ΛRTIFΛCT
ΛRTIFΛCT is a NYC based full service Production Company that specializes in docu-style films for a variety of businesses and people. After catching our eyes on Instagram with their BTS photos, we wanted to know more about them so we caught up with the founder, Philip Bradley. Take a look below to how the got the company got its start, their creative process and more.
1. Tell us a bit about ΛRTIFΛCT and how the company got its start.
ARTIFACT is the filmmaking duo of Philip Bradley and Hannah Hoffman. We are an NYC based boutique production company and post house that specializes in branded content. Our bread and butter is docu-style portrait films on people and businesses, and we have a soft spot for anyone making waves in their local community. We’re passionate about traveling, so we jump on any opportunity to make a film outside of our comfort zone.
Originally we met in Chicago while studying film and working in the industry. Hannah got her start editing for ESPN and Phil fell in love with filmmaking while making music videos in his hometown of Nashville. After freelancing for a while in the windy city, Phil founded ARTIFACT in Chicago during 2014. After moving to NYC Hannah joined on full time to round out the other half of what ARTIFACT is today.
2. What is one of your favorite projects you’ve worked on and what made it so?
Wow, well there a so many over there years! One we keep coming back to in our minds is a passion project called MOMENTS. Also, a spoiler is that most of our favorite films we make are passion projects because it allows us to craft the film from start to finish exactly to our taste. Rarely does that type of free rein happen with client work. We love MOMENTS in particular because it combines travel, art, and philosophy into one short piece, and we made it purely because we wanted to. It was shot during our many travels around the world and we utilized various soundbites from the brilliant Alan Watts to express how travel makes us feel when we get to disconnect from the rate race for a short while.
There are many German words that describe feelings that we all have but unfortunately English doesn’t have words for. Rückkehrunruhe means the feeling of returning home after an immersive trip only to find it fading rapidly from your awareness. When we travel there are all of these little moments that happen constantly, but when you return home a lot of that magic fades away and you only remember the bigger events. For us, taking photos and videos during our trips is mainly an attempt to catch some of that hocus pocus in a bottle so we can sip on it later. This film is our love letter to travel, and the feelings it evokes.
3. What is your creative process when tackling a project?
Phil handles most of the production process, and Hannah tackles the post. We both help each other throughout, but this balance has been the foundation of our collaboration. We plan as much as we possibly can when going into a shoot, but we both have a background in documentary and allow the space for spontaneity in every shoot we do. Often our favorite parts of our films were actually unplanned, but worked out perfectly for the piece. As with everything it’s about balance, and we try and not let our rigid planning squash any off the cuff inspiration. After all we’re just making videos to share stories, and there is no real roadmap. We constantly reminder each other that everything is made up, so choose your own adventure as long as it serves the story we are trying to tell.
4. What Core SWX power solutions do you rely on and how are they beneficial to your productions?
We’ve been using Core SWX products for years and they power pretty much all of our equipment. We live in the v-mount world and have worked with nearly every model over the years. However, recently we’ve fallen in love with the Core SWX NANO Micro batteries. We like to keep our rigs as small and light as possible, and these were a game changer for us.
5. Do you have any exciting projects coming out soon that we should keep an eye out for?
Right now we are working on a portrait piece of our friend Shinobu Kato of Kato Sake Works. He’s got an incredible story of how he went from growing up in Tokyo to brewing sake down the street from us in Bushwick, Brooklyn. After getting to know him (and a lot of his sake) we felt we just really wanted to make a film telling his story. He’s got an infectious laugh and has been incredibly generous and open with his journey. We’re in the post-production phase of that project, so hopefully it will be coming out this summer and we’ll be entering it into a few festivals this fall. We’ve been documenting the process over on our Instagram as well.
Stay connected with ARTIFACT on their website and Instagram.