ZAC BROWN BAND AT SPHERE - HEAVY IS THE HEAD

THE VISUAL NARRATIVE

Within the crown lies a kingdom of suffering where golden skeletons climb endlessly like insects toward unreachable power, chained together in a dance of agony. This provocative landscape is the opening song ZBB AT SPHERE and symbolizes childhood trauma carried into adulthood, so visceral it trended as occult worship, externalizing Zac's inner turmoil: an unhealed man discovering that fame's crown weighs heaviest on unprepared shoulders. The imagery ignites his journey from burden to transformation.

SONG (I): HEAVY IS THE HEAD

CONCEPT: DANTES INFERNO

STUDIO: PRODIGAL PICTURES

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: BEN HURAND

ART DIRECTOR / SENIOR DESIGNER / WRITER: JOSH CHILDERS

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: EOWYN MISHAWN

CREATIVE LEAD: ROBERT BROWN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: GRANT JULIAN, DANNY YOUNT

PRODUCER / CO-PRODUCER: EOWYN MISHAWN, NATHAN BAYNE

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: JENNIFER WILLCUT, MIKE TOUSEY

HEAD OF PRODUCTION: JESSE LOONEY

VFX SUPERVISOR: MATT GUZZARDO

POST SUPERVISOR: RUBEN PROENCA

POST PRODUCER: WADE HARPOOTLIAN

POST PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: KIMBERLY AIKMAN, DANNY “FANEEBO” BARA

EDITORS: DAVID NITZSCHE, MYLES MANTZARIS, BRYAN KEITH, ISAAC RUTH, JAKE YOUNT

NUKE COMPOSITORS: JASON HEINZE, AUSTIN RAMSEY, JESS WITT

AE COMP: ROBERT BROWN, ISAAC TARACKS

C4D ANIMATORS: ROBERT BROWN, ISAAC TARACKS, AMADOR VALENZUELA, ALEXANDER VAN DYNE, BRIAN CALYORE

HOUDINI ANIMATORS: ALEXANDER VAN DYNE, ALEJANDRO ROBDELO MÉLJIA

MAYA CHARACTER ANIMATOR: MIKE DINOCCO, ROSANNA DÁVILA VELASCO, PATRICK CLARKE, JOEL SOLOMON BEAIRD

PREVIS / ANIMATION: ROBERT BROWN

3D MODELING / CHARACTER: JOEL SOLOMON BEAIRD, JOSH CHILDERS, RYAN CLOSE

TECHNICAL / PIPELINE: NICK JANECKI, AKIRA THOMPSON, ANTHONY THOMAS, PEEDGE FABROA, GRAHAM HERBSTER

PRODUCTION SUPPORT: ESTHER P ROMERO, GREG ANDERSON


DANTES INFERNO

SCRIPT

SONG: HEAVY IS THE HEAD | Crown's Burden

  • SEAMLESS TRANSITION FROM INTRO

ACT 1 (THE CROWN'S LANDSCAPE)

  • (SETUP) Camera pushes slowly toward a massive skull wearing an ornate crown against blood-red skies (CG)

  • (CLIMAX) Golden crown's ridges shimmer with backlighting, darkening as we approach—skeletal figures climbing like insects across its surface (CG)

  • (RESOLUTION) Crown's metallic ridges transform seamlessly into jagged peaks of dark industrial wasteland (CG)

ACT 2 (DO OR DIE)

  • (SETUP) Mountain ridges shaped like human busts begin to shift and move—revealing colossal black dog's spine as it rises to drink from boiling oil lake (CG)

  • (CLIMAX) Rapid montage cuts to the beat: boiling mud (FOOTAGE) / projected band performance (STREAMED FOOTAGE) / figures clawing from sludge (FOOTAGE) / overhead shot of bodies climbing over each other (FOOTAGE) / golden skeletons chained together watching from above (CG) / oily figures wrestling (FOOTAGE) / lava boiling (FOOTAGE) / fire sky juxtaposed with lava lake/figures covered in lava climbing onto shore (FOOTAGE)

  • (RESOLUTION) Drone flies over industrial wasteland littered with junk—old cars, iron beams, metal shapes along lava shore. Camera glides through waste, tilts up, tracks toward peak, revealing a massive industrial castle shooting flames from its walls (CG/FOOTAGE)

ACT 3 (HIGH UPON HIS THRONE)

  • (SETUP) Close-up guitar solo (STREAMED FOOTAGE) / flames from industrial castle (CG) / projected band performance (STREAMED FOOTAGE)

  • (CLIMAX) Ink drips upward from the ground, defying gravity (CG/FOOTAGE) / camera slides past the burning castle-factory (CG)

  • (RESOLUTION) Final transition image TBD based on next song concept selection (CG)

  • CUT TO BLACK