Good people make my job easy.

I met Jacob in October 2023 at an event in his newly opened coffee shop, Cadejo. It took me all of 20 seconds of listening to him talk to know that his story would make for a great video project.

And so, when our schedules finally aligned (and the rain had lifted a bit) I came through Cadejo to get the full story, and to help the one-man-band tell his story - one of sweat, and heart, and a whole lotta long days to turn his dream into a reality.

The Task:

To tell the Cadejo story in a way it hadn’t been told. To let people into the shop and into the world of one-man-band owner/ operator Jacob Abea, and to allow people the opportunity to connect with the WHY behind the shop.

The Process:

I spent two mornings at the shop asking Jacob some questions, floating around the space, and documenting the owner and his shop in their daily routine.

I put a small lav mic on Jacob to get his side of the story while he prepped for the day. Jacob kindly walked me through the process of starting the shop, the ethos behind the space, and his motivating factors. As customers began to filter in, I floated around the space capturing the small moments of welcome and kindness that Jacob is so wonderful at creating.

Day two consisted of me documenting the weekend brunch service, a collab between Cadejo and Balong - a Filipino brunch pop-up - capturing the space in full action, and the chefs in their element.

After spending two days filming, it took me a week to comb through all the footage, pull out the best soundbites that touched on different parts of the story, and edited them into individual shorts for Jacob to use on social media and his site.