Beer We Swear By - Solemn Oath Brewery Web Film

In Naperville, IL, you can find Solemn Oath Brewery in the warehouse district brewing and bottling some ridiculously good brews. We're not here to just tell you that they make good beer. Just grab one and see for yourself.

Yes, the beer does absolutely come first. If you don't make great beer, then you won't last a second in the craft beer industry. But what if a brewery made great beer by cultivating a team of talented people from outside the beer industry? Imagine a brewery where new, fresh, and alternative ideas of how beer can be done are not only accepted but encouraged. A family of unique people offering their creativity and expertise from different backgrounds and industries all poured into making beer and developing a community around it. The makeup of this team is Solemn Oath, and its leader is John Barley.

Behind the Lens

This was our second brewery film in 2016 and it was really fun to take a little bit of a different approach compared to our prior film (Aleman Brewing Company). For both films, we interviewed first which helped us understand more the heartbeat of each unique brewery. Both breweries have the same goal of making great beer, but they approach them in their own distinct ways which result in distinctly different films.

Solemn Oath's crew was cool with us flying around with a camera and grabbing the action as it happened in their warehouse. Making run n' gun footage look good is always a challenge, but after doing it for awhile we've learned how to be keenly observant and anticipate the "moments" that we want to capture cinematically.

We brought a decent amount of lights because we weren't able to location scout, but to our fortunate surprise, there were big windows and garage doors that provided lots of yummy natural light. So, the lights stayed in their cases and we whipped out all our light modifiers. With a few pieces of duvetyne for some negative fill plus a diffuser panel, we were able to create some great looks for the interview setup and beer bomber shots.

If you are curious about using negative fill, check out the video below to quickly show how you can cheaply and easily at a little bit of cinematic contrast to a potentially flat looking shot.

At the end of the day, this project was a blast because we could do a combination of run n' gun shooting mixed with some controlled lighting settings. Overall, we're super thankful for the opportunity to work with John Barley and all the whole family at Solemn Oath

Web: www.SolemnOathBrewery.com
FB: www.facebook.com/solemnoathbeer
IG: @solemnoathbeer

Feedback & Suggestions

We're fully aware that only a few people (maybe no one) are reading this entire article, but at least to those who are checking in what we are up to we wanted to reach out to see if this has been helpful for at least even enjoyable. If not, what could we do to be more a resource for you? What are the types of things you what to hear more of or less of? Let us know so we're not shooting in the dark here (hah.).
 

If you don't follow us yet give us a like on Facebook and a follow on Instagram (@oldnorthmedia).

Cheers!

Man. Woman. Human. Aleman Brewery Company

Dedication to Learning & Craft

More than we've ever seen before, Aleman Brewing Company is a group of people who care deeply about every step of the process that goes into making great beer. Nate, Brad, and Jim dedicate themselves to constantly be in a posture of learning and curiosity. If they want to add thyme to their beer - how does one grow good tasting thyme? They make it their job to know what's going into their beer.

For us, this was a really interesting learning experience. There is so much to know when it comes to making good beer - then triple that when you try to make a LOT. We were trying to keep up with all the knowledge and steps that go into the whole thing, but we couldn't drink from the fire hose much longer. All that goes to say: appreciate the beer you have in your hand.

Even though Aleman is only a few year old, this bunch is one to keep an eye on in the craft beer scene in Chicago. If you find yourself lucky enough to grab a pint of their brew, just remember the man (or Aleman) behind the beer.

Web: www.alemanbrewingcompany.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/alemanchicago
Insta: @alemanchicago

Pure. Black. Coffee.

Dagger Mountain Roastery started out of Dan Evans and Ashton Whitely's passion to just make really good coffee. They wouldn't give you any righteous cause for why they started DMR and they don't want to be the savior the the vast coffee world. Making good coffee is their cause and constantly learning and improving everyday is their process

DMR opened around 2 years ago in our home town of Valparaiso, IN. It's been awesome to see Valparaiso grow into a vibrant in the past decade and DMR is a great addition to the community's budding small business culture.

We stopped by one Saturday in Valpo just to say "Hi." But we happened to have a camera in the car and just decided to just start filming and see what happened. We were able to witness the attention to detail throughout the whole process from roasting to brewing which definitely renewed our appreciation the beverage we so often took for granted.

Grab some beans at daggermountain.com

Helping Refugee Children With Teddy Bears

Who knew that a hand-made teddy bear could help change the world. Threadies adopts the Toms shoes 1 for 1 model, but applied to teddy bears for refugee children across the world in desperate need of comfort and assurance.
The Threadies film was used as for their Kickstarter campaign which was very successfully funded at 162% of their intended goal!

Buy a Threadie here for a little one in your life and have it's twin sent to a refugee child to provide trauma support.

20 Years of Service

For twenty years, every week, Charlie Varvaro has been committed to tutoring children who come from struggling families. In the few days we filmed we had such a fun time getting to know Charlie and hear lots of great stories (he helped invent a the cellular coding used in every cell phone... yeah.) His dedication and empathy for children clearly shone through his years on unrelentless service.

When you meet people like Charlie and spend time hearing his heart you leave as a little bit different of a person. That's why it's our honor to share the story of Charlie.

To learn more about the Outreach Community Center and the impact they are making, go to there website here.

Design With Purpose. Design For People.

Designs For Dignity is a nonprofit helping less-resourced nonprofits create spaces of healing and peace for the people they serve. Using the power of design, D4D supplies pro bono design and construction and utilizes donated materials to create human-centric and nurturing environments. 


Learn more about who they are and why they do what they do on their website here.

We worked with D4D to create this film to inspire the attendees of their fundraising gala and to communicate their mission through the eyes of those affected by their committed work.