The Making of BEGIN—AGAIN (Part 01).
What a good feeling. After many months of development, we finally released our first brand film yesterday: BEGIN—AGAIN. The initial feedback has been great—cheers to everyone who’s taken the time to watch.
As we “build in public,” I thought it'd be fun to pull back the curtain on the making of, so to speak. This will likely be a series of posts, but for now, here’s a look at how the creative came together:
🎨 FILM INGREDIENTS
I knew I was sitting on a trove of content from the past 25 years—brand heritage, product archives, old YouTube clips, fine art photography, AI-generated imagery, and more.
This pile of assets naturally steered us down the path of a mixed-media approach. Digging, sorting, curating, selecting... let’s just say, a ton of content didn’t make the cut!
🔮 HIGH CONCEPT
The idea for this film initially started as a concept for a feature-length documentary. The vision? Interviewing the old db clay crew, shooting modern-day live-action sequences, etc.
But then we realized—there wasn’t an aha moment yet. No big reveal. The insight? We needed to pull back and create more of a “pilot” as a proof-of-concept. And then—get back to work and create the ending.
✍ THE STORY
Huge shoutout to Travis Hanour, my Creative Advisor on the project. Travis and I worked together on big brand content at my previous agency, and I've always admired his level of craft and creative instincts.
His first challenge to me: "Write the story of db clay." What a challenging yet rewarding exercise in self-reflection. Nineteen pages later... we had our foundation set and our script was born.
🎬 FILM TREATMENT
Travis is a master at synthesizing information and crystallizing ideas. I had been circling this concept for quite some time—sketching ideas, banging my head, building countless decks, and more decks.
He helped distill everything down into a tight, cogent concept, a super-dialed script, and ultimately, he helped shaped the visual language of the film. I couldn't have asked for a better collaborator.
A lot of work went into making this 3+ minute film, but we had a lot of fun in the process. In future posts, I'll share more about how we approached pre-production, editorial, and what we have planned next on the film front.
💛 Garett
