Quest for Craft
Three years after the great loss of Bourdain, The Balvenie wanted to launch a new digital series celebrating craft. In part due to the success of the Raw Craft series, they were able to partner with the immensely talented, multi-hyphenate Ahmir Thompson, AKA Questlove.
PROCESS AND DISCOVERY
Alongside Quaker City Mercantile and Thompson’s Two One Five Productions, we helped to shape a new series built around Ahmir’s strengths: his passion for the creative process and his curiosity to look “under the hood” of different creative spaces.
Instead of travelling the country, we found an incredible home base, Ahmir’s favorite recording studio: the famed Electric Lady Studios. We transformed Studio A into an intimate space for a beautifully lit, live, filmed conversation.
BEHIND THE SCENES
The quality of the series meant we were able to land incredible guests, including Yo-Yo Ma, Patti Smith, Mark Ronson, Michael Che, Malcolm Gladwell, America Ferrera, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Each conversation was built around a theme that worked both for the guest and the brand. For Bill Hader, the theme was “Uncertainty” — something that has defined Bill’s career and also is important to embrace in the alchemy of whisky making. For Patti Smith, a poignant reflection on “Time” fit perfectly with the aging process of whisky and also led to some moments with Patti that went viral on Social Media.
Finally, we made additional short documentaries — springboarding off the theme in a different direction — that we dubbed “Rabbit Holes.” For an episode about Chaos featuring Michael Che we made short films with the great physicist Steven Strogatz and an animation telling the story of the improvisation composer Butch Morris.
The series received tens of millions of views and won many awards including two Webbys for Best Branded Series.
“There We Go Films is not just another production company. Rob and his team are passionate about understanding the goals of the project and delivering them through creative and compelling storytelling.” - Greg Levine, VP of Marketing, Single Malts, William Grant & Sons
