Rock The Bells is a documentary made by AboutFace directors Denis Henry Hennelly and Casey Suchan summarized on IMDB as “An inside look at what it took to bring the Wu-Tang Clan together for their final performance at the Rock the Bells Hip-Hop festival.”  The film premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, played the Chicago International Film Festival as well as Slamdance and hit theaters in 2007.  You can find it on DVD on Netflix or at your local video store (if there is still a local video where you live).

But that’s all results of making the movie.  We’ve got Denis and Casey here, and we’re going to talk more about making the movie and the story behind the story on screen.  (Full disclosure:  I was an executive producer on Rock The Bells, but that doesn’t mean when I say RTB is an excellent film that I’m exaggerating.  It is an excellent film.)

John:  How did you get this project going, how did it come about?

Casey:  Denis and I had been producing hip hop documentaries for a few years at QD3 Entertainment.  In 2004, we went out on our own to start doing projects where we could see

Chang (left) and the GU Crew

our vision all the way through.  We read an article in the LA Weekly about the upcoming Rock The Bells hip hop festival, and it said that the Wu Tang Clan was going to be there – together with a diverse lineup of supporting acts – and we thought it would make an interesting concert DVD.  So we met with Chang (the concert’s founder, promoter, and financier).  We realized that putting the festival together was a dramatic story worth telling, and Chang and his crew were compelling characters.  There was something in their underdog, D.I.Y. risk-everything spirit that encapsulated everything we’d come to appreciate about hip hop culture.

In our initial meeting we agreed to start shooting right away because the concert was only two weeks away. Getting Wu-Tang together seemed impossible; it was something promoters simply didn’t attempt anymore because so many had been burned trying.  We shot every meeting.  And simultaneously, Denis and I started watching concert docs like Woodstock and Gimme Shelter, thinking about the most compelling way to tell this story.  The day of the show we scrambled together a lot of excellent people who were willing to work for what little money we had, and they brought their cameras and shot.  Twenty cameras.  We shot from 8am that morning to 4am that night.  Then the editing began.

John:  In the film, Chang and company put up guerrila marketing-style posters on the sides of roads, stuff like that, so the advertising doesn’t feel corporate.  Did you do that kind of marketing for the film itself?  Do you think that kind of street cred, street team style of marketing works?

Denis:  We used street teams and promoted it that way, yeah.  It was before the explosion of Facebook. With our subsequent film, Bold Native, we were able to sell out screenings all across America just using Facebook.  Our online promotion (with Rock The Bells) in 2006 was limited to discussion groups, fan forums, and chat rooms.  Which is fine, but it’s not as effective and immediate as social networking where people can build personal investment in a project.

John:  What was your favorite part of the experience?

Denis:  My favorite part was the test screenings.  When you’re editing a documentary you’re basically writing it in the editing room and you’re trying to find the most engaging and moving path through the story.  Test screenings give you the chance to engage with the audience and see what’s working and what’s not, so you have an opportunity to go back in and make it a more effective piece of story-telling.  Because once a film is released you don’t have that chance.

Casey:  (SPOILER ALERT) My favorite part of this whole process was when we were compelled to change the ending of the story, the licensing issues with Wu Tang music itself.  It was this kind of necessary thing where we had to take the music out of the movie, like it or not – at the time it felt devastating.  How can we end this movie without the music of

Fans REALLY want to see Wu Tang

Wu Tang?  But we ended up looking at it as a challenge – how can we make the best of this?  Now it ends without the musical performance and I think it’s a deeper, stronger film.  The film is about more than just this one moment where they’re all on stage together performing.  And it goes into this discussion of O.D.B., what was going on with him and their dynamic, because when he’s on stage he’s not really engaged.

Denis:  I couldn’t disagree more strenuously.  Everything Casey is saying was there with the music.  I think taking the music out limited our distribution deal.

Casey:  I think that’s true.  But I think it’s stronger without the music.

Denis:  I disagree.

Casey:  That’s why we make a good team!

John:  Other than having to deal with me and Barry Poltermann, what was the worst past of the experience?

Casey:  Maybe being in San Bernadino in 100-and-some degree weather?

