Ice Art recently had the chance to design an ice sculpture that was not only spectacular to look at, but also able to be used to its full affect. The ice carving in question was an entire drum kit made of ice, which could be played by a professional drummer in a studio environment. The drum kit needed to endure rigorous drumming, while still thin enough to break on cue for the camera as part of the Smirnoff shoot.
This may seem almost impossible, but the team at Ice Art was ready to take on the challenge!
“Smirnoff needed a full drum kit to be carved out of ice – with base drums, high hats, cymbals, a snare drum that gave the “snare” sound for a film shoot for their viral campaign and Ice Art were just the guys to make this happen for them,” says James Cussen Ice Art owner.
He went to add, “So we first had to deconstruct a real drum kit to have a look at the mechanics of the drum, the diameters of the different drums required, the tensions of the skins, and the height that the drums needed to sit at in order to be played.”
Ice Carving Challenges
The ice drums needed to give the same sound as real drums, and also need to be able to sit on the stand easily. This was something of a challenge, even for the ice carving experts, as normal thin wooden drums only weigh a few hundred grams – ice drums on the other hand would weigh a number of kilograms. The fragile nature of ice would be impossible to make the ice drums as thins as the actual wood cylinders.
Matthew Smyth, partner at Ice Art explains, “The Base drum for example, weighed over 130kg when we started to carve it, but we managed to chisel and shape this down to around 25kg which would just suffice.’
He added that, “The smaller tom drums and snare drums were carved to a “first version” and of course the production company needed this to be made even thinner upon inspection, and so we gingerly carved the drums to an extremely thin sidewall thickness.”
A number of original items then removed from the original drums and then mounted onto the ice drums carefully. These included the real drum skins, which were stretched over the ice, as well as long threaded rods that were added on the outside of the drum to create a tension on the ring. The metal rods could not touch the ice directly, or else it would melt – the team overcame this challenge with impressive results.
The Final Results: Ice Carving Makes Music!
At last the shoot day arrived. Ice Art had created a second ice drum set, which allowed Smirnoff to start shooting. The extra pair of cymbals made could be smashed for special effect. In between takes, the drums were adjusted and tightened and on-the-spot ice carving touch ups were done, as the ice began to melt under the hot studio drums and the energetic playing of the professional drummer.
The final Smirnoff campaign went live and viral, and is now online – view the amazing fully functional drum kit ice sculpture in action!
