NEW YORK — Cutting Room (www.cuttingroom.tv) posted a new online series that looks at the squad of spirited women known as “The Baes,” who back up artist Pharrell Williams. Meet The Baes was produced by I Am Other and directed by aWhiteLabelProduct’s Crystal Moselle. The project was edited by Cutting Room owner Chuck Willis and his team, who drew from a wealth of footage, including tour performances, interviews and behind-the-scenes settings. The documentary series illustrates the individual personalities of the eight female performers.
The introductory video video launched on Pharrell’s Facebook page on Monday, December 8th, and the remainder of the full videos went live on the I Am Other YouTube channel the following day. Additional short teasers were cut for use on Twitter and Instagram.
Willis worked closely with fellow Cutting Room editors Merritt Duff and Brian Sanford, as well as mentored junior staffers to cut 10 pieces that would seamlessly flow together to create over 30 minutes of content that could stream as a complete documentary or stand as a series of separate shorts. Since the project was shot over 10 days in seven European cities, the team had over 35 hours of footage to work with.
Using an Avid system, Willis initially cut the first two pieces to establish the style and arc of the storyline for the remainder of the videos. With this framework established, the Cutting Room team got to work infusing the additional videos with this aesthetic, collaborating and sharing edits to deliver a unified style.
Cutting Room worked meticulously with the client to deliver an artful representation of the genuine effervescence of The Baes that weaves in the Adidas product, without overt branding.
“In working with Pharrell, we had complete and total access to some of the best music around,” notes Willis. “From upbeat R&B to instrumental, he has it all and it made it so enjoyable to cut, along with the wealth of vibrant material to work with and choose from.”
Cutting Room leveraged their partnership with Light of Day to engage an additional team of post production talent to provide comprehensive finishing and color for the videos.