Video Portfolio

Emerson Street Media created a branding video for Ben’s Chili Bowl, a famous D.C. restaurant, capturing its rich history and essence through interviews and on-site footage, resulting in a product that resonated with the Ali family, owners since 1958. Ben’s is about appreciating and understanding the past while also soaking-up and enjoying the present, a guiding theme that informed all of our work on the project.

If you took all of the history and great stories from Ben’s, you could easily produce a multi-part documentary. But for this project we needed to be very deliberate and strategic about capturing these rich elements while also remaining mindful that the finished product would need to be about five minutes long, give or take. To achieve this goal, we held multiple extensive conversations with members of the Ali family to understand the themes, stories and ideas that mattered most to them.

This detailed prep work helped establish a storyboard and overall plan that would allow for a smooth and efficient shooting and editing process. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have worked with such a celebrated institution in our hometown of D.C. The experience was amazing from beginning to end and we only hope people enjoy watching the video as much as we enjoyed making it.