Project Overview

The brief was to immerse viewers in the world of Empress, elegant and sophisticated, but approachable and unpretentious — and the work lives in the balance between those two poles. The rooftop bar becomes a character in its own right, drenched in the indigo of the gin itself, sleek and charged with the energy of a night beginning. The backyard scene answers it with warmth: friends, laughter, the sense that Empress isn't reserved for the elite. Throughout, the bottle is treated as the hero — glowing in blue light with an almost mystical quality — and the bartender as its human counterpart, all deliberate movement and small flourishes that take a drink from good to great. The camera behaves like a master bartender: stable, smooth, always a step ahead of the action, building speed as the song builds, crescendoing exactly where the music does.

Creative Approach

The guiding idea was to show, not sell. Rather than product videos, we built narrative-driven spots where Cavender's boots, denim, and hats live inside real stories, a POV camera locked on boots moving through different moments and scenarios, heroes taking "the best seat in the house" across shifting environments, and an in-store sequence built to let you feel, see, and almost smell the details through close POV cinematography and sound design.

Production Process

The production process moved through four main phases:

1. Pre-Production

Work began with a creative call between STLL Studios and the Milestone Brands team to align on objectives, references, and deliverables before a single frame was designed. From there the creative team developed the director's treatment — tone, art direction, performance notes, and a shot list built scenario by scenario — and presented it alongside a detailed production quote. Location scouting ran in parallel across both markets, weighing rooftop, indoor bar, backyard, and virtual studio options against budget, access, and art department lift, before landing on the 84th-floor space in Manhattan and the Austin hills property.

2. Production

The campaign was shot over four days across two states. Two days in Manhattan covered the indoor and rooftop bar scenarios, with the 84th-floor location supplying a live cityscape that no set could replicate, and two days in the hills outside Austin captured the backyard scenario and its warmer, looser register. Corey Crumpacker directed with Mike Kozlenko on cinematography, shooting 6K RAW at 24fps with a high-speed camera on hand for the pours, shakes, and ice drops that carry the product beats. A traveling core crew handled producing, direction, cinematography, photography, and production management, with G&E, MUAH, and wardrobe crewed locally in each market.

3. Post-Production

Footage was assembled into three :30 hero spots cut to the arc of the "Blue Skies" recording, then cut down to :15s and :08–:10 vignettes centered on the bartender for social. Color grading brought the indigo of the gin forward across every scene, holding the bottle's glow consistent from rooftop night to backyard afternoon, with motion graphics and endframe branding built in. An unretouched gallery went to the client shortly after wrap for selection, and the 25 chosen stills were fully retouched and delivered on the same timeline as the video. Two rounds of revisions were built into the process, and final assets were delivered in highest-quality masters across broadcast 16:9 and 9:16 social formats, with full digital, broadcast, and print licensing cleared.