Behind the Scenes of Bushmills’ Playful Take on Whiskey Craft

            

Steve> The brief was pretty succinct – to demonstrate the many quality credentials of Bushmills single malt whiskey and get people to explore beyond just Scotch. When it comes to single malt, everyone automatically thinks the Scots invented it… but that’s very much up for debate! So our role was to capture the character, credibility and uniqueness of Bushmills – and Irish whiskey generally – in messaging, imagery and communications.  

Steve> As always, we’d viewed a raft of directors’ showreels and Jacob really stood out as being able to capture the right moment and bring a person’s character to life with natural humour. This was bang on to what we wanted to achieve in our campaign, capturing the people's natural Irish charm was key. And as we were using real craftspeople, not actors, we needed to be sure the director could pull this off. Jacob is a genius and such a nice guy; he knows exactly how to get the best out of people and out of a location. He somehow made it feel effortless, which I think relaxed everyone and they were really themselves, which shows through in the videos. 

Steve> The truth behind the 11 films was to present 12 scripts with the idea that three or four would make it to production! After our first presentation, the Bushmills team picked 11 out of the 12 ideas and said they wanted them all. Amazing! We obviously thought this was a great idea as it would give flexibility for markets to focus on slightly different messages and angles when they ran the campaign. It was great to see them all come to life and I really think it added an authentic depth to the campaign – allowing us to show multiple scenarios.  

Paul> As ever, the location scout that we did a few weeks before the shoot was critical to understanding how to navigate the tricky terrain – especially of the Giant's Causeway pillars themselves – and also seeing how crowded the area can get. We were able to block out which shooting directions would give us the least crowd control issues. We were also very cognisant of the fact that, first and foremost the area is a tourist hotspot and it was important for us to shoot around visitors rather than visitors making way for us. 

For the shoot itself, the helpful staff on site were able to give us the parking area right next to the Causeway, to house our equipment & food, circumventing the winding road that goes from the carpark at the top. Saving on that 30-45 minute round trip each time also enabled us to minimise disruption because we could wrap our filming time within the scheduled hours.

Steve> I'd visited the Giant’s Causeway before but was still struck by its epicness. It's an amazing and meaningful place to use as a backdrop to the campaign but from a creative perspective, there were a few key considerations. We made the conscious decision to capture it in an authentic way for motion, meaning weather and all. We knew the weather was out of our control (and very unpredictable) and we’d never get the shots if we waited for perfect sunshine. As the campaign is all about authenticity and real Irish character, this worked really well for us. 

When it came to our still key visuals, it was different. We ideally wanted to have the Causeway with a warming sunset as the backdrop for our products, so we did need to wait for the right light. Once set up, it was a case of shooting and letting nature do its thing – we literally sat and watched the sun set. And might have had a glass or two of Bushmills while we waited! Then Thomas, our photographer, managed to turn an OK-sundown into an epic backdrop for the KVs. The other consideration was that we didn’t want any tourists in our shots,  which we left to the very talented Fight Gravity team as we knew an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty might have a couple of people roaming around!

Paul> Seeing the Giant's Causeway, the coastline and the surrounding landscape, in person – at ground level – is without doubt incredibly impressive but it's not until you take to the air that you truly get humbled. From above, the repeated rock formations take on a painterly, abstract-art kind of quality and you begin to understand why so much lore and legend is attached to the Causeway.

Paul> The pre-production phase of this project really gave our director Jacob Hopewell and the rest of the production team, crucial access to the creative engine room at Purple Creative who had been iterating  the campaign over many months prior and who had an unmatched understanding of the brand. This meant that every shot, every angle and every piece of dialogue could be vetted at every stage - sometimes just the tweaking of one word or the order of words had a dramatic effect on the overall tone and storytelling aspect.

Paul> From the outset, it was clear that any and all talent in the films needed to come from either Bushmills distillery itself or from the village of Bushmills. No actor would be able to truly get into the mindset of a place where there is such a symbiotic relationship between a location and the business that resides within it. Our location manager used their local networks to pinpoint real people in the area who would not only come across well on camera but also who contributed to the community in a tangible way. Every time you see a farmer, a distillery worker, a potter, a pub-goer, there is no artifice to that – they really do that activity! Twinning that authenticity with our director's contemporary, playful style was the key to presenting the brand in a fresh, approachable way.

Steve> As it turned out, this was the easy part! Once we met the craftspeople and saw the different parts of the distillery, we decided it was simply a case of filming them doing what they did and talking to camera in their natural environment. The scripts were fun and full of wry humour already – but it was their genuine Irish character and delivery that made it so authentic and approachable.