Cult Wife is a bespoke, top-to-tail creative studio based in Cape Town that specialises in data visualisation and motion graphics for both documentary-style, long-form video and promotional commercial content. We have worked closely with both governmental institutions and NGOs to create engaging and informative content that distills complicated information into accessible, narrative-driven media.
Ines is both a producer and a multi-disciplinary animator, specialising in motion graphics, documentary-style visual graphics, and typography. With her background in advertising, Ines also brings an array of expertise, including branding, user interface design, and print and package design.
Tom is an all-rounder animator with broad skills that span across motion graphics, video editing, and both 2D and 3D animation. He has also worked as an industry copywriter, specialising in script-writing and data research.
Jessica is an industry-grade illustrator, storyboard artist, and detail-oriented traditional 2D animator. Her background derives from media research, academic writing and editing, information systems, and digital communications.
Stefan is a correspondent, cinematographer, and editor for television and web-based content. He has created both educational and promotional videos for NGOs and other international organisations/institutions, and short documentaries and television features.
Warren is a senior audio engineer who handles sound production and voice-overs, and specialises in mixing, recording and final audio. Warren plays an essential role in ensuring that our video and audio are perfectly balanced.
Minds are attracted to colours and patterns: visuals and graphics hold our interest and convey messages much faster than words ever could. As such, data visualisation techniques – often used in ‘infographics’ and ‘motion graphics’ – work to produce graphical representations of information using elements like graphs, charts, and maps.
In business settings, these graphical realisations offer access to an understanding of data trends, patterns, and outliers, where ‘data viz’ has become an imperative tool for interpreting big data.
In film and video (where our interests lie), data viz, motion graphics, and animation – in addition to offering an easy understanding of complex data – are most useful in driving a point home, assisting the broader story being conveyed, and keeping information (that might normally be a little dry) dynamic and impactful. Our goal is to do all of this, while seamlessly blending with the overall brand, video script, and footage components.
For any project involving both data viz/motion graphics and video footage, which we have frequently encountered in the context of short-form documentaries, commercial content, and explainer videos, we have found the following process to be the most efficient:
In addition to any information handed over during the brief and during meetings with clients, we go ahead and perform our own research on the subject matter and cutting-edge trends in the relevant industries, presenting a report of our findings and suggestions for the project.
Based on the brief and on our research, we then write a script addressing the scope and length of the video project. There are usually a few reverts following client revisions, which is absolutely necessary: the rest of the project can only follow once the script has been confirmed by all parties.
In order to get a feel for the narrative, placement of motion graphics, and flow of the edit, we have our storyboard artist draft out some production boards so that everyone involved in production is on the same page.
Voice artists are sourced and suggested by our team according to the tone of the project, and approved by the client. We spend as much time as needed in studio with the artist and our sound engineer in order to nail that perfect take. Thereafter, the recording is mixed and our sound engineer makes reverts should any changes be required.
While this step may also happen further down the process, we find it useful to have our clients agree on a music choice that follows the brief and helps inform the video’s tone and editing down the line.
We have a dedicated and experienced cinematographer, with others on standby, to capture any unique footage required according to the project specifications, in a manner that is both artistic and professional. Any other footage needs can often be addressed through content sourcing.
Aside from our cinematographer’s extensive body of work, we know all the best video and photo content repositories that won’t break the bank! Following the script and storyboard, we work to find the appropriate footage, and often end up animating stills if they best fit the brief.
We find it very useful to have a rough video edit to work from before adding any animations and motion graphics – having the timing in place regarding voice over and cuts is essential for an efficient motion graphics pipeline.
This is where the bulk of the work happens – the workload (as outlined in the storyboards) is shared amongst our animators according to their unique skillsets, and their deliverables are used to populate and refine the video edit over time.
Once the bulk of the work is done, our sound engineer sees to it that the music, voice-over, and footage audio is seamlessly mixed, and sounds are designed where appropriate for the animated and motion graphics components.