#87 - Wes Anderson Meets Higher Ed: Texas A&M’s Quirky Storytelling That Breaks the Rules
w/ Warren Cook
From Make Something Beautiful
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SHOW NOTES
In this conversation, Warren Cook, co-owner of Make Something Beautiful LLC, shares his journey from a creative director in advertising to a filmmaker focused on authentic storytelling. He discusses his passion for capturing unique stories in Fort Worth, the importance of personal connections in filmmaking, and his transition to working with Texas A&M. Warren emphasizes the value of quirky, offbeat campaigns that resonate with audiences and the significance of casting diverse voices to tell compelling narratives. In this conversation, John Azoni and Warren discuss the intricacies of higher education marketing, focusing on the production process, the importance of authenticity, and the creative risks involved in storytelling. They share insights from their experiences, including the challenges and rewards of filming in various settings, the recognition received for their work, and the future projects on the horizon for Make Something Beautiful. The discussion emphasizes the need for higher ed marketers to push boundaries and create content that resonates with students.
What You’ll Learn:
Authenticity Over Advertising: Warren transitioned from advertising to filmmaking in pursuit of honest storytelling. He prioritizes real, unscripted moments and believes in showcasing people as they truly are—quirky, passionate, and genuine.
Relationships Are Central to Storytelling: His process involves deeply connecting with subjects, often forming lasting relationships beyond the shoot. For Warren, storytelling is as much about the people behind the camera as it is those in front.
Quirky, Theatrical Style with Substance: Blending Wes Anderson’s theatrical flair with real-life moments, Warren’s style is visually unique but always grounded in truth. He embraces creative risks to make content that surprises and delights—especially in spaces like higher ed and corporate environments.
Student-Driven, Diversity-Rich Content Wins in Higher Ed: From casting to production, Warren focuses on individuality—highlighting students’ real lives, hobbies, and voices. His Texas A&M campaign succeeded by letting students lead the narrative, showcasing their personalities and fringe interests like cosplay and LARPing.
Creative Freedom and Trust Lead to Impactful Work: Warren credits successful projects to trust and collaboration, especially when clients let go of traditional marketing expectations. The result? Award-winning work that resonates with audiences by breaking away from cliché higher ed visuals.
Resources & Links:
Connect with Warren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warrencook/
Follow John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnazoni
Learn more about UNVEILD: https://www.unveild.tv
Subscribe to the Higher Ed Storytelling Newsletter: https://unveild.tv/newsletter
Links to things they referenced:
“Where You Belong” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HuNiDUqCE0
Visit Fort Worth stories - “Rambo” the photographer: https://vimeo.com/247396898?share=copy
“Bug Girl” solo story: https://www.msb-creative.com/project/the-bugs/
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Transcript (done with AI so only about 90% accurate):
00;00;00;10 - 00;00;23;04
John Azoni
My guest today is Warren Cook. Warren is the co-owner of Make Something Beautiful LLC, where he and his wife Jules, have been crafting honest, unique stories for the past eight years, making people smile along the way. And originally from Pittsburgh, raised in San Diego and now thriving in Fort Worth. He traded years as a creative director and advertising for a storytelling journey that feels more real.
00;00;23;16 - 00;00;34;24
John Azoni
Along the way, he's helped create award winning campaigns for Visit Fort Worth, Texas A&M, visit Waco, and a few other fun projects that make life a little more beautiful. Warren, welcome to the show.
00;00;35;09 - 00;00;35;27
Warren Cook
Hello. Hello.
00;00;37;02 - 00;00;41;23
John Azoni
Well, great to have you here. I'm super excited. I did track you down.
00;00;42;21 - 00;00;45;15
Warren Cook
You did. And you found me.
00;00;45;26 - 00;01;11;19
John Azoni
A little background on why we have Warren here. So for our listeners, Gerrit Smith over at Echo Delta, we did an episode with him maybe ten episodes ago. And as part of that episode, you know, I always ask people, you know, send me an example of, you know, something that you're talking about. And he sent me this Texas A&M video that he saw that just communicated diversity really well rather than just saying like, oh, we value diversity and, you know, belonging and things like that.
00;01;11;19 - 00;01;30;05
John Azoni
And ever since, I've just been a huge fan. But I never I just never knew who made it. And I posted this video to LinkedIn, and all of a sudden, the second time I posted it, it kind of like a bunch of people were really into it and commenting and stuff. And eventually someone tagged Make Something Beautiful, and I was like, All right, good.
00;01;30;17 - 00;01;32;08
John Azoni
Got my guy. Let's get him on the show.
00;01;33;21 - 00;01;34;10
Warren Cook
I'm here.
00;01;34;19 - 00;01;41;17
John Azoni
So with that introduction, we usually start off on a little personal tangent. What's something that people would be surprised to know about you?
00;01;42;17 - 00;01;59;26
Warren Cook
Surprised to know about me? I don't know about surprised. I'm a musician all my life. I've been creative all my life. That surprised? I've been married for 34 years, got four kids 34 years. 34 years.
00;01;59;28 - 00;02;00;20
John Azoni
You don't look.
00;02;01;04 - 00;02;01;24
Warren Cook
Yeah, you don't.
00;02;01;24 - 00;02;02;18
John Azoni
Look old enough.
00;02;03;20 - 00;02;06;06
Warren Cook
I am. And I'm proud of it. And you.
00;02;06;06 - 00;02;07;08
John Azoni
Look 34.
00;02;07;16 - 00;02;23;26
Warren Cook
X four. Oh, I was married at a very young age. Yeah, Yeah, but I was. Yeah, actually. But yeah, four kids, probably. Probably the big one. Four wonderful kids. Yeah. And they're all thriving, doing creative stuff and fun stuff.
