Founded in 2005, Drink Factory is a collective of like-minded bartenders looking to expand their creativity and knowledge of cocktails by pushing the boundaries of their respective crafts. I worked out of their London Fields lab in 2014, and during this time, produced a number of videos used for social content and promotion of their sites – Bar Termini, 69 Colebrooke Row as well as work for their client Pernod Ricard
Working closely with Drink Factory, we visited Cuba to shoot video content for Havana Club 7, to be used within multi-sensory presentations used to help educate bartenders and mixologists on the effects of context on flavour.
Using Google Cardboard, we created immersive video environments that groups of participants could access from their own phones through provided headsets. The videos were 1-4 minutes in length and were synchronised to smells, sounds and verbal cues from the speaker.
I filmed the 4 videos in a week in Havana, after extensive research and development of suitable ways to best capture 360 video in the available environments and lighting.
Mindful of keeping equipment to a minimum for easy transport into Cuba, I ended up using two different rig configurations, and developed a workflow that allowed for stitching while we were out on location for client approval. The final stitching and post-production then took place in the week following our return, and the presentations started shortly after.
Intended to introduce the audience to the technology in a fun and thrilling way, in this video, we are driven forward by an unseen guide to the balcony overlooking Havana, and then over the edge.
A scene setting exercise, the visuals are accompanied by the sounds of the streets, and smells pumped into the auditorium, of sea air and tobacco smoke.
This video leads a discussion about the effect of colour on taste, with the Rum aging warehouse bathed first in red, and then blue light.
Finally, a discussion on the effect of the shape of glassware upon taste, here bartender Tony Conigliaro, in the bar of the Museo del Ron directs the viewer as to when to drink from each of the three glasses in front of them.
In part one, we filmed Tony Conigliaro and Professor Charles Spence in the Untitled bar presenting a number of exercises which demonstrated how colour, glassware and even sound could be used to affect the flavour perception of cocktails, and how this knowledge could be used to develop new drinks.
In part two, we travelled to Brighton to film whisky writer Dave Broom in his lab discussing how the background of different rums affect both the flavour and the manner in which they should be drunk.
Though the majority of my work for Drink Factory was video production, there were occasional print jobs that needed doing for their bars– 69 Colebrooke Row and Bar Termini
Drink Factory Magazine was a luxuriously produced publication, in which artists and photographers presented editorials based on some of the recipes and research that the Drink Factory had been working on. Each issue had its own theme, and I created video promos to tease the content.
Shot and edited videos of seasonally created recipes, produced for the Drink Factory to show off their intricate processes as well as for collaborative promotions
