This is not a story about a building; Humanim’s video production about the decommissioning of Motorola Building in Libertyville.
Executive Summary
Baltimore based, The Hatcher Group, needed a film crew to document the dismantling of a large building in the Chicagoland suburbs. They called us with a tight timeline and lots of needs. Thier client, Humanim, was in the middle of a large project and they knew they needed to document it for future use. We worked with The Hatcher Group to write a script, film on-location and turn around an edit on a compressed timeline. We teamed with all parties to create a film that could be used in new business pitches, could celebrate the work Humanimwas doing and document the opportunity they currently had on the table.
Codi Palm and James Gustin setting up in Libertyville.
Challenges
The old Libertyville Motorola campus is HUGE. The logistics of the project were HUGE. The whole thing was just HUGE. 1 million square feet huge. Humanim and their sister division, Details, was responsible for packing up all the furniture that was left behind when the campus closed.The furniture was to be documented and then shipped off to local non-profits and CPS schools. We LOVED this mission. Due to budget and time constraints, we educated our client on all available options. Tanika Davis at The Hatcher Group took on the task of writing the script with the direction of our team. Our film team challenged Tanika to think about the “story” in her script. This is when we came up with the “this is not a story about a building,” concept.
We knew that showing the size of the building would be important for the story, so hiring a drone operator became a must-have on our client's list. Next, filming. The campus can take up to 30minutes to cross on foot. With so many rooms to cover and items to document, the fig team hustled to make sure they were hitting all the points in the script within the amount of time we had. That morning a HUGE storm had flooded all the roads leading to and from the building as well as canceled the flights of clients. Luckily our team was prepared and arrived before that happened so we could get started without having to wait for our clients to arrive. This saved our client a lot of overtime fees and or cancelations.
Another major challenge was warming up the crew that was working on-site. The work they do on-site requires a lot of manual labor. Getting our subjects to look relaxed and focused while doing their work took some finesse. To everyone’s credit, the crew was playful with us and allowed us to interrupt their flow to get what we needed.
James Gustin filming in warehouse hallway.
How our services were used.
This client hired our film crew to film and edit a piece together as well as our consultation on creative.
One and a half production dates.
Includes two cameras and crew to cover both interviews and b-roll.
Director on-site to coordinate with the client.
Licensed drone operator.
One final film with four revisions to client specifications.
Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans
This was the first project of this caliber for Humanim and Details. So the pressure to document it was great. The final film is currently being used:
Online in case-studies about the project.
In board presentations and sales pitches for new buildings to decommission.
To present to CEOs and Business owners about the partnership.
To present to non-profit organizations that could use the furniture.
To celebrate the culture and inspiring nature of their mission.
“We really love the video! It’s so good! Thank you so much for all the prep and hard work on the shoot days – it made a big difference! I’m very excited for the final product!”
— Tanika Davis, The Hatcher Group
TEAM
Executive Producers: James Gustin, Michele Gustin
Camera: James Gustin, Codi Palm
Drone: Troy Walsh, Drone Media Chicago
Writer, Director, Editor: Melissa Fox