00;02;24;02 - 00;02;25;04
John Azoni
Cool. What ages?
00;02;26;03 - 00;02;33;12
Warren Cook
One of them is told oldest is 29 and the youngest is 21.
00;02;33;28 - 00;02;55;24
John Azoni
Okay, cool. Good deal. Yeah, that's fun. I am. I am surprised to learn that about you. I think you're excellent. You met the criteria here. All right, So give us a little background on how you got into filmmaking. If people didn't catch it from the intro. Warren is a is a filmmaker, makes great, you know, brand stories and all kinds of great storytelling content.
00;02;56;06 - 00;02;58;18
John Azoni
And yeah. Tell us how you kind of started your journey.
00;02;59;21 - 00;03;17;28
Warren Cook
So as I going back, I've always been creative. There's never been a time that I've not been doing something since I've been eight years old. I've been hired to draw in a in a school magazine or design. So I always and then being a musician and making my own CD covers and making my own videos any way I can always.
00;03;17;28 - 00;03;35;21
Warren Cook
It's always been part of my life. Then as I, you know, went through my band years, in the early years, I got into design and advertising and print and all that stuff. And so then I went to school for advertising and design. So I became a creative director and Ad Inseam was doing that for years and years and years.
00;03;35;21 - 00;03;58;14
Warren Cook
Loved it. But then I got tired of kind of getting boxed into that world. Yeah, of having to push and tell these narratives that didn't feel honest, especially in ones that were more probably what you're used to, more where you're actually interviewing people, that you're trying to get them to say certain things. And it just doesn't feel right and it doesn't come off right.
00;03;58;15 - 00;04;23;25
Warren Cook
So where I really started falling in love with was through the creative direction. I started falling in love with video that we were doing and then honest storytelling. And I know that storytelling has been said a lot over the years now, I mean over and over and over again. But I would say back in 20 1314, I really was like honing in on what is it that I like, what is it I don't like, and I don't want to do this that the advertising world is doing.
00;04;23;25 - 00;04;44;15
Warren Cook
I want to do this. So yeah, a buddy and I kind of started doing our own projects back then, outside work and kind of doing the stories that we want to do with nobody telling us what to do. And we just found the coolest caucus people in Fort Worth and went around and filmed them. So we found a little theater in the middle of nowhere.
00;04;44;22 - 00;05;13;20
Warren Cook
We remind you of like Mad Max, you know, Beyond Thunderdome walking into this place. It was just hippies. And we were like, Let's film them. So we just went and did a simple interview, but showed off the space and showed off the character and the it was fun. So that's kind of how I got into the film. Like I was doing it in the advertising world, but I feel like I was doing it bad and I was like, I needed the shift and there was such a shift in me going, I don't want to do this anymore.
00;05;14;04 - 00;05;30;25
Warren Cook
I can't even show people what I'm doing. I feel like it's just bluh to me going, Let's go this way and let's find this. This is what I enjoy. So pushing for that. So we did. We started doing this Fort Worth funky series and that was those kind of blew up in the Fort Worth area.
00;05;31;19 - 00;05;50;20
John Azoni
Cool. So for our listeners, I want to play one of those profiles that you sent me of this photographer. So we'll play that now. And if you're listening, do encourage you to watch the video version of this episode because the visuals really, really make the piece. All right. And so we're back. Okay. So tell me about this one photographer.
00;05;50;20 - 00;05;52;10
John Azoni
Just, you know, the story that you told.
00;05;52;28 - 00;06;14;07
Warren Cook
Well, this photographer, the one that was just on there, her name's Rambo, very big photographer in Fort Worth, and this was basically for Fort Worth visit Fort Worth. So after we did our own Fort Worth stories, our own Fort Worth funky, they came to us and we we did a whole series called Fort Worth Stories, and that was one of the ones they helped pick.
00;06;14;16 - 00;06;38;03
Warren Cook
And it was our photographer, Rambo, that she kind of got famous. Partly she knew Leon Bridges and some of the first ones that you see photos of her was Leon Bridges. So we went over to her house. We filmed at her house, and that was literally us walking in to that house and there's probably four of us there, and we'd already filmed one little snippet earlier that day.
00;06;38;03 - 00;06;53;13
Warren Cook
So this is the second one we did that day. And we walked to this house and the first time that Rambo and I maybe texted her or emailed her on the phone, but then we we just walked around the house. I was like, This is a shot. This is a shot. This is a shot. This is a shot.
00;06;53;21 - 00;07;10;27
Warren Cook
This is a shot there. Where's the interview going to be? How are we going to light that? So we took our time kind of just figuring out what this could be. And we just played well. While there's a cool record player there, let's play that. It legs. I mean, we just literally within 45 minutes of getting there kind of walked and we all just kind of brainstormed were like, this is what we'll do.
00;07;11;09 - 00;07;32;23
Warren Cook
So and the other thing was the person that was there was Abraham Alexander, which was just up for the best song for a movie at the Oscars. Sing, Sing. So here's the one dancing around in there with Rambo. So that's cool. So, I mean, the process was she was awesome. And then we just sat down, told her story once we filmed that frame, which I love that frame.
00;07;32;23 - 00;07;50;02
Warren Cook
I love the dog sitting there, even pushed into the dog. I mean, we're just pushing into reality that already exists. I mean, it looks like an art directed piece, but our house was art directed. I mean, her house was who she was. So it was like finding those little spaces and telling a little story and.
00;07;50;11 - 00;08;06;03
John Azoni
Yeah, that's what I love about it, too. In the times when I've gotten to kind of go into somebody's home and tell their story from like, you know, really where they're coming from, you know, if it's, you know, when you're doing when we're doing higher ed stories, a lot of times we're filming on campus, which is kind of, you know, adjacent to their life.
