2020 Review: Our Top Film and Video Productions of the Year

Thanks to our incredible clients, 2020 produced many silver linings. We grew our creative team and kept our crew healthy and engaged for the entire year. Our storytelling agency’s projects ranged from filming in Antarctica to building a web service to reinvent tourism in Colombia, to launching our own in-house YouTube series about birding.

Please join us in celebrating our 2020 year-in-review, which features our favorite projects, experiences, and people.

Here’s looking forward to, hopefully, catching you in person and working with you in 2021.

Art-Driven Advertising Campaign for Merrell

Merrell, one of the world's premier outdoor footwear brands, wanted a series of regional campaigns showcasing the new edition of the world's bestselling hiking boot, the iconic Moab. 2020 saw an uptick in urban adventures, and more recreational activities done close to home. This was the perfect opportunity to remind people that Merrell’s iconic boot was the tool for the job.

The client wanted a memorable campaign in a matter of weeks, with a concept that could be successfully applied to a range of North American cities, starting with Austin, Texas. The brief was to create a mural campaign used as the foundation for a series of billboards, stickers, and in-store assets and a digital campaign. Our storytelling agency pitched them a graphic art-driven campaign focused on local communities and experiences designed to showcase the best of each target region.

Find Out More:
“Creating Art-Driven Regional Outdoor Advertising and Print Campaigns For Merrell”

Winning Telly Awards for Our Cat Footwear Documentary

In May, we received a welcome bit of news - WhereNext received five prestigious Telly Awards for our work with Cat Footwear on their "Surge On" campaign for their line of Stormers boots, including the Gold Telly Award in the Online Commercials Campaign category and four Silver Medals for the centerpiece of the Surge On campaign, our documentary “The Value of a Wild Heartbeat.”

"The Value of a Wild Heartbeat," was filmed at The Wildlife Center of the Northwest in Astoria, Oregon. It features Morgan Heim, a Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and passionate advocate for the Center's work, and tells the story of Joshua Saranpaa and his journey from a 16-year-old volunteer to the Center's Executive Director.”

Watch the Documentary below and read more here:
“WhereNext Takes Home Five Telly Awards for Cat Footwear ‘Surge On’ Campaign”

Filming in Antarctica for Abercrombie & Kent

This time last year our team was en-route to our seventh continent as a storytelling agency. Abercrombie & Kent, the world’s premier luxury travel operator, needed a partner to create a multichannel campaign for their 30th anniversary of Luxury Expedition Cruising. The creative would feature an Antarctic expedition in December of 2019, led by A&K’s best Expedition Team members, providing the perfect backdrop to produce a world-class campaign.

Although the shoot took place in late-2019, the post-production of this flagship video occupied much of our team’s energies in the first quarter of 2020. Immediately upon our field team’s return from Antarctica, the post-production team began a meticulous video editing process with A&K that included cataloging raw footage, transcribing 15 hours of interviews, motion graphics design, audio mastering, scrubbing unwanted artifacts and logos, and color correction.

You can enjoy the final result below, and learn more about our work with Abercrombie & Kent here:
“Building a People-First Campaign With the World’s Premier Luxury Travel Operator”

Building a Digital Platform for Colombia Me Inspira

In September, we were proud to announce a partnership with Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism and Colombia más Competitiva to develop #ColombiaMeInspira, a tool to reinvent tourism in Colombia during the most challenging period in the history of the industry.

#ColombiaMeInspira is a digital platform that provides the tourism community with subsidized access to agency-level video production support, a user-generated travel content hub, ColombiaMeInspira.com, a calendar that consolidates virtual event dates nationwide, and a go-to source for the travel sector’s latest news and updates.

One of the most valuable features of the platform is the possibility for all those who work in the national tourism industry to access subsidized agency-level video production support. Participants submit proposals via an online form, focusing on culture, gastronomy, nature, folklore, or adventure travel plans, and what makes their service unique within Colombia. The best proposals are supported by free production of a destination video from our storytelling agency. Edited videos are published on the website, in the newsletter and promoted on the platform’s social networks.

Find out more here:
“‘Colombia Me Inspira’ – a Tool to Reinvent Tourism in Colombia”

Producing ‘The Birders Show’

In November, we officially launched The Birders Show, WhereNext’s original YouTube series dedicated to the world of birds and birding. The Birders Show is for everyone that loves bird watching, nature, travel, and adventure. Think Top Gear, but for birders!

