The complex concept of Australian corporate tax laws, was distilled into a simple and clever script that consisted of a large wooden map of Australia upon which a custom marble run was made to represent the economy and tax system. The marbles that populated the tracks, represented the money that corporations were trying to ship offshore via tax loopholes. These loopholes were then closed using real mechanisms that were built into the set. The marble run was designed and constructed from scratch using CNCed hardwood, aluminium, perspex and plywood. Each element was hand painted, stained, sand-blasted and weathered in accordance with the overarching colour palette and art direction. When finished the set was an impressive 2.4m square.

As the set was initally designed in CAD we were able to use that CAD model to make a pre-visualisation of the shots and angles we wanted to get on the shoot day. The previs phase was invaluable as the exact set dimensions, physics and also the motion control camera system were all built into the software environment so that every shot could be carefully planned. A precise motion control robot was used to shoot the spot. This gave the ability to follow the balls around the tracks and get the camera over the set to achieve graceful camera moves to tell the story. It was an ambitious production to achieve in such a tight schedule as everything had to be made by hand and the mechanical loopholes and track system needed to work perfectly on the shoot day.