00;08;06;03 - 00;08;22;28
John Azoni
But when you go into their in their home, it's a different story. And the ones that like, Yeah, have like pictures on the wall, just like cool stuff. Like, you know, maybe they have interesting hobbies or yeah, they've got a dog. I've, I've interviewed someone where the dog just kept jumping on her lap. And so we were like, All right, I guess the dog's part of the story now.
00;08;22;28 - 00;08;31;08
John Azoni
So. So we just filmed the whole interview with the dog on her lap. And I love that. I love that. Just finding just following your intuition.
00;08;32;00 - 00;08;47;26
Warren Cook
Yeah. And she had such style. She had hats on the wall and I mean, she's just a cool, cool human being. So. And the things she said just always struck me in the video, too. So that's been one of my favorite ones that we ever shot. And and where she said something about Beautiful, I was like, I love it.
00;08;47;26 - 00;09;08;13
Warren Cook
I like you know, so she just loves creating art. So and she was just had my heart and everything she said and I know and all of these people have been part of my life since we film because the story doesn't just end on the camera ever. It's all the stuff outside the camera to me, it's the hanging there with them beforehand, getting to know them.
00;09;08;13 - 00;09;29;04
Warren Cook
Her husband was their cool person, knowing their dog. And then even the group that went in film that day and took we took really cool photos too. We went out, hung out right after Jody's Garcia in Fort Worth and just sat back was like, Wow, that was a cool experience. You know, those are things in life you just don't, you know, get back.
00;09;29;04 - 00;09;50;17
Warren Cook
So I enjoy meeting somebody, telling their story and letting them come back and look at the video when they were. She was nervous. She's told me after that. But look at herself and see how beautiful she is and how beautiful her story is. And that's totally the the excitement for me to do this always is like letting people see that.
00;09;51;06 - 00;10;16;13
John Azoni
I love that. So, yeah, when I was dating my wife, probably this is back in like 2009 or 2008 or something like that. There's a filmmaker here in the Detroit area that did a story on my wife for church that was going to play at church, and my wife was living kind of in this urban area, like real like real, you know, beat down doing like urban ministry with some neighborhood kids and stuff like that.
00;10;16;13 - 00;10;37;08
John Azoni
But like, fast forward to last summer. That guy's daughter was our nanny. So it's like we've just, you know, we've just remained that he's a filmmaker, you know, him and I have connected but just through film her story and like continuing that relationship, I just thought it was a cool, full circle moment. My kids are obsessed with Eve.
00;10;37;08 - 00;10;40;11
John Azoni
His daughter.
00;10;40;11 - 00;11;03;06
Warren Cook
That isn't that the coolest thing? Like I have fun parties that are we live kind of in the downtown area of Fort Worth. When you think of like the area where you can walk to the bars and the restaurants and all that stuff. So it's a community of people. And then all these people that we filmed for like Fort Worth, Funky, which was our project, and then visit Fort Worth, they've all just become part of our family and we hang out with them.
00;11;03;06 - 00;11;21;15
Warren Cook
They come over and it just, yeah, it fills the soul. It really does. And giving back to them has been more important than, you know, the project. I've always said that, like what I can do with, you know, these time with these people, make them feel like, look at me, Look what I've done, look what I'm doing. And they can see that in them.
00;11;21;23 - 00;11;24;01
Warren Cook
As always, the high for me for sure.
00;11;24;08 - 00;11;30;09
John Azoni
Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Same. All right, so how do we get from the Fort Worth stuff to Texas A&M?
00;11;30;29 - 00;11;51;02
Warren Cook
We've been doing a whole bunch of other stuff in Fort Worth. After visit, Fort Worth hired us, and then one of the advertising agencies saw an RFP come up, a request for proposal come up, and they just said, Hey, we can't do this. You guys should really do it. So we went through that process and that was 2020 when all the world shut down.
00;11;51;15 - 00;12;13;25
Warren Cook
So I remember it was our first RFP and it was like mind blowing this RFP. It was like, like what is all this stuff? But we had we were still doing work through COVID, but we had more time and we went through that process and they can't talk to you, talk to you. But once they were able to talk to us, you know that we got the account.
00;12;13;25 - 00;12;36;24
Warren Cook
Basically they had said, Oh my gosh, we love the stuff that you've done for visit Fort Worth. We've seen it and we love your style. We love what you do. We love how you communicate. We love how these come out authentic and they what was the word she used there? The marketing director. Once we did it, it was like they're theatrical, but they're also like, they're fun to watch.
00;12;36;24 - 00;12;44;14
Warren Cook
And yeah, I guess it just, you know, it came across that way. So anyways, that's how we got to it was an RFP. So yeah.
00;12;44;23 - 00;12;46;06
John Azoni
Oh, the RFP is.
00;12;46;20 - 00;12;53;07
Warren Cook
Yeah, it was, it was tough. It we've done some, some more and we've got some but it's a not a fun route to go.
00;12;53;13 - 00;13;04;09
John Azoni
I mean they take me hours and hours. I mean like cumulatively probably an entire day, you know, to try to put a proposal together to, like, fill out all the paperwork, tell them, you know.
00;13;04;28 - 00;13;24;28
Warren Cook
I think it was months for us. I mean, it was I mean, it was a big RFP and, you know, it was going back and forth, figuring it out and trying to figure out how to do it. It was like page 2aq, you know, it's like, oh, my gosh, yeah. And so but we just went through it and kind of did that, and we've done that a few times and got a few other projects from it.
00;13;24;28 - 00;13;32;09
John Azoni
So cool. Yeah, that's awesome. I always love to hear a positive RFP story where someone actually.
