Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.
Image Brew, Ben Jones - Our friends at New Belgium approached us wanting to produce a piece of branded content that felt like a mini documentary. This is always an exciting request because branded content should feel entertaining in nature, be driven by story like a TV show and in this case, being a documentary, have an important message for the viewer.
Legwork, Aaron Ray - Legwork was contacted by Ben at Image Brew at the request of New Belgium to direct the animated sequences, which included historical and technical motion-infographic scenes as well as opening titles and social content.
Give us an overview of the documentary, what is it about?
Image Brew, Ben Jones - Hemp is a hugely misunderstood material. Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated crops in history, which has been used for virtually everything from clothing, shoes and rope to car doors, concrete and building materials. Fast forward to the 1930s and the U.S. government began taking hasty steps to make it virtually illegal to grow hemp because of the ties between hemp and its drug-related cousin, marijuana. This video highlights the fall of hemp and how New Belgium is supporting Colorado hemp farmers to rise again.
Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?
Image Brew, Ben Jones - The client came directly to Image Brew requesting a 5-minute doc-style film that would feature New Belgium’s new beer entitled “The Hemperor.” The film would need to explore the brewery’s ongoing effort to experiment with new flavors (in this case, replacing hops with hemp flower) and highlight their community advocacy where a portion of the proceeds go to a hemp awareness organization. The client was also a fan of Legwork’s animation studio and requested that we bring them in for a few illustrated scenes. We hadn’t worked with Legwork before, so this was an exciting opportunity for collaboration.
Legwork, Aaron Ray - For us, it came down to the client’s need for animated sequences due to the historical or technical aspects of the story in a visually compelling way that will keep the viewers interested. There were a few visual references provided, and the WIP script. We worked with Ben to narrow down some of the historical bullet points, and from a visual style point of view were really able to lead the charge creatively and come up with something that appealed to all parties involved.
Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?
Image Brew, Ben Jones - In order to make this feel like a doc, we wanted to create a traditional three-act structure. First, we need to introduce the history of why hemp has been shunned from society and where things stand today. Then, we would introduce the New Belgium team experimenting with the hemp flavor profiles and the challenges they faced. After that, our final act brings together the collaboration story of the hemp farmers, the brewers, and the social advocacy side of New Belgium.
Legwork, Aaron Ray - Initially, reading the early script, our segments had a long list of historical facts about hemp. A lot of upfront time was spent researching, and when researching things that date back to the 1800s you tend to see a lot of imagery with a certain look (weathered paper, wrinkled photos, encyclopedia pages, etc.). Ultimately, that became a visual snapshot in my head that lead to the design direction. We balanced that idea with what was already defined as the HPA packaging illustration and found that it all fit nicely together.
Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this documentary? Why was this idea chosen?
Legwork, Aaron Ray - From the graphic side of things, the style was signed-off on pretty quickly. As mentioned above, the inspiration was a nod to the packaging art. Conceptually, there were a couple ideas that didn't make the cut, mainly due to the process of creating the hemp brew or the facts and accuracy around the benefits of hemp.
How did the client initially react to this idea?
Legwork, Aaron Ray Good. They were totally on board to bring these historical and scientific aspects to life through illustration and animation. One of the best things about animation is seeing your clients excitement when the design and characters start moving.
What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development?
Image Brew, Ben Jones - Tight deadlines are always a challenge, especially with a project that is primarily unscripted like this. In order to deliver on time, we developed an aggressive edit schedule, and orchestrated timely review sessions with New Belgium.
This project was interesting because in tandem to our live-action production, we brought on Legwork to create the beautiful animated sequences within the video. This was almost a must-have since so many well produced docs have a thoughtful graphic layer within opening titles or motion-infographics that really elevate the overall value of the story.
Legwork, Aaron Ray - To echo what Ben said, the production timeline was already tight and we were really in a holding pattern until we got locked scripts or edits, which was tricky just due to the off-the-cuff interview style they were utilizing. So that meant that we could loosely block things out with an animatic, and do most of the design, but we really couldn’t get too deep into finished animation without risking a ton of extra work. Luckily, we were able to develop a pretty modular system all around—we knew generally what each sequence was going to cover so we blocked it out, and did the same with the others. So, when an edit came back with the placement of the sequences different, or a few VO edits, it wasn’t too crazy to rearrange the big stuff.
What did you enjoy most about seeing this project through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?
Image Brew, Ben Jones - All documentaries have challenging schedules, but this is what we are prepared for. In these cases, we accept that fact that we won’t have it all planned out like a scripted piece, and have to instead be flexible and confident that we can roll with what is presented to us and capture things as they occur.
Legwork, Aaron Ray - We enjoyed seeing the entire piece start to finish after everyone was wrapped, as during production we were mostly consumed with our 1:30 of the overall doc. To play devil's advocate to what Ben said, it’s nearly impossible to not have animation planned out. That’s a dangerous move. However, as long as we’re working with a collaborative partner such as Image Brew, we can make sure to work smart and keep open communication so we’re prepared for big changes.
Are there future plans for this project?
Legwork, Aaron Ray - The doc and the HPA beer are being used as a driver to help legalize industrial hemp.