Okay, so maybe not doing one thing, but below you can see four different videos I edited, directed by Mike Palmer and shot by Jon Simonassi, that detail four different aspects of Steam Whistle: their beer, their employees, their history, and their home but they all tie back to their philosophy and company culture. Each video stands on its own as its own isolated story but they all compliment each other and when seen together tell the real, full story.

The approach was to tell each story its own way. Aesthetically, the videos should all compliment each other so they feel like a collective rather than four videos that could have been commissioned separately and by different teams, but we also didn’t want each video to feel like a retread of the one before it. If the viewer has the freedom to view one or all four they shouldn’t feel exhausted watching through them. The last thing we want is for people to come out of the videos being unable to distinguish one story from another.

Technical Stuff

We shot the videos over several visits to the Roundhouse–Steam Whistle’s home and brewery–using the Panasonic Lumix GH4 with a gimbal system to give a floaty, smooth motion to the images. There is some locked off shots as well as some GoPro footage, timelapses and drone footage. I cut in Premiere CC 2014 and did the titles in After Effects. The drone footage was shot at 60fps allowing me to remap the timing and introduce some slow motion.

Do One Thing

Our first video looks at the process of brewing Steam Whistle’s signature pilsner. It mixes the mechanical, brewing, packaging and distributing processes with voice over that adds in the philosophical element of why Steam Whistle brews only one beer. The edit is much more mechanical with much more emphasis on deliberate pacing to show the “motion” of the machines and how detailed and intricate the process is. It gives a behind the scenes look at the process and how people offer the human touch that keeps the brewing process intimate and passionate. Rhythm and close-ups were the driving force behind the creative on this particular video. It is the only video in the series that uses voice-over which let us tell the bulk of the story with visuals in a (fairly) linear fashion. We hope that viewers come out of the video seeing the personality in the brewing process, opposed to the assembly line automation you might expect at a major brewer.

Three Fired Guys

The only video in the series that is told as a conversational interview. Greg and Cam reminisce about old times in a more free-flowing story. Finding the balance between too loose and too deliberate was tough. This video runs longer than the others and longer than I would normally allow a video of this nature, but giving these guys the room to laugh and interrupt each other helps shape the story as less of a “pitch” and more of a nostalgic conversation between old friends, which it was. I had several longer cuts where they would go on extended tangents about memories and anecdotes leading to the formation of Steam Whistle but, being part of this series, there shouldn’t be one video that runs ten minutes when the rest are two to three. We found a good balance that I think still maintains their enthusiasm and jovial, casual demeanours. A lot of reaction shots help show the deep passion and connection in their shared experiences as well. Rather than always showing one of them tell a story, using the other’s face studying him as he recounts his version can be much more powerful; you can feel that shared experience. Simonassi shot at 4K which I reduced down to a 1080p sequence (this was due to a B and C cam which I believe were either two GH2’s or a GH2 and 5D? shot at 1080). The resolution bump allowed me to punch in tighter without any quality loss on reactions. I would punch in tighter the more intimate the reaction was, or the more powerful a statement was, which subtly helped convey the significance of that moment. Normally, interviews are stripped of as many “um” and “ah” moments where the subject is trying to form thoughts or connect ideas. I allowed there to be more of these hesitations and a bit of awkwardness to give their chat a more realistic, low-key feel. I generally think keeping dead air and audible thinking is underrated and utilized in short form video, especially branded content, because it really makes the subject feel human and believable rather than scripted and automated, whether they actually are or not. This interview was almost entirely them shooting the shit with each other, given slight nudges to push them in certain directions when needed; its one of the loosest, most casual interviews I’ve cut. To make them feel scripted would be an utter failure. The way they share a cheers together at the end makes me feel really confident in our final cut.

The Good Beer Folks

One of my favourite things about working with Steam Whistle was that their company truly looks like an awesome place to work. There was no challenge in presenting their brewery or culture as a great place because the energy in all of our footage was inherent. This video uses a series of short interviews with different staff members from Steam Whistle which are compiled into a single narrative. It’s one of my favourite ways to edit interviews: allowing people to finish each other’s thoughts and build a shared sentiment. It can be tricky, but effective and fun. It’s always great to have a rally of thoughts going only for someone to “record scratch” the pace and give a joke or contrary response. Stuff like that. We had tons and tons of people. Organizing and logging all these interviews took forever, but it also helped me shape out how the story would play as I combed through. I could see who would play well off of who and which moments really stood out. It was a very optimistic process. There were people from pretty much every part of the company, which makes you realize how diverse the staff and skill-sets are in what you would think is a simple business. There are people who have been there since day one and people who are on their day one, and crazily enough, we got almost everyone in the final video (I think everyone might at least make a visual appearance). The challenge here is that you have a few people who are clear and obvious stand-outs. Happens every time. Everything they say is gold and you could make a video out of just them but they end up dominating the video and it feels lopsided. It’s tough to leave so much great material out of the final cut, but then it also makes their great lines more pronounced, rather than overdone.

The Roundhouse

The final video of the series. This one strips away the typical conventions we used in the other three for a purely visual tour through the Steam Whistle space. “Three Fired Guys” showed us the history of the space while this video shows us the current state of it. That’s just one example of how watching all of the videos gives you a larger impression of the full Steam Whistle story. I had more free reign on how to tell this story so I decided one day when I had more coffee than usual to take one of our drone shots passing the Steam Whistle water tower and add a title, tracked into the time and space of the footage that would write on. I imagined it feeling fairly retro, as the Roundhouse is sort of like a modern speakeasy in a way. It’s very cool, hip, and fun with lots of live music and art. There is a mysterious quality to it, maybe its the history, or maybe its the space and location in the city, I’m not sure. I decided to make a really high-energy piece that would fly through the different areas and events found in this one building to show the insane diversity of activity there. The titles would each have their own motion and could be presented in pretty cool ways using depth and perspective. I had a few titles that I loved which didn’t fit, whether it was timing or the copy itself or the shot, but either way I saw the titles as an opportunity to explore new ideas and challenge myself with their execution. I wasn’t quite satisfied with simply having text that is motion tracking with the footage–seen it, done it–but I did think the write on with the blue and green drop-shadowy accent was a neat effect, but most importantly I wanted the text to feel like it was in the scene. The Roundhouse title draws a shadow against the tower, other text warps as bottles pass over it, or reflects in windows. All of these details will not register to most viewers, especially at the speed of the edit, but I like to imagine that it does register, at least subconsciously, and shows a more detailed and polished video that is ultimately more impressive. It was more work but I found the time to try it, and if it failed miserably, I could have still fallen back on having the text track without real-world interaction. I was able to experiment with different tools I don’t usually play with and am really satisfied with the final result. I think it looks really cool and compliments the really fun footage–it does justice to the energy of the Roundhouse itself.