00;13;32;09 - 00;13;37;10
Warren Cook
There's not many. There's not, and I wonder now how many there will be, but there's not many right now for sure.
00;13;37;26 - 00;13;57;02
John Azoni
Yeah. So the thing that I love about this series, and as you told me, it's kind of like a series of individual stories. Well, actually, let's play the video. Got All right. So that is a combination of a bunch of, you know, singular stories. And that's the only video that I had seen until you and I met last week.
00;13;57;02 - 00;14;24;17
John Azoni
And you told me that it was like this whole series of stories like this vignettes of of students, which I thought was super cool. But one of the things that I love about this whole campaign is it's so on higher ed, like, it's so, it's so like anti like rankings anti I like all the garbage you know they right higher you know so what for you inspired like that quirky you know the sort of quirky offbeat style.
00;14;25;12 - 00;14;48;29
Warren Cook
You know combination My deep person is very much John Hughes beyond belief like his mind is home alone. It's all the old eighties movies, too, that John Hughes made. And then mine is Wes Anderson. So you combine those two is what you're getting a little bit of the very, you know, clean framework what we're doing but fun style combined in it.
00;14;49;01 - 00;15;05;01
Warren Cook
So for us, you know, it's exciting for us to go out there and shoot that way. We shoot other ways, which everybody does, where you're you've got the epic, you know, moving and you've got the camera moving and everything's blurred out in the back. Or you go into some place where you just blur out the back and do the interviews.
00;15;05;11 - 00;15;21;13
Warren Cook
Mm hmm. That is a whole other style, but it's so much more fun for us to go into place and see how we can make it look like a set. You know, everything. And it's a lot harder to do, but it's a lot more fulfilling for us to do. So every time we walk into a place, we're looking for that.
00;15;21;13 - 00;16;01;04
Warren Cook
So it came from just the style that we enjoyed. And it also is taking I think the difference is it's taking authentic storytelling and putting it in a theatrical setting. And so I see a lot of video still out there that they'll do the kind of the style that we do, But getting that authentic storytelling slash, letting them go off the rails with what they're talking about instead of staying in the lane of like whether it be in school or whether it be Fort Worth or whatever, we're shooting kind of, you know, letting when they light up on that camera, when they say, I love bugs, like the girl in the Texas Alien video does.
00;16;01;11 - 00;16;16;13
Warren Cook
I mean, I saw her say that before. I was like, oh, she's in the video. How do we make this work? Because you could see it in her face light up and just let her be her and make it make people surprised what they're hearing and make people love them and smile.
00;16;16;28 - 00;16;37;21
John Azoni
Yeah. And going back to what you said about the interview, the theatrical set, and that's what I really responded to as well, is there's a whole scene playing out with the Bug girl. There's a whole scene playing out where there's like bugs even in the Yeah, you notice like a little like, you know, goose egg of a butterfly off to the side.
00;16;37;21 - 00;16;57;28
Warren Cook
And there's like a cockroach that goes across the table. We're goofy, I mean, in our editors goofy. And we love that. One of the first things we did on our own was this thing called Doc's Records. We just went and shot at this record store. They were the oddest people. And then I just remember we had a shot outside, and then he just put a squirrel going across the line outside, and it was a telephone line.
00;16;58;02 - 00;17;06;11
Warren Cook
And we were like, Oh my gosh, that is hilarious to watch. I mean, and it was like, I don't care if it's real or not. I just love that it would make people have a chuckle, you know?
00;17;06;12 - 00;17;17;27
John Azoni
Right. Yeah. And this is what, you know, for folks listening, this is what I try to tell all of our clients. You know, when we go to do like an interview, they're like, okay, we've got a conference room for you. Yeah.
00;17;17;27 - 00;17;26;10
Warren Cook
Yes. And it has a window. It's like, Thank you. I guess. I don't know what I'm. Yeah, yeah, I know the feeling.
00;17;26;10 - 00;17;46;24
John Azoni
Yeah. So just logistically, you know, for folks listening, when you put your videographer in a conference room, there's a big table there. They can't move. There's usually windows that are hard to light around. Windows are actually sometimes the opposite of helpful, depending on where the what direction the sun is shining. So there's a lot of challenges with conference rooms, even though they are private rooms.
00;17;46;24 - 00;17;50;07
John Azoni
So you do get the benefit of, you know, no one's coming in and out of there.
00;17;50;10 - 00;17;50;23
Warren Cook
Right.
00;17;50;28 - 00;18;02;14
John Azoni
But whenever we can film, you know, if you take a look at these videos that that Warren did for Texas A&M, if you take a look at the interview sets, I mean, those are those are kind of the things like where can we put them that has some personality to.
00;18;02;15 - 00;18;24;08
Warren Cook
What it's personal and it's them. You know what I'm saying? It's really them. I think that's the big thing is like, we're sticking him. Olivia The girl that's in theater. Girl We're sticking her in a dorm room. That's everything around that dorm room is who she is. Really? Now, we might highlight move things a little bit around so it becomes the set and we might bring a little bit of fun lighting to light some things in there.
00;18;24;08 - 00;18;43;16
Warren Cook
But it really she's in the right place to tell the right story instead of her being in a conference room or because a lot of people like to think, well, let's get let's now 20 interviews or whatever in one space, it's good and right. Well, it's fine if it's doing that something for you. But I found that that's not what people want to see.
00;18;43;16 - 00;18;44;04
Warren Cook
You know? Yeah.
00;18;44;10 - 00;18;47;12
John Azoni
So tell me about the casting process for this.
00;18;48;03 - 00;19;04;05
Warren Cook
So once we got this, it really was we were hired to produce it to not just, you know, we came in and was like, okay, we can do this. And that excites us to do the producing side of it. I mean, that's, that's a fun because I want to find the right people. I don't want to just, you know, get people that they hand us.