Denis:  The fight to get this film to audiences.  I know there are people who would love this film who will never see it.  There are hip hop fans who go to the Rock The Bells festival and don’t even know that there’s a movie about it.  Then they see it and come back to us and say they can’t believe they missed it and it’s been out for a couple of years.  It’s hard to reach people.

John:  After Rock The Bells, you guys made a narrative film with Bold Native.  Did you use any doc-style tactics or aesthetics in BN?

Casey:  Docu-style tactics?  Yeah, from the producing side.  Producing the film, we didn’t try to own spaces.  We kept an efficient doc-style crew.  We shot in places that were working spaces, like in a restaurant that was actually open at the time.  Not a lot of big lighting.  And we tried to keep a low profile so actors could lose themselves in the moment.

Denis:  From a directing side – I agree with what Casey said.  We basically shot the film the same way we would have shot a documentary.  The only difference being that we controlled what was happening in front of the camera.  We shot in live places.  There were things happening around us we couldn’t control.  The only way we could afford to do the film was that we had to shoot it like a documentary.  And we learned so much about storytelling from documentary filmmaking because you have to take what you’re given and find the story within it.  So you have to be very creative in the editing room.  And on set you have to have an eye out for those story elements.  We’ve brought those skills to our narrative work, our fiction work.

John:  What’s next, documentary or narrative?

Casey:  We are in production on our next documentary feature, which is about a legal case – USA vs SHACUSA. Six activists were imprisoned for between 1 to 6 years in federal prison for what most Americans would consider free speech activity – running a website, making speeches, organizing protests. It deals with our legal system, animal rights, corporate power, the prison system… and tells the story of six very dedicated, intelligent and compelling individuals.

Denis:  A documentary that involves free speech, questions of what is terrorism, and the internet.

Casey:  And we’re also developing narrative projects, as well.

John:  You guys are machines!

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Case Studies In Social Storytelling examines past successes and failures in the world of Social Storytelling.

BEHIND THE DESIGN continues with another series of Jaclyn Smith “Behind the Scenes”, beginning in NY as she prepares for an upcoming TV commercial shoot and ending with her spending some time at home with her family.

First up, POINT OF VIEW.  Jaclyn Smith visits the diverse New York City KMart Design team.

With “so many points of view”, Jaclyn says, the team is able to “meet the needs of a 20 year old to a 60 year old to a teenager… we’re able to do so many wonderful things at an affordable price.”

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In the second episode, BELIEVE MORE, watch as Jaclyn Smith and the New York City KMart Design team plan out her new TV commercial shoot, “Believe More Beautifully”. KMart Director Of Advertising Beverly says Jaclyn represents “iconic beauty for every day elegance… she really really cares about her customer.” In Malibu on the set of the commercial shoot, in Jaclyn’s own words, “When I think of my line, I think of quality and detail, and that’s a wonderful gift.”

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Next we visit JACLYN’S HOME.  Iconic, beautiful, simple, elegant, family, Jaclyn Smith, and KMart Design. See how all these things fit together as Jaclyn and her daughter show us their home and the inspiration for great design and great value.

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Finally, learn more about JACLYN’S VISION. “Jaclyn doesn’t do something if she doesn’t believe in it,” says Dr. Brad Allen, husband of KMart star designer Jaclyn Smith. As Jaclyn Smith expands her line into home decor and outdoor living, we go inside her home and see the love and inspiration that goes into her work.

We continue our KmartDesign “Behind the Design” series in Malibu CA with a three episode visit with iconic beauty Jaclyn Smith.

These episodes were shot in January of 2009 by Casey Suchan.

“The one thing I’ll say about KMart is that they are a family store” Jaclyn says. During a photo shoot in Malibu, Jaclyn lets us into her world and her motivation for working with KMart on her own line for over 20 years.

Wardrobe Assistant Katie lays out the options for a photo shoot featuring Jaclyn Smith and her new KMart line. We go behind the scenes and see Fashion and Celebrity Photographer Matthew Rolston make the choices on what to wear and what to shoot. Katie sums up her observations on KMart’s design – “Really more trendy, tailored, wearable – I think over the last couple of years they’ve really stepped it up.”

On the set of a Jaclyn Smith photo shoot, single mom and KMart Creative Director Jenni says having a ten-year-old means being responsible “about how you spend your money”. That’s where KMart Design comes in. Having kids of her own, Jaclyn can relate.

