Case study: Preserve Hilandar

Or: How Others' Work Can Be Inspiring and Useful When Properly Selected

Maybe you've been in a situation where you were given a bunch of material and were asked, 'Can we create something beautiful out of this?' It could be videos, photos, a bunch of code, or anything else. The process is essentially the same.

We were proud, long-time partners with the Hilandar Foundation. Firstly, it's not a small thing to be part of such an important community. Secondly, it gives responsibility a whole new meaning, which is what we were hoping for.

So, we received a hard disk with a lot of material, and the goal was to make a hero video for the Preserve Hilandar Foundation website. The material was mostly from a drone, and the goal of the video was to try to present the Hilandar Monastery in all its beauty in one minute or less. The challenge was on!

In most cases, selection is the most significant part of the project.

At least in these kinds of projects, so we have to choose the appropriate footage that will display Hilandar in all its glory among terabytes of different videos. We sat down and began to watch. It took days and days, and with every video, we asked ourselves: What is this footage telling us? Then, after we were done with the first round, we had about 100GB of material, which was tens of hours of videos. We took a short break to separate ourselves mentally from the work, and then we sat and did it again. The same process, the only difference was that this time it took us a couple of hours.

In the end, we had several videos that would be combined into the final video, and they were beautiful. Yes, selection really IS the hardest part of some projects. And it is crucial if the goal is to turn someone else's work into something new and beautiful.

Of course, the end result was stunning, and it can be seen here. Enjoy!"