00;19;04;05 - 00;19;21;18
Warren Cook
And I don't mind that vetting them. But the first process was coming up with the casting call and they were real good. And we helped write the casting call and it was really making sure that the people had what are they trying to do in school? Who are they trying to be, but who are they outside of school?
00;19;21;18 - 00;19;40;03
Warren Cook
What are they trying to be? Those two things and tell me your weirdest hobbies. Tell me all the things that makes you you. And so they sent this out to everybody and it was real quick. It all came in and and we just kind of fitted through it. And we were looking for, you know, what areas they were in in the school.
00;19;40;03 - 00;20;07;11
Warren Cook
And we were looking for the characters and we were looking for, you know, diversity. We're looking for age brackets and where they were in the whole thing. So we just kind of I just wanted a big giant palette of like, Wow, this is fun and unique. So we're always trying to find, like you said, like just filming in a classroom and then doing a classroom thing is fine, but trying to find out what else makes them tick, you know, who else are they?
00;20;07;11 - 00;20;28;23
Warren Cook
What else do they do? Are they musician? Are they a puppeteer or do they cause play? What is it that they get excited about in that cause play thing about me going sideways? The cause thing that came about was that's just we just saw somebody on campus dressed up like that, and then we ran over there and all of a sudden we got noted them down and then we got a whole bunch of them, the group to come in.
00;20;28;23 - 00;20;49;26
John Azoni
So that's cool. There's a whole other world, that kind of thing. And my old house used to be like the Mecca for LARPing, like live action role play where, oh yeah, people like dress up in these, like medieval characters and they have like foam swords and they like, have these whole like this whole I mean, I would just like, go to the park with my kids and I would just sit there and watch them.
00;20;49;26 - 00;21;06;21
John Azoni
I'm like, I would love to do a story. I never got the courage to, like, go up and ask them if I could film their story. But it was so interesting. Just some of those like real fringe, like cultures like that. And that's what I loved. That's actually what Jared, my buddy that showed me this video, that's the scene that he mentioned was the cosplay.
00;21;06;29 - 00;21;26;05
Warren Cook
Well, because we did come into this, we're not Texas A&M people. We're not any of the Texas world. We don't know it that much because we're we're Californians. But when they ask us to do it, I think that's what they liked about us, too, is like you don't know anything. You don't have to do the normal. We like what you do, and they let us do what we wanted to do.
00;21;26;05 - 00;21;44;22
Warren Cook
I mean, literally, they were cheerleaders behind the whole thing that Lindsey, who was the marketing director, was like, We believe in what you do. They came on the first day we shot and that was it. That's the only day they came. And then we just, you know, we shot from Galveston up to all, you know, College Station and Bryan.
00;21;45;01 - 00;21;49;23
Warren Cook
So it was fun. It was a super fun project and we've all been super proud of it.
00;21;49;23 - 00;21;55;06
John Azoni
So that's awesome. What was the production process like? I mean, how long do you spend with each student?
00;21;55;22 - 00;22;16;10
Warren Cook
It was a hodgepodge. Yeah, as far as like it was. The goal was as it was trying to figure out, we went down and scouted. Once we knew the people and we zoomed them, we went down. I scouted before like went over the campus and kind of just understood it. And the cool thing was there wasn't people on campus that much because it was COVID.
00;22;16;21 - 00;22;45;28
Warren Cook
So 2021, there is barely anybody kind of there are people there, but it wasn't that big, so it was easy to get around. Then we kind of matched since we knew the people. Me and my DP went down for, I think a couple of days, one one to like Galveston and then two days up in College Station. And we really went and met the people and then went to the locations and kind of just scouted like, Oh, this'll be good.
00;22;45;28 - 00;23;05;23
Warren Cook
Oh, this will be good. This will be good to do here. This is a great shot here. So we take our iPhone and with an app and we would set the frames and know what we wanted to do. So we kind of built a giant, you know, shot list based on those things. And then we always asked as we were there, the process was, Do you have friends?
00;23;05;23 - 00;23;27;22
Warren Cook
Can your friends come? Can they be part of it? Professors? So we really leaned on the people we were going to film to bring extra people for us to play the parks, any of these things. So or you know, when we were there, like I said, we go out of our way. If we say somebody that we think would be cool, we grab them, grab their friends, and that's they make it into the video too.
00;23;27;22 - 00;23;59;18
Warren Cook
But that process was a couple days of scouting, figuring out, then coming back and then start scheduling it out. And we tried to schedule it out in a way that we got most of it done probably in a month's time of 60 day filming, basically because I wanted to knock all that out since we knew it. And yeah, it was 16 days of filming and the process when we were there filming it was our producer, Joel's my wife, she her getting everybody lined up those days, we probably shot at most a couple interviews a day, plus the B-roll kind of thing.
00;23;59;18 - 00;24;20;00
Warren Cook
Or we also had in our minds that what is the coolest places in the school for B-roll moments? And then we'd bring people into those spaces and make those little little moments. So it just we tried to kind of light it toward, well, we're over in this area, we're going to shoot this, this and this, the red cart things around within that, that world shoot, shoot the stuff.
00;24;20;00 - 00;24;20;10
Warren Cook
So.
00;24;20;27 - 00;24;47;09
John Azoni
Yeah, that's awesome. It's also validating to hear your process, too, because a lot of that is similar to how we work in trying to film a couple of people in a day, if we can, you know, and, you know, asking them to bring their friends and stuff like that, really, really trying to leverage like them and what's authentic to them rather than, you know, just stuff them in a classroom that they don't, you know, really they're looking for some shocking take some notes, you know, and raise your hand in.
00;24;47;21 - 00;24;47;24
Warren Cook
And.
