coffee comes from. The truth is, of course, that this plan is grown in masses in very particular areas of the world, processed, and distributed to the masses. In this story, however, we chose to give coffee beans a personality, presenting them in casual coffee-related situations.
The Life Cycle of Coffee is the story of two coffee beans who learn what coffee is made of. The idea of learning about the life cycle of coffee comes from the fact that I believe that, as a society, we must be more aware of the life cycles of the things we consume. That said, this story doesn't intend to educate about coffee's life cycle. Instead, we wanted to present a "life" of a coffee bean in its moment of realization that its consumption takes a toll on its species.
Making of The Life Cycle of Coffee
The Life Cycle of Coffee is, of course, a project shot using very small objects. To achieve the result we aimed for, we experimented with different methods to hold the coffee beans, as well as different sizes for the background drawings. Ultimately, we used wires to move the beans and masked them out in post-production.
While removing the wires was somewhat tedious, it truly helped us achieve the behavior we wanted from the beans: settle movement on a very small scale that looks like the body language of the beans.