• by Larissa Faw , December 12, 2014

Those working at big agencies often don't have time for passion projects which was a key reason former Ogilvy & Mather producers Garrett Crabb and Melissa Mapes say they helped launch commercial editing house Friendshop! earlier this year.

"One of the things we wanted to be able to do is use this new 'freedom' to work on projects that don't necessarily fit the traditional mold and that allow us to demonstrate our abilities," says Mapes. 

This week, Friendshop! is debuting its passion project: a book trailer, “Life Choices,” inspired by the recently published book “Surviving Middle School” by Dave McGrail. 

It was a team effort uniting several agencies and partners. The project was brought to Friendshop! by Tommy Henvey and Patti McConnell -- ECD and EP, respectively, at Ogilvy & Mather NY -- as a fun excuse to creatively collaborate and explore the relatively untapped book-trailer platform. "Tommy is related to the author Dave McGrail and came up with the idea of doing a trailer," says Mapes.

Then, Tim Wilson of Friendshop! conceived, directed and edited the short, which tracks the life of “Macy” in reverse, as she recounts crucial choices that may have led her to her current squalor. Each era of her life is portrayed by 12-year-old Macy McGrail. Finally, additional partners included SuiteSpot for shooting and Able Baker for an original score, in addition to the finishing skills of The Mill & audio post production company, Heard City.

The trailer runs across social media channels, including YouTube. 

The author and Friendshop! funded the project, while several other participants donated their services.

"Knowing that the budget would be challenged but more importantly that we were looking for an opportunity to leverage all abilities, [including] Tommy, Patti, Tim, Garrett and myself," says Mapes. "They pitched the project to us. We loved it and developed the concept, Tommy scripted the idea and we started mapping out the production plan.

"We knew the plan/process would be tricky as the biggest challenge would be dancing around Friendshop!, Tommy and Patti's already-full plate. Our real day jobs were always going to be the priority but the book's release date was the unchanging drop dead. A final challenge was trying to bring some storytelling inventiveness and life to a sometimes stale genre of book trailers."

Looking forward, Friendshop! will continue to seek out any other projects where “we work with minds we respect, on great creative ideas and that allow us to evolve our in-house talents - if that's another book trailer then awesome, but it could be anything," says Mapes.

Friendshop!’s paying clients include IBM, Exxon, Nike, as well as the short film Bag Man and an upcoming short directed by Duncan Winecoff.