00;24;47;29 - 00;24;52;20
John Azoni
Stuff like that. So, yeah, I love that. So you guys won some awards for this?
00;24;52;29 - 00;25;12;06
Warren Cook
We did. We came back in November for the American Advertising Awards here in Fort Worth. Yeah. We entered them and it it got best of show that year and all the singles got the golds and yeah it was a great year to show Texas and what could be done and they were super excited about it. The school wrote up a whole thing about the thing at the time and stuff like that.
00;25;12;06 - 00;25;35;24
Warren Cook
So it was a validating time to kind of see our stuff and we had done it with Visit. Fort Worth did really well awards too, but seeing it in a college setting, trying to pull that stuff off was very interesting and a different world and it was very challenging. But I have a small group of people we filmed with and they're just all artists and they all just want to do the best, which I know everybody does, but I don't just have crew members.
00;25;35;24 - 00;25;42;21
Warren Cook
I've got just I was almost like family. That comes full time. I don't I don't have the same, same group anything. Yeah.
00;25;43;08 - 00;25;52;23
John Azoni
Yeah. It's always the dream when you have collaborators that you that you trust, that you just trust and you know each other, There's almost like an unspoken language you could just sort of like.
00;25;53;00 - 00;26;09;28
Warren Cook
Oh, they're spoken to because there would be something we're all set up. I mean, I have ideas I will set up for a scene, and there's one of the ones where it's got all the lockers in the background, and I had an idea for the art department to put them in this almost closet. And then my DP, we got up there and he's like, That's ugly.
00;26;10;02 - 00;26;28;12
Warren Cook
And then just kind of moved us around and started looking. And we're very much like, if it's not working, when you put the camera down, it move, we move. I mean, the shot, if you see it's Eric, the guy that's the thin African-American alumni, which is the cool kind of character. I don't know if he's in that short one.
00;26;28;12 - 00;26;29;00
Warren Cook
I don't remember.
00;26;29;06 - 00;26;31;00
John Azoni
I think so. He's the one that's like in.
00;26;31;00 - 00;26;33;00
Warren Cook
The He's the one of the camera.
00;26;33;11 - 00;26;34;11
John Azoni
Yeah. Okay.
00;26;34;27 - 00;26;36;01
Warren Cook
Oh, on camera.
00;26;36;01 - 00;26;38;02
John Azoni
I think I think he might. He might be in there. I don't know.
00;26;38;09 - 00;26;58;17
Warren Cook
He's he's an alumni and he was of course. But that shot, man, I was interviewing against a wall on the floor, like crowded up. That's the the red camera's like right in front of me. I couldn't breathe because he's looking for that shot. And that took us forever. And if you see that shot, I'll send you the I'll send you one of the other ones, which definitely has him at it.
00;26;58;24 - 00;27;10;24
Warren Cook
The one we did for visiting Center for them, the Visitor center. And it was 7 minutes long, but it's four. When you're thinking about going to school, you sit down in there, sit down there, visitor center.
00;27;10;29 - 00;27;18;26
John Azoni
So, okay, that was going to be my next question. Like from what you know, how were they using these once you delivered them? Like what was the district? Do you know anything about the distribution?
00;27;19;02 - 00;27;43;18
Warren Cook
They had a whole campaign. They did. They shot out social media, email campaign, and I think it ran some streaming stuff. And then the visitor center one was a big one. I don't know if it still plays. I'm guessing it does. So those are the things they use it for. And then they what else? They use it. For me, it was basically recruiting anything, recruiting for, you know, maybe a couple of years, somewhere in there.
00;27;43;18 - 00;27;48;17
Warren Cook
I mean, we did, I want to say, almost 40 videos, in essence. So it was pretty nuts.
00;27;48;27 - 00;28;00;04
John Azoni
That's a lot. Did you guys do any like a lot of clients ask us for, like social media, like little snippets and little cut downs and things like that? Did you do anything like that or was it pretty much just the solo?
00;28;00;04 - 00;28;14;29
Warren Cook
They were. No, they ended up being either under a minute clips or there's the two minute one that you were showing. Then there's a seven minute one. It never got down to anything like the fifteens or the 315 or the thirties, I don't think now.
00;28;15;08 - 00;28;42;26
John Azoni
Okay. So a lot of what we talk about on this podcast is just really pushing the boundaries of what content marketing, you know, obviously with a bent towards video, but content marketing, what does it look like to take creative risks and push the boundaries and do things different that are just very un higher? ED What advice would you give to higher ed marketers who are wanting to push boundaries like that?
00;28;42;26 - 00;28;59;19
John Azoni
But I don't know, maybe because like I think one of the, one of the challenges, I think, you know, a lot of my friends who are higher ed, you know, marketing directors and stuff like that, they get it and it clicks for them and they want to do stuff that's different. But there's maybe a ceiling over their head of like leadership won't write the green light.
00;28;59;19 - 00;29;01;24
John Azoni
I don't know. Like, what would you say about that?
00;29;02;10 - 00;29;17;22
Warren Cook
Yeah, I think that's a tough it's a tough call. I mean, I think looking at it at us, they saw something they love so is easy for us to go into that world. We had already done it right. Like there is the visit for worse. Were they worried about that? Luckily, we had somebody was like, No, I love it.
00;29;17;22 - 00;29;42;04
Warren Cook
So and I don't know if it was just right timing for me in a big school like that to do it. But I would say for people as they go into that, I would say like, you know, they should always just push authentic things. They always should push stuff that makes people smile. And yes, you're going to tell the you're at whatever school, you know, whether it's in, you know, Philadelphia to San Diego or Texas A&M.
