FOLKLORE HAT CO.

John Fish is a man of few words. He’d prefer to let his work do the talking.

I first met John years ago when I was just beginning my videography business. I’d strolled into his old shop on Killingsworth, curious about the quaint old Hatter’s headquarters.

We got to talking for a while, and though we’d chatted briefly about working on a project together, our initial ideations faded into the background as life took some twists and turns for us both.

It just so happened that we reconnected when John was moving locations. Eager to show off his new shop, John enlisted my help to showcase his new location and document the creation of a line of hats he was custom making for a shop in Jackson, WY.

The Task:

Document the creation of a special line of hats for an outdoor outfitter in Jackson, WY - and in the process, give customers a sneak peek into his new workshop.

The Process:

I filmed John at his shop for a few hours one rainy February morning, while he and his right hand man knocked out a few of the custom hats. John responded hesitantly when asked if he wanted to speak about his process on camera, so I faded into the background and let the two work.

However, John did have one request about the audio; it was his idea to use old folk songs from his homeland in the Midwest to help accentuate the old, classic, timeless nature of his practice and his product. John sent me a playlist for the soundtrack, and I culled old archives from a University website for royalty-free recordings from the 1920s.

The Deliverable:

A few days of editing later and I sent John six verticals, and three horizontal edits to use at his discretion.

Now, John is a man who likes to keep a clean grid - so while he shared each video (and they performed quite well, I will say), after each piece of content had run it’s course reaching new viewers, he quietly pulled it down to preserve his seamless, product-only feed.