Google Campfire Reel
Google

Campfire Stories.

Video Animation Design

Stories are the coding of any company. By that we mean this: they’re behind everything. Stories are in email threads, in meeting invites, in calendar reminders. Stories are in beautiful build files, in critical user journeys, in sprints, in TL;DRs, and in GVCs. Stories are so integral to the structure of a company that often, we forget they’re there, the invisible wiring that connects us with our colleagues and coworkers. In this case, the Googlers and Nooglers – those at the next desk over, and those on the opposite side of the globe.

In 2020, we teamed up with our incredible creative partners at Google to deliver a series of internal-comms projects. First and foremost, we wanted to connect with the humans at Google, to stoke a little flame in the tools and materials they relied on everyday. Our larger goal was to uncover the stories that could unite, educate, and inspire Google’s global network of engineering teams: the hundreds of thousands of Google employees across all corners of the world. We aptly named our Revery x Google Team Campfire: we were listening, learning, and telling stories together – and, by necessity, doing it differently each day.

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Working From Home.


Google’s initial request? “Let’s create a storytelling lab” – a new model for co-creative communication that was integral to Google, that could evolve with (and beyond) the chaos and uncertainty of the current year. We answered the call with a team of interdisciplinary storytellers who uncovered, collected, and harnessed the stories that united Google’s global workforce, bringing external energy and inspiration to the world’s largest search engine.


With everyone working from home due to COVID-19, we brought new thinking to traditional ways of storytelling: motion-based design, animation, illustration, remote shooting, and virtual production. We worked within Google’s design rules and sometimes – by their request – outside of them, completing a huge volume of projects with an “on-demand” content creation model. Though our team was small, we handled each project from concept creation, to writing, editing, shooting, sound design, and more. If Google asked for it, we made it happen.


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And this was 2020. Our Campfire Team was spread out between Los Angeles, Portland, Austin, and The Bay, and we were all working as an embedded team within Google. If there ever was a year to work on an “in-house” basis for a company in a different state – all while never leaving your own house – this was it. During our year-long partnership, we created a wide cross-section of amazing projects.

By the numbers: 41 branded videos, 2 websites, 3 virtual summits, 11 illustration projects, and 3 identity systems.

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Whew, that’s a lot. But we didn’t stop there. We also authored 3 unique series of doc-style episodic content – our goal was to create different templatized series that could address ongoing storytelling needs, with an established cadence and format that Googlers could look forward to. We prioritized innovation, and that meant rethinking the traditional content creation process so that episodes could be released quickly, efficiently, and with fewer resources needed – all while setting a high bar for production value and quality. Perhaps most importantly was that these series could be continued and built upon in years to come, positioning Campfire as a co-creative storytelling platform that could exist within Google long after our team rides into the sunset.

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The Takeaway.


Google is a massive global tech brand that knows how to think small, and Revery is a small creative studio that knows how to think big. Where else do we connect? Through people: the many brilliant hands gathering, assembling, and building behind the scenes. In the true spirit of collaboration, we couldn’t have done it without our amazing client partners – leading bravely, willing to take big leaps into the unknown, and lighting the path forward with commitment and ambition.


Together, we helped unite Googlers across the globe by illuminating the stories that have been connecting them all along. And, in doing so, we breathed a little life into any aspect of Google that needed a rush of fresh air. What this partnership showed us is that the campfire we sit around to tell our stories doesn’t have to be flames and kindling – it can be a screen, a notebook, an email inbox. So have a seat. Watch. And shhh – listen. The storyteller is already here. The story is already starting…

Services

DISCOVERY + INSIGHTS
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
ART BUYING + USAGE NEGOTIATIONS
BUDGET SCENARIO MODELING
CASTING + TALENT HANDLING
CONTENT STRATEGY
PRE-PRODUCTION + LOGISTICS
CREW SOURCING + MANAGEMENT
EXTERNAL VENDOR RELATIONS
RUN OF SHOW EXECUTION
MOTION DESIGN
VIDEO EDITING
VFX + 3D + COMPOSITING
MUSIC LICENSING + COMPOSITION
VO + SOUND DESIGN + MIX

Collaborators

Content Strategy (Google)

Samuel Payne

Executive Creative Producer

Davis Priestley

Executive Client Director

Rodrigo Moyses

Senior Creative Producer

Annie Rosick

Director

Zak Marx

Visual Designer

Whitney Clark

Motion Graphics

Brian Kinkley