00;29;42;04 - 00;30;07;10
Warren Cook
But it is really the kids and the students that are pushing the boundaries. So let them be them beyond belief and push it out, because that's the thing that's going to attract. You're trying to attract students. Yes, parents. But you try to attract students that can see themselves there and see themselves with people like that. And yes, there's a ton of video where you feel inspired and you know, that kind of thing.
00;30;07;19 - 00;30;29;29
Warren Cook
But I would say that there's room for everything at these things. I mean, people are doing such great work out there. So I think it's time for any of the higher Ed's to kind of let let go and, you know, push, push the boundaries any way you can. Because kids, I mean, students and all that they see authentic and they are attracted to that in this this day.
00;30;29;29 - 00;30;37;03
Warren Cook
I mean, if it feels totally real, they're totally bought in. I mean, but in the sense, like, I can believe this person that's in front of the camera.
00;30;37;10 - 00;31;02;12
John Azoni
Yeah, that's kind of why I think storytelling is a bit on a spectrum like that word, because, you know, there's there's sort of like narrative storytelling which, you know, obviously like this happened and this happened to this happened. And so when we talk about storytelling on this podcast and whatever on LinkedIn and stuff like that, I'm I'm not necessarily talking about always narrative stories, but I think what I want to push higher ed marketers towards is personality.
00;31;02;20 - 00;31;30;19
John Azoni
And you know what? What is something different, something unique. And there's an element on that spectrum of storytelling that maybe you're not actually telling like a narrative story, Like there's not necessarily a plot, but there's just something just charming about this person and attractive, and that makes you want to be friends with them. And I feel like that is some element of of storytelling, even if it's not like, Oh, we're all sitting around the campfire telling a story type of thing.
00;31;31;05 - 00;32;03;00
Warren Cook
Yeah, no, I totally agree. What you're saying is true. It's finding those things that are unique, especially in these days, like the push that so people will watch this video because I feel like the storytelling narrative that's out there, that's been out there that gets more beautiful and more beautiful the way it looks and the creamy backgrounds and all that, the person walking in slo mo because, you know, all those kind of things, you know, with the voiceover behind them, all that stuff, they felt like they were great back in 2015, 16, 14, like that was like, Oh my gosh, you can do that.
00;32;03;12 - 00;32;20;10
Warren Cook
But I feel like now it becomes mind numbing as you watch that some of them, they'll get me wrong. They're great and there's stuff going on that's great in them, but a lot of them just kind of feel like a sea of the same. Yeah, it could be any school. It could be any person, you know?
00;32;20;15 - 00;32;43;15
John Azoni
So yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I look at these, I'm getting ready to be a judge for case, which is a, you know, sort of like a association for, for higher ed marketers. But judging a lot of the, like the commercials that are submitted for some awards. And so I'm kind of just prepping them like kind of seen like these aren't the ones that people submitted, but I just like to see like, what are some, you know, Anthem videos that are out there?
00;32;43;15 - 00;32;59;16
John Azoni
Like, what's the scene looking like? And like one one video that's just I feel like our one shot that I feel like spans every industry, every anthem is following behind a person and they look up at the ceiling and there's like at some glass.
00;32;59;25 - 00;33;01;00
Warren Cook
And we've all just really.
00;33;01;00 - 00;33;01;19
John Azoni
Sculpture.
00;33;01;19 - 00;33;19;24
Warren Cook
Yeah, we all do it. It's in it's an easy thing to do and they're talking about their future, you know, and all that stuff. So it's the shot you're going to get. And you know, having somebody on a Steadicam and all that stuff is beautiful, but it's an easier out than kind of planning a shot and figuring out what I don't know what they are.
00;33;19;24 - 00;33;26;07
Warren Cook
That is that you have to plant in a scene. And if you look at most of our shots, most of them aren't moving at all.
00;33;26;07 - 00;33;27;12
John Azoni
Yeah, very static.
00;33;27;13 - 00;33;46;12
Warren Cook
I mean, we might do a whip or a flip, but so we're kind of trying to paint a picture. So yeah, I think that that is something I enjoy. We've done both. So I just enjoy the other more. It makes me smile and we're all just laughing on set as we're doing whatever we're making them do, and we're just finding those angles that just look cool.
00;33;46;12 - 00;33;52;03
Warren Cook
And like I said, they take longer to do because you're looking at every little thing on it and not blurring out the background.
00;33;52;14 - 00;33;57;28
John Azoni
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, and like you said, like sometimes you got to pull out some of those tricks you do.
00;33;57;28 - 00;34;14;22
Warren Cook
I mean, you do. I mean, we do. I still do. I just I mean, I've shot I've got some higher ed ones that you would say, Oh, that's cool looking, but it's not. In fact, I've done the quirky ones I can show you for schools and they're like, Then it goes up higher up to somebody and they're like, I don't like that.
00;34;15;02 - 00;34;27;01
Warren Cook
Yeah. So and it's okay. And so they asked us to do another one. I was like, You don't want to do that. I know. You know, we went ahead and did kind of that. The normal, you know, beauty shots. And that turned out great, too. So.
00;34;27;17 - 00;34;46;00
John Azoni
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of why I say, you know, I try not to be too critical of higher ed video because I don't want people to think like, oh, like John just hates everything. But like, it's like I, I actually there's a lot of stuff that I like and there's a lot of stuff that where I'm kind of like, even if I say, don't do this, I'm really saying don't do it all the time, you know?
00;34;46;05 - 00;35;09;19
Warren Cook
But also, I mean, it's also just trying to find ways to do things different for yourself. I've always said when we came up, you know, came with the company, Make Something Beautiful, came out of me in the creative director world, going like at some point saying, I just want to make something beautiful. In the end, I want to be able to show the work that I do and feel like I'm doing something not just to exist, but add to the world.
