Wurzelfestival | Festival Trailer
10 YEARS "ZURÜCK ZU DEN WURZELN"
Festival Trailer for 2023
For this project, I was tasked with both creating an overall concept and its realization. Therefore, my work on this project includes the entire conceptual processing of the content and its design, the visual conception including graphic and motion design/animation as well as creating all the content parts (excluding video footage) to subsequently assemble everything into the final product through video editing and sound design.
OVERALL DESIGN & CONCEPT
Taking a look back at the festival – from its origins to present day.
Playing an old VHS tape on a vintage television forms the main theme for the visual and graphical concept - along with video effects created and used back in the days.
The movie serves as a promotional trailer for Wurzelfestival ‘23, intentionally drawing attention to its 10th anniversary.
SOUND DESIGN
While the individual parts of the main song were produced by Denny Fiedler to create a custom theme song for the festival, I arranged these sound elements within the video into an coherent overall song, as it wasn’t yet fully produced by the time I was working on the movie. This allowed me to develop a holistic sound design concept for the film.
This last sequence of the whole intro visualizes Wurzelfestival’s development over 10 Years in one animated image.
The Bridge on the left shows the location where some of the early outdoor raves took place in 2013. The Hangar plus Forest on the right shows the most recent venue where the festival took place since 2016 – the so-called “secret forest”.
Even the previous typography (used in the "secret forest" text below) and logo are featured, mixed with the current typography from today (used in "2013" and "2023").
As “Zurück zu den Wurzeln” literally means „back to the roots”, everything’s embedded between roots that flow in from all sides.
A tape entitled “Wurzel-TV” is rewound to the beginnings of the film and thus the history about the Wurzelfestival.
As the TV slowly zooms in, the viewer is literally "brought closer" to the story behind the Wurzelfestival through a short poem written by me for this narrative purpose. In addition, scenes from the early raves and open airs are shown in the background, as well as old shots of the current location before it was officially occupied.
The historical part (Main Intro) ends with a transition to an animated
visual (Visual Intro) that leads into the main part.
The poem was written to briefly summarize the origins of “Zurück zu den Wurzeln”
Festival.
The visual style of the standalone poem animation is inspired by the intertitles of old silent films. Due to other overlay effects, this is not clearly visible in the main intro of the final product.
LONG STORY ...
The origins of the Wurzelfestival date back to small but well-organized, i.e. illegal, outdoor raves in Berlin.
They wanted to become a counterpart to the Berlin club scene, where prices had risen and, in their opinion, the clubs were already overpriced. But music, especially in the spirit and the sense of the techno culture, should be for everyone, right?
Needless to say, the raves were very well received and appreciated. Repeated over and over again, they became increasingly popular. And over time, a small and later a growing community formed around the organizers. So, they wanted to go legal. And they needed more space for the people and the acts, maybe a stage? Or two? Or three?
After taking part in a few parades with their own trucks and changing locations here and there, they moved to their final venue in 2016. There was now enough space to host the festival to both their community and supporters year after year since then.
... POEM!
“ What has begun as illegal raves
with a mission that clearly says
WE are ONE culture
and we need more space
We have taken our space
and provided it to you
We all became family
together we grew ”
The end of the main part seamlessly ties in with the outro quoting "Wir sind eine Wurzelfamilie" – translated: "We are one (root) family" – since this phrase sums up the essence of the last main sequence in one sentence.
Furthermore, the outro’s visually referring to the intro by showing the vintage TV again. But this time, it slowly zooms out.
In the outro, the guests and the community were to be thanked along with a call-to-action inviting them to get a ticket for 2023.
The movie traditionally closes with the credits.
Since the overarching aim of the assignment was to visualize and design the underlying marketing campaign for the ticket promotion, there was still some work to be done.
As per the client’s brief, I produced an extra clip to be shown on social media timelines, along with an animated advertising image.