Co-hosts and birding friends Chris Bell and Diego Calderon explore the birding passion with extraordinary guests worldwide, including top bird guides, scientists, activists, authors, musicians, and artists. Their mission is to present a broad range of guests, educate and excite viewers about birding, and celebrate the global bird watching community’s diversity and passion. They accomplish this by blending a talk show studio format with adventurous field expeditions in the world’s most spectacular destinations. The Birders Show is in a position to become the world’s top birding media channel.

Watch the latest episode of The Birders Show below and discover more here:
“The Birders Show - A WhereNext Original Series”

‘Bird The Birders’: Making a Birding Documentary Interactive

As the global pandemic began necessitating lockdowns all over the world, we saw an opportunity to bring our feature-length documentary The Birders to an even wider audience. We knew that the film series could offer a new kind of escapism and contact with the natural world during quarantine, and we also wanted to create something more interactive. So “quarantine birding” was born. By creating customized downloadable checklists for all five of the films, we gave thousands suffering from cabin fever across the planet the chance to experience birding Colombia from the comfort of their homes. And “Bird The Birders” has been a hit. Our U.S.-based media and PR team played a huge role in generating some key publicity not only for the documentary series but also for Colombia as the world’s top birding destination, since part of our goal with this initiative was to support the Colombian birding tourism and conservation industry during a challenging time.

“Bird The Birders” has now been featured in BBC Wildlife Magazine, AFAR, Sierra Club, El Tiempo newspaper, and Bird Watcher's Digest. This international coverage has inspired thousands to download the checklists, bird the film, and dream about birding in Colombia now that travel is gradually becoming possible again.

You can ‘Bird The Birders’ here:
“Quarantine Birding? We’ve Made It Easy to Bird Our Documentary Film “The Birders”

Pro-Bono Video Production for the Colombian Civil Air Patrol

The Patrulla Aerea Civil Colombiana (Colombian Civil Air Patrol or PAC) was founded in 1966 by private pilots. These pilots were motivated simply by the desire to help to provide medical, surgical, humanitarian, and emergency medical care to Colombian towns that are inaccessible by road. Colombia's geography is complex: vast swathes of the east and south of the country are impenetrable rainforests, and much of the Pacific coastal region is equally cut-off from the rest of the country. Many of these remote regions were disproportionately impacted by conflict and the drug trade. The scars from that tumultuous period of political instability continue to leave many isolated communities without basic medical care. The PAC brings the doctors, medical supplies, and services that these people need and deserve.

Since we have entered a global pandemic situation unlike anything most of us have experienced in our lifetimes, the PAC's work has taken on a new urgency. Previously, the focus of monthly missions was on surgeries and medical treatment, now they are focussed on flying vital Personal Protective Equipment to rural medical centers and transporting Covid-19 tests from small towns to more sophisticated medical facilities in major cities like Bogotá and Medellín. Without this work, it would be almost impossible to monitor cases of the virus in these isolated rural regions.

To help promote the PAC during these demanding times, WhereNext was proud to work pro-bono to create new videos that draw attention to the essential services that they are providing. We produced a new promotional series of videos for the PAC using our existing Cauca footage, plus user-generated videos shot in the field by the volunteer pilots and health professionals on their most recent missions. Since this organization depends almost entirely on support from private volunteers and donors and demand for their services is increasing, there's never been a more pressing need to promote the PAC, attract new volunteers, and solicit contributions.

We also helped the PAC join forces with another charitable foundation that we are proud to support, FUN Esteban Chaves, founded by its namesake, the Colombian Grand Tour cyclist. Our storytelling agency connected FUN Chaves with the PAC, and they flew a special medical mission to Florencia, Colombia to bring Johanny Stiven Borray Rojas, an 11-year old boy with a cerebral paralysis, to Bogota for a vital medical procedure.

Find out more about our work with the PAC here:
“The Colombian Civil Air Patrol: Saving Lives in Times of Crisis”

WhereNext Live Event Production, Featuring Lael Wilcox

Lael Wilcox is the world’s greatest ultra-endurance cyclist. She was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and became both the first American and the first woman to win the Trans Am Bike Race in 2016. In February 2020, Lael visited Colombia for the first time to launch a two-wheeled conservation project with Conservation International.

Our storytelling agency hosted our first-ever “WhereNext Live” event with Lael at our Bogota offices in February, and she sat down with us for a chat about cycling, her experiences in this country, and her vision for the future of bikepacking in Colombia.

Watch the interview with Lael below and read more about her visit to Colombia here:
“WhereNext Live: An Interview With Lael Wilcox”

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