A bunch of us at AboutFace have been hard at work over the last couple of months doing a series of videos for the Sears HEROES AT HOME program.

Sears has been a sponsor of Rebuilding Together, an organization that helps veterans and their families fix up their homes when they are facing hardship.

We shot these all over the country, with Jack Davidson, Casey Suchan, Frank Anderson, Manny Marquez and Dan Ollman all directing different episodes in different parts of the country over the course of two weeks in late summer.

Here are a few of our favorites of the more than twenty webisodes that we did.

They are equal parts heartbreaking and moving.  Thanks to Sears for the opportunity for all of us to meet these amazing people.

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83-year old Kenneth ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins takes American flags down every Friday to place in the center square in Lynchburg VA, to honor of the eight area soldiers who died in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hoppy is a veteran of WWII. In fact he was at D-Day on Omaha beach with the US Navy. The Sears’ Heroes at Home program helped Hoppy renovate, restore, and update the home he and his wife have lived in since 1948. “This is a great thing that they’ve done for me.”

Note that we did a brief profile of the shooting of the ‘Hoppy Hopkins’ piece in a previous post>>

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“God sent these people.” Howard Burke fought in WWII with Company A. He now lives with his wife in a small home in Lacey’s Spring AL. “We were in a predicament” his wife explains. Howard has trouble walking… he is paralyzed on one side. So Heroes at Home remodeled portions of his their home to make it handicap accessible. As Mrs. Burkes says… “These are our heroes.”

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“I don’t know how I got that name ‘hero’.” Wayne Johnson lives with his wife of Houston Texas in the house they had built in October of ’52. A half of a decade later the house was falling apart. They still didn’t even have a shower… just a tub. But then Sears and Heroes at Home helped by renovating, restoring, and repairing his home.

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Harold Hatton, a Navy veteran who lives in Tampa Bay Florida, plays cards with his fellow veterans at his local VFW Post. He comes from a military family — he is the oldest member of his local Post and his grandson is the youngest. But as we meet his wife Isabella we find out that she is partially handicapped. She has rheumatoid arthritis. Heroes at Home helps them both by making their house handicap accessible.

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Ruth Perry is a Gold Star mother for Chapter Four of “Rolling Thunder” in Lynchburg, VA. Her son Stanley was killed in Vietnam in 1969… she got word on Christmas Eve. The Sears’ Heroes at Home program helped with remolding her Lynchburg home.

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“They gave me a very good Christmas present that I will never forget” says Veora Collins. Sears and Heroes at Home traveled to the south side of Chicago to help renovate and make handicap accessible Veora’s home. She lives there with her son… US Army veteran Roosevelt Collins, who is partially paralyzed from a stroke. “When this came along it was god sent”.

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Blake Vanderwert lives in New Prague Minnesota. Her husband, Jonathan, has spent fifteen years in the service, but they never thought he’d be called into active duty. The Sears Heroes at Home / Rebuilding Together program helped the Vanderwerts renovate their home while Blake’s husband was deployed. There was a lot to do… nothing had been done to the house since 1950. “They wanted the do it because they actually cared.”

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Army veteran Christopher Joseph and is wife Barbara are having a neighborhood cook out at their home in Central Islip NY. Christopher walks with a cane and still doesn’t talk much about what happened in Iraq. His wife tells us about the critical renovations to their home they got from Heroes at Home. She is grateful for the help that her husband has well earned. After all… he paid a heavy price in the military… “protecting home away from home.”

Wow, director Casey Suchan just did an amazing couple of pieces for Marquette.

They are both for the Marquette Engineering school, and both to send out to alumni as fund raising pieces.

The first is ROBOT CAMP. On June 16th 2008 Marquette University held a “Robot Camp” to build interest in engineering among gifted grade school students. This is where we meet Max, Robert and Simon. Hear their thoughts on cooking, cats, dogs, future technology, engineering and, of course… girls.

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The second is DENIM AND WHEAT, a profile of engineering alumni coming together to rebuild Milwaukee’s Marquette Interchange (no relation, really).

Casey, you’ve set the bar high with these two.

Case Study: Merchandise Mart Properties.

Challenge: Introduce potential clients to the benefits of leasing space at the Merchandise Mart.

Story: these are the faces and stories of your potential neighbors.

