Coop Vorbild

Project Overview

This internal campaign was produced for the Coop Group management events to visually demonstrate the profound impact of workplace appreciation on leadership culture. Out of hundreds of employee nominations, seven role models were selected and surprised on camera with a heartfelt video tribute from their colleagues. The final film served as an emotional centerpiece for Coop’s executive leadership team.

Direction, Technical Design, and Production

I oversaw the project from concept to final delivery, directing a lean two-person crew. Because the film relied entirely on capturing single-take, unscripted human emotions, every creative and technical decision was intentionally designed to foster trust on set and maximize emotional resonance. I conducted the interviews myself to give all subjects a consistent point of contact and increase their comfort on set.

Building Trust on Set

To capture completely natural statements from the colleagues during the tribute interviews, I did not announce when the cameras started rolling. This allowed the subjects to get past their initial nervousness before realizing they were being recorded.

After announcing the interview was over, I feigned turning the cameras off while keeping them rolling. By engaging the subjects in small talk and casually asking questions about the honorees immediately afterward, I captured some of the most genuine and impactful statements of the entire project.

For the honorees, fitting a lavalier mic before their live reactions was a very deliberate choice. It gave me a natural reason to converse with them, build trust, and make them feel entirely comfortable with me on set. This was paramount to capturing their authentic reactions.

Creating Visual Separation

The colleague tribute videos were graded in black-and-white, while the live reactions were kept in color. This visual contrast clearly distinguished the timeline gap for the audience and ensured instant clarity when the footage jumped between full-screen playback and physical laptop shots. Having the mics hidden during the interviews but clearly visible for the reactions added another visual element to separate the two situations.

Emphasizing Raw Emotion

I intentionally chose a muted color palette for the finished project. This design choice intentionally stripped away visual distractions, ensuring the viewer’s focus remained entirely locked onto the authentic facial expressions and emotional weight of the subjects.

Dynamic Camera Movement

I shot this project using two Sony Alpha 7R II cameras. For the tribute interviews, one camera was fixed on a tripos. For the live reactions, both cameras switched to fluid, roving motion—one on a dolly and one on a DJI RS2 gimbal operated by a second crew member—to dynamically track and amplify the rising emotion.

High-Pressure Turnaround

I managed an incredibly tight production timeline, editing the interview segments on the same day they were filmed to prepare the playback assets for the reaction shoots scheduled for the next day.