Recently, I’ve been noticing and really appreciating these little micro documentaries that are being put out to promote products, processes or even little coffee shops. They’re not that new in a lot of cases, but I think they’re an absolutely fantastic way of showcasing what you love to do and presenting it in a wonderful and eminently sharable light.
I’ve tried to collect the few examples which I feel showcase this style the best. If you can think of any more that would be well suited to the list, then by all means contact me and I’ll add it in.
First off, I think a shout out has to go out to Field Notes. They make these wonderful videos almost as part of each design of notebook. Not only do they produce fantastic ledgers, but they make some mean documentaries on the process behind them, showing you their small-town made-in-America roots and the wonderful über old school printing processes behind them.
Secondly, I happened to come across Made By Hand through Daring Fireball or maybe another twitter link, but it’s wonderful. Made By Hand is a mini documentary series highlighting the very personal work of some skilled crafters based in Brooklyn. The films are immaculately produced and directed by Keef and a new one is released every couple months of so. Above is my favourite so far, about the knife maker.
Now time for some coffee based documentaries. For some reason some really quite kitsch coffee shops tend to make the best little videos showcasing their mad barista skills, or their bling new Kees van der Westen espresso machine. Maybe the care and attention that they give to coffee making lends itself very well to documentary producing. Anyway the first example above is from Cup Speciality Coffee in Brisbane.
The second coffee based documentary is less self explanatory, but in essence it’s a fantastic visual of the morning opening of the shop. With the best music (Why? Why Not? by Cachao) to go with it.
Finally, a small documentary on brewing and his personal history behind his company—Kernel—produced by eatbigfish. It’s much more informative I feel, and far less ‘arty’ but it gets the point, and most importantly the passion, across in such a great way which is why I’ve included it. Perhaps a mashup of this and the original Made By Hand video on The Distiller would make for a great intro/launch video for a small drinks company, combining process intuition with artistic flare.