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.
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
I worked with Drink Factory on producing a series fo videos to show what was unique about their space in Soho, connecting the italian heritage of the founders to the area.
“World famous tattoo artist Mo Coppoletta (The Family Business) has designed a series of labels for each of the Negronis served at Bar Termini, influenced by the Italian Aperitivo culture. In this video, he outlines his approach to their design”
“Coffee the Italian way, quick and easy. Available for one pound all day, standing at the bar.”
“Marco Arrigo demonstrates the making of Bar Termini’s “Bianco” coffee on the bar’s Faema machine”
“Bar Termini is a coffee and cocktail bar that takes inspiration from the idea of a bar in an Italian train station in the 1950s, with its name taken from Rome’s famous train station ‘Roma Termini’. Around the time of World War II, London saw an influx of Italian immigrants, many of which opened their own businesses. Soho became home to many new Italian restaurants, bars and delicatessens, some of which still exist today. Since opening Bar Termini, many new faces that have bought us interesting stories from their time in Soho. We began to look into the history of our neighbourhood, particularly between 1930s -1970s – We were surprised to find a whole host of characters with stories to tell.
In this short series, we meet Elena Salvoni, John Billiet and Teresa Arrigo, who kindly share their memories of the time they spent in Soho.”
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
