Client
Hollister is a global medical products company based in Chicago. But they weren’t always Hollister. Working closely with the History Factory, it was our job to bring to life their corporate story for their 100 Year Anniversary.
They started in 1921 in the basement of John Dickinson Schneider’s parent’s home as a printing company specializing in quality letterhead stationary for local businesses. They remained a quality printer until the mid 20th century. After decades of successfully growing his business his way – quality over quantity – Mr. Schneider had the opportunity to purchase Hollister, a fledgling small company that made heirloom quality engraved birth certificates. By the 1980s and Mr Schneider’s death, the company had become a worldwide medical device and services company.
Hollister was already well underway in collaboration with the History Factory to develop the design for the inspiration center and the specific video needs for the space. They had developed the creative outline for The Founder’s Words broken up into three acts and had a nice map for the rest of the videos.
Due to the large scope of the project, we broke up duties within ELM to make sure everything covered and accounted for. David Larson was the executive producer and oversaw the contract while also acting as creative director for the People Stories and handling international production. Darren Durlach was creative director for The Founder’s Words.
The number one challenge was producing all these videos during the peak of COVID-19. We decided to start with the studio portion of The Founder’s Words since most of the elements we needed we could film locally in Baltimore which gave us more control. Most of the other videos required travel to Europe – which was not an option at that time – as well as a portion of special effects in The Founder’s Words
The Team at ELM is one of the most creative, collaborative, and professional video production companies I have ever worked with.
Agency Partner
Much like us,
the History Factory is a non-traditional creative agency indeed. A tour de force, their clients range from the NFL to Verizon and they have been serving from their Washington DC based office since 1979. What makes them unique is they specialize in History. They write books for companies, develop museum-quality installations, and even own a warehouse in Virginia that archives the historical artifacts of companies keeping them in pristine condition, secure, and neatly catalogued. In terms of creating a historically based film on the owner, they were an absolute dream partner. As a creative partner, they were even better. Dario Sarlo, the creative director of History Factory became a close friend throughout the process, always providing keen insights and working through challenges.
Building Upon
Great Work
Darren created a director’s treatment that built upon the great work from Dario Sarlo and Hollister’s Jim Paul. The treatment included a few creative additions to help build upon the fantasy elements that were already in the script. The famous Gordon LetterPress printer – Mr. Schneider’s first press – was the center of the story and Darren wanted to create a dramatic twist at the beginning of the third act in which the press, weighing in at one metric ton, starts turning, almost like a key. To do that would require a large, industrial turntable, probably custom made. Additionally, he wanted the walls of the 1921 basement to magically tear apart and behind it the unseen force would reveal his future. This required some heavy planning from the production designer Chris Ashley and his art team.
Please enjoy The Founder’s Words.
Finished Product
We’re super proud of the work we delivered to Hollister in lockstep with the History Factory. It has been creatively stimulating work that we got to create with really good people.