Video that makes people slow down and stay
FOLKLIFE
The Challenge
FOLKLIFE was rebuilding its website from the ground up. A new site needs more than a fresh design. It needs content that shows visitors, in seconds, what the brand stands for. You have probably felt this yourself. You can describe your brand all day, but nothing lands like seeing it.
FOLKLIFE needed a brand story film to anchor the new homepage, two artist features to spotlight the Gulf Islands creative community, and a set of short cuts for social. One catch: everything had to carry the magazine’s editorial feel. Polished enough for the homepage. Fast enough for a social feed. Never generic.
Our Approach
We don’t start with a script. We start with the real story.
For FOLKLIFE, that story was a contrast. City noise on one side. Island stillness on the other. So we built the films around it, shooting across two locations with distinct purposes:
- Gabriola Island, where publisher Alina Cerminara and artists Tamara Hudgeon and Yarrow Koontz live and create, provided the heart of the story. No sets. No staged moments. Just real people making real things in the places they actually make them.
- Downtown Vancouver, used only in the opening scenes, stood in for the noise and pace of city life. That contrast sets up the message without saying it out loud: opening FOLKLIFE feels like stepping out of the city into something slower and more human.
Our Process
1. Discovery and Planning
Every project starts with questions, not a shot list. With the FOLKLIFE team, we defined what the campaign needed to do, sharpened the message, and mapped stories that would land with loyal readers and new ones. This is also where you would meet the person directing your shoot, because at Alpenglow the director is the one on that first call.
2. Production
We filmed in real environments, not built ones. Gabriola gave us the grounding visuals of artistry and craft. Vancouver gave us the tension to open on. Shooting documentary style means we capture what actually happens, so the honest moments make the cut instead of ending up on the floor.
3. Post-Production
Editing, sound design, and colour grading pulled the stories into one consistent look. We also cut social-first versions of everything, so FOLKLIFE left with a content library built for more than one platform, not a single video with one job.
Deliverables
1x Brand Story Film featuring Alina Cerminara and the FOLKLIFE team
2x Artist Feature Videos of Tamara Hudgeon and Yarrow Koontz
A library of b-roll content and social cuts
The Outcomes
FOLKLIFE launched its new website with the brand story film front and centre. When you land on the site, the film is the first thing that tells you what the magazine is about.
The artist features gave readers a closer look at two of the makers behind the magazine’s world. And because we shot with reuse in mind, FOLKLIFE walked away with a library of social content it can keep drawing on, not a single video that goes stale after launch week.
That is the real return here. One shoot, planned well, becomes months of content. Your homepage, your socials, your pitches, all pulling from the same story.
More From Our Work With FOLKLIFE
The video suite was not a one-off. We have photographed for FOLKLIFE before, and that history shaped this project.
There is a practical point in this for you. The first project with any brand takes the most groundwork. Every project after that starts faster, because the research is done and the trust is already there. That is why FOLKLIFE came back, and it is what you can expect too.