Chicago’s Merchandise Mart is the largest commercial office building in the world. AboutFace’s CEO Barry Poltermann explains how our new media work helps the Mart keep their building leased.

You can see samples of the original work here>>

To launch our Marquette Stories series of videos for Marquette University, director Casey Suchan spent a week with a group of high school students doing a “Deep Dive” into engineering problems.

This four episode mini-series was produced as a series of fund raising pieces for the Engineering department, and was conceived as “Spellbound for Engineering students”.
Episode 1 of 4, “The Arrival”. Every year Marquette University’s College of Engineering hosts a hands on camp to show incoming freshmen how engineers can make a difference in the world. This ‘transformational’ program is designed to fundamentally change the way these students think about engineering. In this first episode we learn that nearly three children a minute die in Tanzania from lack of safe drinking. What solutions will these young students propose in the next three days?

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Episode 2 of 4, “A Focus on People”. What would engineering look like if we focused on people? On their first full day of “Deep Dive” these future engineers from Marquette University awkwardly get acquainted with each other through team building activities and interviews. Samson leads the students, telling them about his childhood in Tanzania… getting the students into the mindset of life in a place where many die every day from unclean water. It’s an exhausting day.

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Episode 3 of 4, “Asante San”. It’s day two and we follow the ‘enginerds’ as they use their minds to make a difference by finding practical engineering solutions to real problems in Tanzania. Time is running out, as tomorrow is the big day — after lunch the teams give their final presentations. But tonight the burning question is… where are their seats at the Brewer game?

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Episode 4 of 4, “Going Home”. It’s the big day and if the goal was ‘transformation’, than mission accomplished. These future engineers from Marquette University are confident and accomplished as they take us through the final day of Transformational Design. As their adventure ends, they have all made an entire new set of friends that they will probably have for the rest of their lives.

Case Study: Howard Brookins for Cook County State’s Attorney.

Challenge: Increase overall awareness and provide a human side to the candidate.

Story: This is the genuine Howard Brookins, his family and his friends.

Political consultant David Rosen, of Chicago’s The Competence Group, is featured in this discussion of the strategy, tactics and usefulness of new media in Alderman Howard Brookins’ race for the Cook County States Attorney’s office. Featuring AboutFace director Casey Suchan.

You can see samples of the original work here>>

This is kind of cool… San Francisco’s A+E Interactive names their top ten concert docs of all time.  ”Rock the Bells”, directed by AboutFace directors Denis Henry Hennelly and Casey Suchan, makes the list at number 6. Denis and Casey join the likes of Demme, Pennebaker and Scorcese.

Lot’s of AboutFacer’s involved with this one: directed and edited by Casey and Denis, with an assist by Barry Poltermann (who did some editing/consulting during a break from editing “The Pool”). Barry also exec-produced, with our own John Murphy).

Here’s a trailer…

The Complete List:

1. “Stop Making Sense” (Jonathan Demme);
2. “Aweseome, I …. Shot That!” (Nathaniel Hornblower);
3. “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture (D.A. Pennebaker);
4. “The Last Waltz” (Martin Scorsese);
5. “The Grateful Dead Movie” (Jerry Garcia);
6. “Rock the Bells” (Denis Henry Hennelly and Casey Suchan”);
7. “Monterey Pop” (D.A. Pennebaker);
8. “Fade to Black” (Patrick Paulson and Michael John Warren);
9. “The Song Remains the Same” (Peter Clifton and Joe Massot);
10. “Jimi Plays Berkeley” (Peter Pilafian).

We recently finished a video series for Chicago alderman Howard Brookins II.  Our client was David Rosen’s political fundraising and consulting group, The Competence Group.

Alderman Brookins was running for Cook County States Attorney in a crowded and competitive field.

Casey Suchan directed these pieces, following the alderman at work and at home, to get a unique, behind the scenes peek into his life.

Ep. 1 of 6, “The Three Howards”. Alderman Howard B. Brookins Jr. hits the campaign trail to be the next Cook County State’s Attorney. Howard Jr. III (Howard’s Son) and Howard Sr. (Howard’s Father) follow along during the campaign process in this first video in our campaign.

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Ep. 2 of 6, “Let’s Get Going”. Who is Howard Brookins? Who supports him? And what is life like on the campaign trail? In our second episode, we follow Alderman Brookins as he navigates the rigors of campaigning for Cook County State’s Attorney.