00;35;09;19 - 00;35;26;19
Warren Cook
Yeah, and that's what I feel like when I'm getting to do what we do, that I'm like, I'm letting those people that were in front of the camera feel like they're, you know, movie stars, but not just movie. I mean, that they could see themselves, you know, as they truly are. And they whenever they light up and wherever direction they go, they're talking about that.
00;35;26;19 - 00;35;44;00
Warren Cook
You could see it in their eyes. That's what I'm going to put on the camera. And so the goal has always been make something beautiful, even though it's it's been so many years of me saying that. And sometimes I'm like, oh my gosh, Yeah. But anyways, that's that's what it came out was just to saying to do what I do, you know.
00;35;44;00 - 00;35;49;24
John Azoni
Cool. I love that winding down here. What's next for Make Something Beautiful? What you guys got coming up?
00;35;50;13 - 00;36;13;05
Warren Cook
Well we shot at the end of last year. We were gone 19 days filming across the country for a financial client, you know, And we did. They were like, do the quirky stuff. And so it was wild going into a more business setting. Yeah. And so, you know, usually when you're like, when you saw Rambo, you're in a cool setting, right?
00;36;13;05 - 00;36;36;08
Warren Cook
You're, you know, you can build an art direction. Now, taking that into a corporate world, how do you end up doing that? So it was a fun journey and it's great stuff. We did was great. I mean, we got people out in the middle of Minnesota, deer hunting, you know, we got people baking stuff in California. We I mean, we got soccer balls and baseballs and the Office of Sports Fanatic kind of stuff.
00;36;36;08 - 00;36;52;25
Warren Cook
We just we found ways to bring that life to that. It was so challenging, but so rewarding. And yeah, so we're kind of finishing that up. And then we got a bunch of other projects. We're kind of in pre-production of some more of the same kind of fun, quirky, and that's cool.
00;36;52;25 - 00;37;04;01
John Azoni
And I share that, that struggle with. Sometimes it's tough to film business schools because like, what business looks like is being on a computer, you know?
00;37;05;07 - 00;37;28;01
Warren Cook
Well, you know, I have a good I mean, if you talk about the things I mean, I come from filming a lot of financial clients. So we would go to stories all over the country of financial advisors. And it was that journey of like, well, what do you do with it if five years? Well, it came to the point you're like, Oh, we can show a little bit this, but let's find out who they are and go to their home and go to whatever else they love doing in life and let that be the thing.
00;37;28;01 - 00;37;45;13
Warren Cook
So that's we try to escape that world and kind of go into a world where it isn't that because you're right, like somebody shaking your hand, sitting down, I mean, picking up a phone, going to a meeting. So it was it's finding the heart of those those advisors in the heart of their clients and all that stuff that.
00;37;45;21 - 00;37;48;12
Warren Cook
But it's finding those things and making them come alive.
00;37;48;24 - 00;38;03;11
John Azoni
Yeah, I like that. It's like whenever you can get when you have a subject like that, it's like, what's the obvious place that we would interview this person or what's the obvious, you know, collection of B-roll shots that we would get here? Let's put a pin in that. And, you know, let's put you know.
00;38;03;16 - 00;38;21;09
Warren Cook
You use that as a little bit just a tiny bit, because no one really wants to see somebody working on a computer that much. I mean, that's not really the story. So take them somewhere. If they send you to Boston, we'll be in Boston, you know, be there, find those places. If they take you to L.A., find those places or wherever it is.
00;38;21;09 - 00;38;39;23
Warren Cook
So you get out of that world and you're showing the landscape that makes people excited to be there. So and their true story, we used to do design that we used to do when we go out and film, we would, instead of sitting down and interviewing in the way of I'm going to set up a camera and interview because we might only have a day to film there.
00;38;40;01 - 00;38;59;02
Warren Cook
We just do audio, just do audio interview, be in the hotel, do the audio, and then go do the B-roll. So you're not wasting all that time lighting and finding a boring place to interview them. So we just spend our time on really cool B-roll, the epic B-roll kind of thing. But that's one way we do stuff anyways.
00;38;59;02 - 00;38;59;10
Warren Cook
Cool.
00;38;59;23 - 00;39;04;07
John Azoni
Love it, man. Loved having you on. Where can people connect with you and see more? We work.
00;39;04;26 - 00;39;19;09
Warren Cook
It must be desk creative dot com. Yeah that's that's all of our all of our work. Not all of our work, but a lot of our work is up there. But I appreciate you finding us. I appreciate you giving me a like rah that that was a nice nice when I saw that link that was like, oh cool.
00;39;19;09 - 00;39;27;11
Warren Cook
Somebody saw our videos again. So it was nice to see that and connect with you and make us feel worthy again for something we did a while ago.
00;39;27;20 - 00;39;50;17
John Azoni
Yeah, No, you're definitely, you know, shining a bright light into higher ed. And that's the thing that I was so encouraged by when, you know, so many people were commenting about it, it was like, I mean, there's a of comments. We're like, this is the best higher ed video I've ever seen. Or like, I would go here, you know, and I'm like, that's what like leadership needs to believe people when they say this is what they want, you know?
00;39;50;18 - 00;40;09;13
Warren Cook
Well, I mean, it's what anybody wants, right? I mean, anybody just wants something to feel good. So I think they need to not feel afraid of anything that they can put out there. They just need to let people shine, you know, and let that kind of thing go. Because I think that that is what people, you know, are attracted to.
00;40;09;17 - 00;40;17;00
Warren Cook
They want to smile. They want to be surprised. They want to feel a true story in front of them. And, you know, believe us.
00;40;17;00 - 00;40;19;21
John Azoni
Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate having you here.
00;40;20;04 - 00;40;21;00
Warren Cook
All right. Cheers, man.