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Ep. 3 of 6, “Doin’ What’s Right”. Friends of Alderman Brookins describe what Howard would bring to the office. Featuring WVON’s Cliff Kelly, attorney Larry Rogers, Jr., Congressman Danny K. Davis and Judge William Cousins.

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Ep. 4 of 6, “The Basic”. We explore Brookins’ work as an Alderman in Chicago’s 21′st Ward. We follow him along to a Lowe’s store for a grand opening, where the Alderman speaks about creating jobs and lowering crime in the community.

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Ep. 5 of 6, “Time For A Change”. As the election nears, we explore Alderman Howard Brookins’ influences growing up, his parent’s involvement in the community, and why public service is important.

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Ep. 6 of 6, “Block by Block”. Nobody likes to lose a close election, but Alderman Brookins sees great things ahead after he came up a little bit short in the election. It’s time to talk about the future — after all, the loser today is the winner tomorrow. The alderman has changed the dialogue — it’s no longer about how much justice you can afford to buy. Time to get back up and get back out there and continue to fight.

We previously blogged about the web videos we did forThe Merchandise Properties and The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

These webisodes were micro-targeted mini messages designed for online use.

A printed companion to the "60654" video pieces.

But this isn’t the full story of either clients work with AboutFace.  In both cases a full marketing package all spun off of the documentary work we did last fall.

First up, the Mart made a really great, visually dynamic book that reflected closely the visuals we established with the videos.

The photography is made up of images taken from the raw digital footage we shot as well as additional photos shot during the shoot.

Check out the slide show below in order to see how the book came together.

The book also included a DVD of the following long form overview for The Mart Center.

While we wouldn’t recommend a nearly five minute video for online use, it works great to a captive, highly motivated audience:

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For the MSO, we did a five minute ‘fund raiser’ that was shown to captive audiences between intermission at shows.  The piece was very effective… see our MSO case study for some background on results.

Videos were delivered on Blackberry's for use by Brokers

We recently launched a series of webisodes for The Merchandise Mart in Chicago.

The Mart is the largest commercial office building in the world, and these videos profile tenants in the Mart.

It is a great content marketing strategy:  Identify the audience (potential tenants) and determine what would be useful or interesting to THEM.  In this case, “meet your potential neighbors”.

The marketing message of the Mart (parking, green building, public transportation access, technology infrastructure, etc.) is embedded in each video, target to different micro-audiences.

JOHN | SUN-TIMES. We see an inside look at Merchandise Mart tenant The Chicago Sun-Times through the eyes of Former Publisher John Cruickshank and learn why The Mart is such an important part of the paper’s operation.

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MARV | Q101 & THE LOOP. Marv Nyren, Regional Vice President, Emmis Radio, gives us a personal tour of Q101 and 97.9 “The Loop”. The two stations needed to be in the same building, and there was only one right choice – the Merchandise Mart.

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MARK | COMCAST.  Comcast SportsNet needs to be close to the stories – the Chicago teams like the Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks, and Bears. The Merchandise Mart has the proper facilities and location to bring sports coverage to millions of homes every day.

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JWT. JWT is a creative company and needs a different working environment for its business to thrive. That’s where The Merchandise Mart comes in.

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PUBLICIS. Flexibility is key for Publicis and their advertising companies. We see how Publicis takes advantage of the Merchandise Mart for their needs and how the Mart is on the cutting edge of green efforts.

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CRAIG | NUTRASWEET. Craig Petray, CEO of Nutrasweet, shows off their Merchandise Mart offices and explains how the Mart helps recruit talent that might otherwise work elsewhere

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ALLSCRIPTS. “It feels good to be in a building with some history, and I think our clients like it,” Chairman and CEO of Allscripts, says of being located in the Merchandise Mart. The software business goes well with the Mart.

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JIM | BLUERPRINT. Jim Horan, Founder & CEO of Blueprint, shows us how he went from social worker to food service provider, and how they’re both about helping people – and how the Mart helped Blueprint every step of the way.

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JAN | MINDSHARE. Jan Naddy, Facilities Manager, Mindshare, speaks to the time imperatives her business necessitates, and how the Mart makes operations flow smoothly day and very very late at night.